THIS PADRE THINKS BIG
Undersized Davies has relied on his brain over brawn to excel on mound
“I was always trying to analyze games. I was always critiquing things.” Zach Davies • Padres pitcher, on his mental approach to the game
PEORIA, Ariz.
In what seemed like another lifetime, Austin Hedges was a 12-yearold shortstop who also pitched for the Orange County Aztecs. The Mcdowell Mountain Yankees, who counted a pre-teen Zach Davies among the future pros on the roster, were a frequent opponent.
The two grew closer throughout their travel ball run-ins. Sometimes they played on each other’s teams. Hedges, at times, even stayed with the Davies family in Arizona and traveled with Zach and his father to a tournament in Omaha, Neb., long before the competition began to tower over Davies.
“He was more of an averagesized kid then,” Hedges recalled. “He wasn’t big. He was skinny, but he was a guy who threw hard and had a nasty curveball and that was his body type. It’s really impressive to always be really, really good — he didn’t have the physical tools of being 6-foot-5 and 220 pounds. It’s incredible what he’s been able to do with just ‘pitching.’
“It’s kind of a lost art.” Indeed.
Only 16 pitchers with at least 5,000 fastballs thrown since Davies’ 2015 debut have average velocity sitting below 90 mph and only three active pitchers from that group — Kyle Hendricks (3.20 ERA), Dallas Keuchel (3.42) and Collin Mchugh (3.86) — have ERAS lower than Davies’ 3.91 mark over the last five years.
Sure, Davies’ fastball, sitting at 88.9 mph, is the eighth-slowest in the game over that span. But the 27year-old right-hander has been a 17-game winner for a Brewers team on the rise and has posted a sub-4.00 ERA in four of his five bigleague seasons largely because of a brains-overbrawn approach since moving into pro ball.
“I’ve always been a thinker,” Davies said. “I never expected to have overpowering stuff. I knew where I was physically. I knew where I was at, skill-set wise. I was always trying to think. I was always trying to analyze games. I was always critiquing things. I know how incredibly hard it is to play baseball. At the same time, constructive criticism and being able to learn from it — being able to see the game play out on TV and know what they did right or wrong and if it happens to me, how can I make sure I’m in the best position to make the right play or the right pitch.
“I think personally deep down it’s always been a thinking game for me.”
That approach certainly helped when an undersized Davies played up in age divisions as a kid.
To this day, the baby face hiding under his facial hair and the mere 155 pounds on a slight, 6-foot frame are so ripe for hazing that Davies has leaned into the teasing.
Case in point, the words stitched on the back of his jersey for Players Weekends: “Bat Boy.”
Only a “BB” as his jersey number could improve Davies’ choice, but Major League Baseball thus far has balked at that wrinkle.
“You learn at a young age that if you let that stuff get to you, it’s going to continue,” Davies said. “When I came up as a rookie, it was not only the ‘Bat Boy’ part but just being a rookie, if you take it in stride, they welcome you and start to bring you in.”
He added: “And it is part of me. It’s always kind of been true. I’ve been the smallest. I’ve been the youngest. I just went with it. At the same time, it’s a deeper message to some that you can be skinny, you can be small and you can still play this game. It’s more about skill as opposed to overall strength.”
He’s certainly proved as much.
A 26th-round pick out of high school in 2011, Davies pitched himself onto the map — as in the All-star Futures Game in 2015 — before the Orioles moved him to the Brewers to pick up outfielder Gerardo Reyes for a 2015 playoff push.
He debuted as a 22-yearold that September and outside an injury-plagued 2018 — first his shoulder, then his back — has largely thrived by sequencing a five-pitch mix with pinpoint command.
The primary weapon, of course, is that 89 mph sinker that hitters more often than not beat into the ground. He’s also got a little cutter as a same-plane wrinkle, a devastating change-up with tailing action, a curve and a seldom-used slider.
In other words, plenty for a hitter to think about.
“He’s very convicted in who he is and what he does, and it works because of that,” Brewers manager Craig Counsell said. “He’s a player that has a high baseball IQ. He’s not an over-preparer or a deep-diver into analytical, into scouting reports or anything like that. He feels the game really well. He reacts to feedback that a hitter gives him. … The catcher is doing it. But when a pitcher is adding something to it, too, there’s a better chance you’re getting it right.”
The second trade of Davies’ career plucked him off a playoff team and onto a staff hoping to take the next step as the Brewers did upon his arrival.
The Padres’ hardestthrowing starters — Chris Paddack, Dinelson Lamet and Garrett Richards — are pegged for the top of the rotation. Left-hander Joey Lucchesi appears to be the odds-on favorite to win a spot after posting a solid if unspectacular 4.14 ERA through his first two seasons and electric youngsters Mackenzie Gore and Luis Patino are on the rise.
Even without a 200-inning season on his résumé, where Davies fits in is clear to his old friend, Hedges.
Especially because it stands to reason that calling Petco Park his home over hitter-friendly Miller Park (he has a 3.04 career ERA on the road compared to 4.65 at home) will produce an ever more effective innings eater.
“With the three main donkeys we have at the top of the rotation, if Zach Davies is your fourth, that’s a good problem to have,” Hedges said. “That guy can easily be a two-three on any team. He gets outs. It doesn’t matter how it’s supposed to look.
“It’s about getting zeros and getting outs and that’s just what he does.”
jeff.sanders@sduniontribune.com