Twice as nice
Jays’ Alvarez much more at ease in his second spring training,
LAKELAND, FLA.— The total experience of being invited to spring training for many young players is often more important than earning a roster spot. It’s about seeing and rubbing elbows with major league players, catching a three- or four-week glimpse of what the next level looks like. Such was the case last spring for Jays right-hander Henderson Alvarez, who was a non-roster invitee in 2011, soaking up his time with the Jays big-leaguers like a sponge.
“I was watching every game, I was watching how the pitchers attacked hitters and how they were trying to get people out,” Henderson explained, with coach Luis Rivera, as interpreter, on Monday after his Grapefruit League debut this spring, working one shutout inning. “It was something I learned, I studied and I put in practice last year and hopefully this year I can continue to do that.”
Alvarez earned his 2011 promotion and joined the Jays rotation in August, up from Double-a New Hampshire. He made 10 starts with a1-3 record and a 3.53 ERA. The Jays loved his mid-90s fastball and the well-separated velocity of his changeup, but to be in their rotation he needed another pitch. It’s his slider/cutter, a pitch he did not use Monday in the Jays’ 4-2 loss to the Tigers.
“I’ve been throwing them in the bullpen and they’re good right now,” Alvarez said of his slider/ cutter. “Next time I pitch, I’m going to incorporate them. I wasn’t going to use them today because I only had one inning. I feel better with my slider this year than I did last year.
“I went back to Venezuela and worked on it. That’s a pitch that I’m going to need to get more people out. When you pitch with fastball and changeup you have to be on top of your game. Now with a slider that’s another pitch to put in the
“I was watching every game, I was watching how the pitchers attacked hitters and how they were trying to get people out.”
HENDERSON ALVAREZ RECALLING HIS FIRST TASTE OF BIG LEAGUE SPRING TRAINING LAST YEAR
hitter’s mind. I need that pitch.”
There seems to be a slight difference of opinion between Alvarez and his manager. John Farrell speaks only about the slider Alvarez is working to perfect, while the 21-year-old Venezuelan, from the same hometown as the Seattle Mariners’ Felix Hernandez, talks about his two different pitches, cutter and slider.
“He’s got a slider,” Farrell said. “Last year, he got a better feel for . . . (throwing it with) more of a later action to it as it approached the strike zone. It’s a pitch that he felt more comfortable as the year went on and it gives him three distinct pitches. “To me when you get into cutter/ slider you’re starting to split hairs a little bit. With him, if the mindset is cutter, it’s still got a true slider type of break to it. It’s not adding any pressure to his elbow or his arm and it’s a pitch, at this level, the later the action to get quality bigleague hitters out.” Farrell acknowledges that at this point, three games into the exhibition season, Alvarez is among three starters that have the clubhouse lead for roles in backing up Ricky Romero and Brandon Morrow. “Right now, with Brett Cecil, Henderson and Dustin Mcgowan being the front-runners in those three spots, we’ve got a pretty clear-cut path how we get through spring training and how we line up to start the year,” Farrell said. “But off-days, how we might adjust accordingly going forward, that remains to be seen. It’s going to be important for us to get a real read on Aaron Laffey, who threw the ball well Sunday. Wednesday, we’ll get an up- front look at Kyle Drabek and Drew Hutchison.” The rapid development of Alvarez to the current point of being relied on to fill a major league spot at the tender age of 21, allows the manager to look and see what he’s got in camp this year in terms of pitchers that might be ready to help at some point during the upcoming season. “Just getting in games to compete against guys that they’ve either read about or seen on ESPN, it goes a long way in their belief that they can compete at this level,” Farrell suggested. “That’s what we would hope that Hutchison would take out of this spring training, or any first-time player that’s here in camp. It can go a long way to shortening down that learning curve or development path. . . .
“Pitching is a game of attrition. It’s going to change because of needs, whether performance or physical, that arise. You’ve got to prepare to have about seven to nine starters that are major league capable at some point during the year and at least four or five other interchangeable guys that you can count on to come up and pitch out of the bullpen and contribute.”
This will be the final year the Jays will have a relatively easy task in pinpointing a nine-man depth chart of major league starters, to carry them through injuries and under-performance. There is a tsunami of young pitching talent building at the lower to mid-levels of the Jays’ organization that will have to be dealt with. But as Farrell likes to point out: “It’s a good problem to have.”