April was a long, dark month for the Syracuse Chiefs in more ways than one.
Hitters didn’t hit, runners were caught stealing, errors piled up and it rained constantly. Even the starting rotation – which looked rock-solid on paper – often crumbled like mud on the mound.
After roaring out of the gate by winning five of its first seven games, Syracuse’s professional baseball club took a turn for the worse, ending the month in the basement of the International League’s North Division with a record of nine wins and 15 losses.
As May dawned, wet weather lingered, the Chiefs bats remained cold and the team’s starters shaky, but its sturdy bullpen brightened the season’s dim beginning.
Starters Ross Detwilers, J.D. Martin, Yunesky Maya, Garrett Mock and Craig Stammen all have strong arms and major-league experience to boot, but only lefty Detwiler notched more than a single victory in April. Meanwhile rookie southpaw Tommy Milone suffered a rude welcome to Triple-A, as opponents scored 13 earned runs off him in his first 22 innings of work.
While consistency has eluded the rotation, Syracuse’s relief pitchers were as reliable as the sunrise, even on rainy days.
Cole Kimball
In fact, one young reliever has been practically perfect so far. Brooklyn-born right-hander Cole Kimball allowed not a single earned run in his first nine appearances. He struck out nine in nine and two-thirds innings, walked four and was nicked for six hits while earning a team-high four saves. In early-April he was named the International League’s Pitcher of the Week.
The 25-year-old, 6-foot-3, 240-pound right-hander – a starter for Division III Centenary College in New Jersey – became a reliever in 2009 following a rib-cage injury suffered in spring training.
Last season, Kimball registered 20 saves, starting at Potomac and finishing at Double-A Harrisburg. He went a combined 8-1 with a 2.17 ERA. In autumn’s Arizona Fall League he had a 0.75 ERA, and now he’s mowing down batters in the International League with a 95 to 98 mph fastball, a stunning splitter and an effective curve.
Kimball, who wears his cap askew and sports a boyish grin, is far more aggressive than he looks. He thinks the closer role fits his personality. Chiefs manager Randy Knorr agrees.
“He’s a real bulldog,” Knorr said. “He’s intense, and he has the right closer mentality.”
Josh Wilkie
Born in Tennessee and now living in Georgia, Josh Wilkie thrives in warm weather, but he has managed to keep his head well above water here in drizzly Central NY. The 6-foot-2, 190-pounder deftly mixes a fastball, change and curve and will throw that curve anywhere in the count. Occasionally, he said, “I can adjust small things to make the curveball a slider.”
More and more often, he’s pitching inside to left-handed batters and getting the fastball over for first-pitch strikes, resulting in 17 Ks over 13-plus innings in April.
Last year, his first entire season in Triple-A, Wilkie was 4-4 with eight saves for the Chiefs and an impressive 2.35 ERA over 70 innings. Right now, the guitar-strumming Southerner boasts a 1.35 ERA and two saves. He has allowed no home runs.
Collin Balester
Last season, 6-foot-5 SoCal surfer dude Collin Balester transformed himself into a reliever, which seems to have been a smart move. Despite his highly touted 95-mph heater, Balester’s ERA ballooned to 11.65 in five games as a starter here in 2010, but after moving to the bullpen he finished the season 3-3 and lowered his ERA to 5.87.
This year, partly on the strength of a newly refined breaking ball that sneaks across the plate low in the zone, Bally is 1-0 with an enviable 2.08 ERA. In eight-plus innings, he has whiffed 11 and walked five and – best yet – he has refused to let a hitter take him deep, a problem that plagued him in previous seasons.
Well-known for his fiery red goatee, Balester approaches relieving with “an attack mentality.” He credits Chiefs pitching coach Greg Booker and 2010 bullpen buddy Ron Villone for helping him “with the mindset of being in the relief role, how to stay fresh, also how to stay mentally strong.”
Balester turns 25 on June 6.
Adam Carr
A converted power hitter, Bay-area right-hander Adam Carr now plans to make the majors as a power pitcher.
At 6-foot-2 and 200-pounds, the hard-throwing 27-year-old who slugged 34 home runs over two seasons with Oklahoma State University now sets up his flaming fastball with a changeup and a slider. Last year with the Chiefs, Carr posted a 2.08 ERA while making nine saves in 16 games. This year, he’s 1-1 with a 4.35 ERA.
Carr, who sports the longest hair on the Syracuse team, digs heavy metal. He revels in the music of Megadeth.
Matt Chico
Matt Chico has a quality not shared by all relievers. The 27-year-old is cool, calm and collected, an attitude that helps a lot when your job is to take control of a game in which pesky opponents are already on base primed to score against you.
“One of the best things about Matt,” said his Washington Nationals teammate Ryan Zimmerman, “is the way he handles himself on the mound.”
Maybe the elbow-reconstruction surgery he underwent in 2008 has given him some perspective.
The California southpaw has struggled a bit against right-handed batters this season, his third in the IL, but he remains effective against lefties as expected. So far he’s 0-2 with a 5.06 ERA.
Jeff Mandel
Last season with the Chiefs Jeff Mandel was 5-6, with a 4.75 ERA, after striking out 60 batters and walking 33. The 26-year-old 6-foot-3-tall Texan notched eight saves in 2006 when he was pitching for Baylor University, but the big righty has yet to record a save in four-plus seasons of pro ball. He’s been used sparingly so far this season, striking our four in five innings and taking one loss despite his 1.80 ERA.
Lee Hyde
Lefty Lee Hyde started for Georgia Tech in the 2006 College World Series but has since taken up relieving.
“There’s nothing like the adrenaline rush you get coming out of the bullpen in a tight situation,” he said. And he thinks he actually throws his fastball harder as a reliever, increasing its velocity from about 90 to 92 mph. A lifelong admirer of legendary lefty Tom Glavine, Hyde also features a slider and a changeup.
So far the 26-year-old Atlanta-born southpaw has been hit hard. He’s 1-0, but has an ERA of 9.64, has struck out eight and walked nine while allowing two round-trippers, one each to a lefty and a righty.
Though he’s no longer with the club, right-handed power pitcher Henry Rodriguez bolstered the Chiefs bullpen during April as he rehabbed a sore right shoulder here.
In six games, the 24-year-old Venezuelan struck out nine while allowing five hits, one earned run and six walks for a 1.08 ERA, which understandably earned him a recall to Washington on April 27.
All baseball executives know that pitching is the name of the game, and Chiefs General Manager John Simone is no different.
“Right now, our pitching is dominant,” he said last month. “Once the hitting comes around the pitching dominance will continue to take us through the season.”
And the Chiefs’ bullpen bulldogs can honestly say they led the way.
