This year, Valentine’s Day is especially romantic not only because it’s the day when couples unashamedly and overtly make grand declarations of love. More importantly, it’s the day when the Blue Jays’ pitchers and catchers officially report to spring training. The end of winter, as it were. The day on which we can see the first spark of summer.
It’s only appropriate, then, to publish a love letter on this day, but I won’t be penning this one. This love letter is from the Blue Jays to their pitching coach, Pete Walker.
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While the Jays rode a huge offence to a division title in 2015, their return to the playoffs last season came on the backs of the best starting rotation in the American League – and by plenty. The Jays led the American League with a staff ERA of 3.78, just ahead of Cleveland’s 3.84, but their starters’ ERA of 3.64 was almost a half-run better than second-place Cleveland, which checked in at 4.08.
The Blue Jays’ rotation was brilliant last season, leading the league in opponents’ OPS (.688) by an astonishing 36 points – the same as the difference between second-place Cleveland and the eighth-place Yankees. They led the league in starters’ innings, were tops in opponents’ batting average and WHIP and were second to Oakland in fewest pitches per plate appearance.
And they stayed healthy. Only one Jays’ starter wound up on the disabled list in 2016, and the trouble with Marco Estrada was his back, not his arm. The Jays used only seven starting pitchers last season, and the only reason that number wasn’t six was because of the trade deadline deal for Francisco Liriano.
In fact, the last time a Blue Jays starting pitcher missed time because of an arm injury was all the way back in 2013, when Josh Johnson (elbow), Brandon Morrow (radial nerve) and Ramon Ortiz (elbow) all went down.
It’s been a remarkable run of health – especially given how routine major arm injuries had been for the Jays in the decade prior – and it was a remarkable amount of success, as well. So why isn’t there more love being thrown the way of the guy in charge of the Jays’ corps of hurlers?
Maybe it’s because he plies his trade north of the border, maybe it’s because he’s an understated type who doesn’t seek out attention, but when the top baseball analysts talk about the game’s great pitching coaches, you don’t hear Walker’s name.
The 47 year-old spent 2012 as the Jays’ bullpen coach under Bruce Walton, then was promoted to pitching coach when John Gibbons took over for John Farrell as manager that winter. He played parts of eight seasons in the big leagues (four with the Blue Jays), starting 31 times and finishing 35 other games, and finished with over 300 innings pitched in the majors, despite having notched only 29.2 before his 33rd birthday.
He experienced about all there was to experience as a player, including an injury that required spinal fusion surgery, from which he came back to pitch again in the majors, and now he’s passing along that experience to his charges.
But again, this love letter to Pete Walker isn’t from me, it’s from the Blue Jays:
Aaron Sanchez
“He’s always on the same page, he’s always out there fighting for you. He knows where you’re at. Instead of trying to force things on you, he’ll give you suggestions and if it doesn’t work with your style of pitching or your body type, then he tries to find the outcome a different way.
“You’re in talks with him and he’s in talks with you but mainly (it’s about) feeling comfortable with what you’re doing, because that’s the biggest thing. When you get out there and you’re not comfortable or you’re guessing, you’re already defeated. If you go out there confident and you know he’s always got your back…
“Communication’s the biggest thing – giving you days when you need days, telling you you don’t have a choice, you’re off no matter what, understanding that he’s looking out for everybody on a daily basis so that when push comes to shove and it’s time to win, our guys are all fresh to go to battle.”
Marco Estrada
“Once you become a big-league player, you know what to do. What Pete does is, he basically lets you explain what you’re trying to do and he’ll go off of that. So if he sees something that you’ve explained to him and he doesn’t see that from you, he’ll let you know.
“I told him that with me, you just have to make sure I’m not leaning forward and I don’t hyperextend my back because that’s when I start opening up and things go wrong, so that’s all he looks for with me. He’ll let me know if it’s on (or) if it’s not, simple as that.
“He’s there when I need him, when I need certain little pointers from him.
“It’s easy to communicate with the guy, you almost consider him a friend because he’s just that easy to talk to. I’ve had pitching coaches where you almost feel a little intimidated, where you’re afraid of asking certain things. Maybe it was because I was a rookie and I just didn’t want to bug anybody, but from day one since I’ve been here, he’s had my back, he’s been behind me 100 per cent. I know he pushed hard for me to be a starter and it ended up working out pretty well.
“I’m extremely thankful that he’s on our side and to have him as a pitching coach.”
J.A. Happ
“The biggest thing, I think, is to have a guy who has confidence in you and really wants the best for you and gets excited for you. Just to know that you have that, to me, makes a big difference and I felt that way with both Pete and Ray (Searage, the Pittsburgh Pirates’ pitching guru).
“They get excited when good things happen and they understand bad things happen. That goes a long way over the course of a season because there are so many ups and downs and what-ifs and whatnot. Those guys are really good at what they do.
“The biggest thing is (Walker)’s not that far removed from playing the game, and he certainly understands where pitchers are coming from and a lot of the situations. We want to stay in the game, we don’t want to come out of the game, he understands. Certain things happen and he just gets it ’cause he’s been on both sides now. Having that kind of relationship is definitely nice.”
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Marcus Stroman
“He’s unreal. I’ve been with him since 2014 and we have an unbelievable relationship. He helped me get through a really tough spell (in June of 2016) and he was extremely instrumental in that process. That shows you the individual that he is – he never turned his back on me through that entire process. He let me know that I was still ‘the guy’ even when I was struggling and he let me know that it was going to change soon, and it did. He was one of my biggest supporters through that entire process, he let me know that I was going to be fine.
“I think Pete’s great because he allows us to be ourselves. He doesn’t try to make anyone cookie-cutter, he allows us to be unique and individual and he never tries to shape any of our games to be like anyone else’s. He really finds what makes us tick, what makes us work and hones in on that and stresses those things.
“Pete has the ability to get through to you and you’re like ‘yeah, that makes sense, that hits home.’ He might say something to me one way and say it completely different to (Happ) or to Marco.
“There’s never a situation where I’m talking to him that I think that he ever wants me to change myself as a pitcher. He loves who I am and he reiterates that.”
Russell Martin
“The thing about Pete, he’s just really easy to talk to, understands the game really well, and I think he does a really good job of adapting to the personality of the pitcher that he’s working with. Everybody has a good rapport with him and I think it’s because he’s just a good person. It starts with that, but also he’s just easy to work with. Guys like him, he understands the game is hard and he just doesn’t try to do too much. He’s the kind of guy that guys just like the way he goes about his business.
“So much about this game happens inside your mind. When your mind is feeling good and on the right track, your body is normally going to follow what it needs to do.
“Obviously if there’s some mechanical issues, he’s always there to help somebody kinda tweak something, but for the most part, I think he’s just there for the support and being an ear to talk to. If you want to just talk about a certain situation or whatever it may be, he’s just really an easy guy to talk to who understands the game really well.”
John Gibbons
“When I came back over here my second go-round, I knew Pete was in the bullpen and he was the ideal choice for me.
“He played for me in the minor leagues with the Mets and then when I was managing here the first (time), so I know what kind of individual he is. He’s a student of the game and there’s just something different about him. He’s a perfectionist, his attention to detail is as good as anybody and he cares. He cares how they perform and he cares about the individual, so he’s really the total package at getting the most out of these guys.
“He’s got the right things to say. Once you get to this level, it’s not all mechanics – a lot of times it’s what going on between the ears. Their mechanics, once they get here, are usually what they’re always going to be. There’s some tweaking here and there and he’s very good at picking the little things out when they get out of whack. But a lot of it is building confidence and making them feel good about themselves.”
Bullpen coach Dane Johnson
“Pete just goes about his job the nuts and bolts way. He gets out there, he talks to the fellas, he’s got a great relationship. The communication’s unbelievable between him and the staff – not only the starters but the relievers. He’s respectful, he’s professional about how he goes about his business, which builds those bridges to when there are tough times going on, when there does need to be something changed, that these guys can come to him and he can go to those guys with nothing in between as far as ideas being exchanged.
“He’s got a good feel for how the message should be delivered. Whether it’s at that moment or it needs to wait for the next day or the next side. He’s a video guy, he likes to look at a lot of video on pitches, on repetition of deliveries, on throwing strikes, mechanics. But the mental side of the game also – just having a guy be ready for every fifth day and being positive with him and reinforcing those positives to be able to perform and execute pitches, and that’s what it’s all about.”
The last words go to former Blue Jay R.A. Dickey
“My experience with him (was) second-to-none the four years I spent with him, and I’ve been with Orel Hershiser and Dan Warthen and some really great pitching coaches.
“Pete really has a great way of communicating. That may be his best attribute, the relational component that just comes with day in day out being able to get through the grind of a 162-game season with a pitcher.
“You’re up here because you know what you’re doing, so it’s not like you need a whole lot of overhauling. What Pete is great at – and Dane, for that matter – they’re great at, when you’re in a little bit of a rut, finding out why you’re in that rut. They’re very good at being able to unpack that.
“It’s much more about the managing of a human being than some real intensive overhaul of a mechanic.
“He knows the individual and speaks to that individual in a way that they understand and are responsive, that’s a gift. I think the greatest compliment I could give him is that you feel like every outing that you’re out there, he’s in it with you. And you don’t feel that with everybody. Sometimes it’s a lot more clinical than that, where the coach is detached from the outing, trying to observe it in a very clinical way, but with Pete, you feel like he is invested wholeheartedly with you and it makes the things he says resonate that much more with you and at the same time, motivates you to want perform well not only for yourself but so that you don’t let him down.”
