Long Beach State University Athletics
The 'Buck' Stops Hitters
4/22/2005 12:00:00 AM | General
The 'Buck' Stop Hitters Mention the name Troy Buckley to any member of Long Beach State's pitching staff and his face will take on the look of a Jedi Knight just asked about Yoda. Ultimate respect. Ultimate trust. Ultimate belief. Ultimate success, too. The 2005 Dirtbags have a team earned run average of 2.12 after 40 games, an absolutely preposterous number in the metal bat era of college baseball. Only eight times since 1990 has a team led the nation with an ERA under 3.00. Before Tuesday's loss to Loyola, the Dirtbags' ERA was 1.94. Since coach Mike Weathers named Buckley his pitching coach in 2002, Long Beach State has posted four of the five-best team ERAs in the Dirtbag era, which began in 1989. The 2005 Dirtbags are pitching even better than in 2004, when they had two pitchers selected in the first two rounds of the amateur draft, college baseball player of the year Jered Weaver and Jason Vargas. Three starters, Cesar Ramos, Marco Estrada and Jared Hughes, and the top two relievers, Neil Jamison and Brian Anderson, have gone a combined 24-5 with a 1.63 ERA. In "Buck," they obviously trust. "His philosophy, his way, it just prepares you to be the best pitcher you can be," the senior Jamison said after last Sunday's Dirtbags shutout. "He pays incredible attention to detail, and everything we do is in-depth." "He's a teacher, but the way he presents his information is right to the point," Hughes said. "It's a very businesslike approach, and we can see the results right away." Hughes is a perfect example. He struggled over an early three-game span this season, allowing 15 hits and 13 runs while walking eight and hitting six in 13 innings. Almost overnight, he went into the opposite direction in his next four starts, he's allowed 14 hits, two walks and two runs in 312/3 innings. Estrada played one season of high school varsity baseball and wasn't heavily recruited out of junior college. He's now 5-0. Anderson also wasn't heavily recruited out of high school, and he's spun consecutive scoreless streaks of 23 and 26 1/3 innings the last two years. Jamison returned for his senior season he was drafted by the Mets in the eighth round last June because he felt one more year with Buckley would improve his prospects. Three true freshmen have already shown promise in 2005. "Troy is a development-type of guy," Weathers said. "He is really into mechanics and how to pitch a game. We're turning out guys who are ready for the pro game, and we're seeing a lot of guys develop who didn't have a lot of colleges after them." Buckley doesn't have any special mojo. He understands the different facets of pitching and translates them easily. If there's a secret anywhere here, it's his ability to whittle the game down to the basics and prepare the young men he sends to the mound. "My goal is that they trust me and I can trust them," Buckley said. "I try to establish and set parameters, give them a direction they can see will bring success. Guys have to buy into it. "Practice is where we coach the most. That's where we talk about mechanics. I try to keep it simple. I watch these guys every day so I have an idea how they might be faltering. But we have guys who want to learn. It wouldn't happen if they didn't." Buckley provides structure and philosophy, but there's also a unique freedom here. Buckley wants his pitchers to be so well-versed with the philosophy that they can correct their own mistakes. Hughes said Buckley has been able to instantaneously help his mechanics mid-game, but the bigger lesson has been learning how to focus and reduce things to the nub one pitch at a time, focus and refocus, go to the bank of what you've learned. The 2005 season has been remarkable in the way Dirtbag pitchers have come back from a bad inning or sequence. That can be traced to Buckley asking his pitchers to concentrate on one thing in their warmups. "Don't waste them," he said. While Buckley and Weathers call all the pitches, it's almost a moot point because the goal is for the pitcher to be in sync with the game plan. Nothing may instill confidence in a young pitcher more than anticipating what a coach is going to call and then watching it work. "It's a trust factor," Buckley said. "We have scouting reports that show what a hitter's weaknesses are and shows what weapons we have to get him out. And sometimes if you can't find a weakness, you still know how to pitch to your strength." There's irony at work in Buckley's specialty. All he did at Santa Clara was hit and catch. The All-American catcher hit .442 and drove in 82 runs in 1988, and you can't flip through the Broncos record book without bumping into his name. When former coach Dave Snow hired him in 2001, he arrived as the Dirtbags hitting coach and recruiting coordinator. Drafted in 1989 by the Expos, he got to Triple-A in 1991 and was compared to Mike Scioscia "the greatest compliment I've ever received' before knee and shoulder injuries stopped his progress. He spent the next three years in Double-A. "Someone told me if the stars aligned right, and a team needed three catchers, or someone got hurt, I might get a shot in the majors," he said. "But I was just so physically and mentally drained (from rehabilitating his injuries) that I couldn't see doing it just for a few months in the majors." He wasted little time transitioning from playing to coaching. He was on the Expos' Triple-A staff in 1996 and was pitching coach for their rookie-level team in 1997. Pitching was always in his future. Buckley had such a grasp on pitching game plans that Santa Clara's coaches let him call the pitches. "I knew about the mentality of pitching and the insides of the game," Buckley said. "But I learned even more when I got to the pros. I began to understand how you call a game, and what (pitchers) can and can't do. I didn't know much about pitching mechanics, but I had a lot of people that helped teach me." People with Dirtbag connections, too. Jim Benedict was his Yoda, an Expos pitching coach who taught Buckley everything he didn't already know. Bill Geivett was also with the Expos at the time. Benedict played for Snow at L.A. Valley College and was an assistant on Snow's staff at Loyola. Geivett, who briefly was a personnel director for the Dodgers in the Kevin Malone regime, was a minor league director for the Expos at the time, and he had been an assistant with Snow at Long Beach State. Weathers and Benedict crossed paths when they were manager and coach in 1988 for a summer college team in the Midnight Sun league. Buckley was also encouraged on his path by an Expos coach at the time named Jim Tracy. "Jim Benedict was a tremendous influence on me, and Bill gave me my first coaching job," Buckley said. "I hadn't met Coach Snow when he offered me a job, but almost everyone who ever gave me an opportunity had coached for him. I felt honored." Buckley went from the Expos job to his alma mater in 1998. Snow came calling in 2001. "Dave was looking for a new recruiting coordinator and wanted to bring in some new energy. And everywhere you would go, you'd see Buck," said Weathers. "And we knew he was successful working with pitchers with the Expos and at Santa Clara." If there's any question about Buckley, it's how much longer the program can keep him. Weathers is the first to admit that a promotion for the pitching coach would not only be good for the Dirtbags but for Buckley's long-term career. Buckley said he's grown roots. He's married with three young kids and said there's little chance he would take any head coaching job just to be a head coach. It would have to make sense for a lot of reasons. "I love it at Long Beach working for Mike and Dave, the coaching staff, the community, Blair … it's my home now," he said. "Everyone has been so good to me. And I love seeing these guys get better." So much better that they could wind up being the best. |
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