Coming of age
Framber Valdez blossoms into a force.
The improbable development of Framber Valdez, both as a pitcher and conversationalist, continues.
On Monday, Valdez was announced as the Astros’ pitcher of the year, as determined in a vote by the Houston chapter of the Baseball Writers’ Association of America.
On Tuesday, he takes the mound as Houston’s starter in Game 2 of the best-of-five American League Division Series.
In the meantime, as his topshelf curveball continues to perplex hitters, Valdez is gradually emerging as a personality who seems to relish sprinkling in surprises with each conversation.
Before the series opener Monday, for example, Valdez provided the heretofore undisclosed fact that before he joined the Astros organization, he had an agreement with the Milwaukee Brewers that fell through because he failed a physical.
Valdez signed with the Astros in March 2015 for a $10,000 signing bonus, so the Astros apparently capitalized quickly on his unexpected availability.
His limited time with the Brewers, however, enabled him to pick up the curveball he has used to such good effect this season.
He said he learned the pitch from Angel Ventura, a fellow pitcher from the Dominican Republic who spent several years in the Brewers organization before pitching the last two seasons with the independent league Milwaukee Milkmen.
“They called (Ventura’s) curveball ‘the Ax’ on Milwaukee’s Dominican (academy) team,” Valdez said through an interpreter. “He’s the one who perfected my curveball. Even today, I haven’t changed it, and I don’t think I’ll change it. Thanks to him, I have the curveball I have today.”
Valdez said he turned to pitching out of necessity.
“I decided I wanted to be a pitcher when I was about 14 or 15 years old,” he said. “I couldn’t run too much, I couldn’t hit and I couldn’t play a position, so I decided I might as well be a pitcher.
After up and down seasons in 2018 and2019, going 4-1 with a 2.19 ERA as a rookie before backsliding to 4-7 with a 5.86 ERA last season, Valdez showed dramatic improvement in 2020, shaving his walks from 44 to 16, both in years in which he pitched 702⁄ innings.
3 He had back-to-back stumbles against the Dodgers and Angels in early September but righted the ship in his final two starts, allowing two runs in131⁄ innings against 3 the Rangers and Mariners.
In the wild card opener against the Twins, he allowed two hits during five shutout innings in relief of Zack Greinke. That performance, along with Greinke’s recent struggles, moved him into position to start ahead of the veteran righthander in the division series.
“It’s a matter of having more confidence to begin with,” Valdez said Monday. “I’ve shown that they can have confidence in me going out on the mound every time.
“Every baseball player passes through moments of difficulty, but it’s a matter of how you respond. I’ve shown them that they can have confidence in me to get through those moments.”
Valdez relied on the curveball about one-third of the time during 2020, and he recorded 60 of his 76 strikeouts on the pitch while holding batters to a .124 average.
His spin rate on the pitch ranks within the top 4 percent of pitchers, according to Major League Baseball’s Statcast pitch-tracking system, and he ranks near the bottom of his contemporaries in the percentage of hard-contact strikes against him.
He has benefited from the advice of counselors in the Dominican Republic and veterans in the dugout like Dusty Baker, who in spring training advised Valdez how a young Fernando Valenzuela learned to pace himself in moments of stress on the mound.
“We had a conversation about how Fernando would take his time and back off on the mound,” Baker said. “Iwould think that his poise has helped his pitching.
“When he gets out of sync is when he backs off and regains his composure and poise. With the more success you have, it’s easier to stay poised.”
In his only start against the A’s this season, Valdez on Aug. 8 allowed two runs and seven hits in seven innings, with nine strikeouts and a walk. The Astros were shut out until the ninth inning of a 3-1 loss at the Oakland Coliseum.
Tuesday afternoon, on the Dodger Stadium mound where Valenzuela exhibited the poise that so impressed Baker, Valdez gets a chance to show whether the improvement that brought him the local BBWAA award this season can extend on a bigger stage.
“I feel proud of the accomplishment of winning that award, not just formyself but for everyone I worked with back home,” he said. “I’m happy with what I’ve been able to do recently, and Iwant it to continue.”