Lindblom ‘over-ready’ for games to begin
Lack of motivation has never been an issue for Josh Lindblom.
But even he admits it became a challenge to remain physically ready as days turned to weeks turned to months in the pause in the major-league season caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“If you talk to anybody, probably about a month or so in it got really hard to stay motivated,” he said Wednesday.
“Not having that start date, not knowing what you’re working toward, not knowing if there was even going to be a season with COVID.
“That’s been the hardest part about this.”
The good news for Lindblom is things have finally been sorted out between Major League Baseball and the players’ association, and the right-hander will rejoin his teammates next week to begin Spring Training Part II at Miller Park.
He’ll be able to hit the ground running along with fellow starters after sticking to a program communicated to him by pitching coach Chris Hook during the shutdown.
Lindblom got back on track at home in Lafayette, Indiana, after taking part in some semi-organized workouts with other players. He returned to Milwaukee about 21⁄2 weeks weeks ago and has been throwing live sessions at Hitters Baseball in Caledonia, where Brandon Woodruff recently joined him.
On his non-throwing days, Lindblom has been getting his work in at Miller Park.
“I feel good,” Lindblom said. “I think the hardest thing about this whole scenario is that it hasn’t been a normal offseason routine. We haven’t had a date to work forward towards, a lot of the facilities that guys were training at have been closed and just opened up recently. So, we’ve had to do a lot on our own
and kind of organize some things.
“But I feel good with where I’m at. I’ve been able to throw live to pro hitters like Gavin Lux, and to get some quality atbats and some competitive at-bats has been nice and then also to get some extended innings as well.”
On Monday, Lindblom threw his third four-inning outing consisting of 70-75 pitches, and he has another scheduled Saturday. For comparison, he was scheduled to make his fifth appearance and third start in the Cactus League just as spring training was halted due to the pandemic.
At that point he would have thrown about 90 pitches in his outing.
“Coming into my next start in this new spring I’ll be right around that 90pitch mark. So it’ll be right around the same,” Lindblom said.
“My personality is I’d rather be overready than under-ready at the beginning of spring.
“And, also with the shortened spring training, we weren’t going to have the opportunity to make six-ish starts like in a normal spring training. It’s probably going to be three, tops. So knowing that, I’d rather be over-ready than underready.”
Lindblom was another outside-thebox acquisition by the Brewers last December 10, signing a three-year, $9.125 million deal after a successful threeyear run overseas that included a year in Japan and two more in the Korean Baseball Organization.
The reliever-turned-starter went 20-3 with a 2.50 earned run average and WHIP of 1.00 in 30 starts (1942⁄3 innings) for Doosan in 2019, earning the equivalent of the KBO’s most valuable player award in the process.
Lindblom has also accrued 114 games of major-league experience with the Dodgers, Phillies, Rangers, A’s and Pirates dating from 2011 to as recently as 2017 (four relief appearances with Pittsburgh).
The work he got in at the Brewers’ Maryvale complex this spring was only part of the deal for Lindblom, who had to familiarize himself with his new organization and teammates.
Zoom calls only could do so much, so reacquainting himself in a foreign environment
different and with so many pandemicrelated guidelines and changes is going to be a challenge in and of itself for the 33-year-old.
“Especially with the makeup of our team – we had a lot of new guys,” he said. “It’s going to be important for this shortened season not only from a team aspect but with some of the restrictions that are going to be on us as players, having that trust with your teammates and knowing you can trust the guy next to you to keep you safe, keep your family safe.
“I think we have a really, really good start toward that. I’ve read through both (preparedness/guideline) manifestos just to see what they had to say and ‘different’ is the word.”
Lindblom also addressed the truncated 60-game season.
“I keep hearing people call it a sprint and it’s really not, honestly,” he said. “I know it’s shortened, but you don’t necessarily want to come out of the gates fast from a workload standpoint as players because if you come out with the mind set it’s a sprint, more injuries might pop up.
“So that first month just coming in it’s going to be very, very important we’re managing workloads, being smart about how we go about training because the last thing you want is five, six guys going down with injuries and now it’s not the team you planned putting on the field.
“So, I think you have to take the long view that you need to build into this thing. Every game’s important, obviously, and that’s the way it’s going to be played.”