A’s: Ex-Oakland pitcher Stewart “feels right” in A’s camp.
MESA, Ariz. — From the get-go this season, the A’s pitching staff will have a little boost.
Dave Stewart, one of the great starters in franchise history, began a stretch of four days working with the A’s pitchers as a guest instructor, and manager Bob Melvin said he struggled just to list all of Stewart’s accomplishments.
“You look at his career and when I was introducing him, I was going to go through all the accolades and I said, ‘This might take an hour,’ ” Melvin said Wednesday at the Lew Wolff Training Complex. “‘Let’s just cut it back and say: probably as fierce a competitor as has ever been on the mound, certainly embraced being an Oakland Athletic and he was a World Series MVP and a Championship Series MVP twice — that tells you a lot about Dave Stewart.’
“He was about winning, he was about being there for his team. Those are some of the things we want him to get across to our guys: It’s a group thing. It’s not an individual thing. He’s as good a team player as I’ve ever seen.”
Stewart, who worked as a pre- and postgame analyst for the A’s telecasts on NBCSCA last year and will again this year, enjoyed being back in green and gold again.
“It feels right,” Stewart said. “I wore this uniform a long time, I’m really excited about having an opportunity to work with the pitchers and whatever I can do or talk about to help them, I’m going to do it. I’m excited — for as excited as I get.”
He’ll be fairly hands off with the 30 pitchers in camp; he knows the ropes after serving as the pitching coach in Milwaukee and Toronto. “There is no point in going out and coaching for the sake of coaching, to look like you’re doing something,” Stewart said. “If I see something and I have an idea, I’ll share that idea. If I’m asked a question, obviously I’ll share.
“Coaching is just watching kids and trying to make them improve on things they already have the ability and tools to do.”
Stewart told The Chronicle this month that “you can’t teach intimidation,” but Melvin said he’d like the A’s pitchers to pick up some pointers about demeanor.
“No one is going to have his presence on the mound,” Melvin said. “I remember facing him in a spring training game one time, I think (Terry) Steinbach was catching and I said, ‘What’d I do to this guy?’ That’s just the way he was in spring training, let alone the season and the postseason. It’s having some presence and some inner confidence in what you do.”
A’s projected Opening Day starter Kendall Graveman said the current A’s can absorb a lot from Stewart, much as they do from fellow Oakland native Rickey Henderson. “He’s one of the greatest competitors ever to play the game, and I look up to him for that,” Graveman said. “He had that go-get-it mentality on the mound, and that’s so impressive to watch when you’re around a guy like that. I want to learn more about that.”