Health, technology help reliever Phelps
Having logged identical earned run averages in the exact same number of innings while pitching in high-leverage situations out of the Milwaukee Brewers' bullpen seems almost fitting for David Phelps and Devin Williams who, in a happy coincidence, are both graduates of Hazelwood West High School in suburban St. Louis.
“We've talked about it. It's definitely something that we know,” Phelps said. “It's pretty interesting. There's a sense of hometown pride that we have.
“It's a little bit of a bummer that we're going to be going to St. Louis this year without fans, but I think there'll still be plenty of people cheering back home when we're playing at Busch, for sure.”
Phelps is in his eighth year in the major leagues and first with the Brewers but said Tuesday was aware of Williams, Milwaukee's second-round pick in 2013, well before coming to the organization.
“Dev graduated eight years after I did,” Phelps said. “I definitely knew of Devin when he was in high school, and I followed him throughout the minor leagues.
“My agent at the time was his advisor. I remembered the name, seeing him throw when he was in high school.”
Now, the duo can lay claim to being among the most pleasant surprises in Milwaukee's well-rounded relief corps.
Williams, 25, has used a devastating fastball-changeup combo to quickly rise from fringe contributor in 2019 to becoming one of manager Craig
Counsell's first crunch-time choices.
Phelps, 33, relies on a cutter-sinkercurveball repertoire that is routinely netting the right-hander soft contact. Through his first eight appearances, he's logged a 2-1 record and 1.08 ERA with 13 strikeouts in 82⁄3 innings – a performance that so far has been well worth the $1.5 million the Brewers gave Phelps at the outset of spring training.
“He's pitched great,” Counsell said of Phelps. “He's had injuries. He's had some major surgeries. But he's been a very good pitcher in the league when healthy. And that's what we were kind of taking a shot on.
“We felt as the year went on last year, he did get better. It didn't necessarily translate into statistics. But we thought the velocity did start to come back as the year went on.”
Health has been a huge part of the reason for the success, as Counsell noted; he's now almost 21⁄2 years removed from Tommy John surgery that cost him the entire 2018 season and left him more or less feeling his way through 2019 with the Toronto Blue Jays and the Chicago Cubs.
“It's as close to being back to how I felt pre-surgery in a long time,” Phelps said.
“It's less worry about what my arm is going to feel like on a daily basis and focusing more on working on the things that I want to work on.
“We've really kind of hammered the curveball lately and getting my fastballs into good lanes, and it's shown.”
Phelps's comeback has been threepronged, starting with his offseason work with Full Rep Training Center in Harrisonburg, Pennsylvania, near his home in Pittsburgh.
It picked up with the spring-training cram sessions he had in Maryvale with pitching coach Chris Hook, bullpen coach Steve Karsay and manager of major-league strategy Walker McKinven.
And it continues throughout the season, as he takes advantage of twiceweekly sessions offered to pitchers during which the team's high-tech gadgets are rolled out and utilized in an effort to give them a clearer picture of what their stuff is doing.
Phelps also made sure to mention the work put in by catchers Omar Narváez and Manny Piña.
“The staff 's been great. We're a little bit limited with what we're able to do, just because of distancing. But the technology in baseball, it's incredible now,” said Phelps, who went so far in the offseason as to purchase his own Rapsodo box, which measures a pitch's velocity, spin rate and axis.
“What we're able to do now as pitchers and as staffs to make help make each pitcher the best version of themselves – some people do it really well by pitch by seeing it, as far a seeing mechanics to see what the ball looks like coming out of the hand, but some people learn a lot better with data.
“Having both has just been so huge for not only for pitchers, but for the sport as a whole.”
After Lorenzo Cain opted out of the season, it had been assumed that Ben Gamel would take over as the Brewers' primary centerfielder.
The theory made sense; he had experience playing center and had been hot at the plate throughout summer camp and the first week of the season.
But Avisaíl García was installed in center instead, with Gamel and other assorted players including Ryan Braun mostly rotating time in right.
Gamel made his first start there in four games Tuesday night when the
Brewers opened a three-game series against the Minnesota Twins at Target Field and to say he's cooled off at the plate since hitting his second homer on Aug. 4 would be an understatement.
Game was hitless in his last 17 at-bats and 2 for his last 35, leaving his season line at .151/2/7.
“He's struggled,” Counsell said. “But it's also, I think that's baseball. That's part of it. We're trying to get him going today. Gave him a couple of days off. We'll try to get him going.
“We know we're going to have to give our outfielders a rest at times. Ryan is not going to go out there every day. We're going to have to get Avi off his feet once in a while here in center field.
“So, Ben's production is important.”