Long Beach State University Athletics
Former Dirtbag Could Go From Unknown to MLB Pitcher
3/5/2008 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
March 5, 2008
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- By 2 p.m. last Monday, most of the millionaires who occupy the Phillies clubhouse had driven away in their Lexuses and Escalades. The fields of the Carpenter Complex were quiet, save for the buzz of a John Deere lawn mower.
That's when the next Kyle Kendrick came out to play.
Off in the distance, on a back field behind a parking lot and the building that houses the Phillies minor-league barracks, a group of pitchers, identified only by surnames ironed on the back of their homogenized gray T-shirts, long-tossed in the outfield and ran laps around a trail that rings the perimeter of the complex.
A year ago, Kendrick was in that group. Before he led National League rookies with 10 wins in a Truman-beats-Dewey-style upset, he was an unknown right-hander with a 22-37 minor-league record. He didn't rate on any list of top prospects, and didn't receive an invitation to major-league spring training.
And, if you're searching for the next Kendrick, you must start on the same far-flung field that he did last spring.
That's the only place you'll find Drew Carpenter.
Who?
It is a perfectly reasonable question, given Carpenter's low profile. He pitched for three colleges in three years, pinballing from NCAA Division II Chico (Calif.) State in 2004 to Sacramento City College in 2005 and Long Beach State in 2006. Most federal witnesses don't move around as much.
After being drafted in the second round in 2006 and signing for $570,000, he still was overshadowed by Venezuelan right-hander Carlos Carrasco, 2006 first-rounder Kyle Drabek and even left-hander Josh Outman, the Phillies' 10th-round pick in 2005. Last year's first-round pick, lefty Joe Savery, has hogged the prospect spotlight this spring.
But only Carpenter won 19 games last year. He has a 2.99 ERA in 11¼2 pro seasons.
And only Carpenter wasn't invited to major-league spring training.
"We didn't have to protect him this year, and we had some six-year [minor-league] free agents that we wanted to take a look at," Phillies farm director Steve Noworyta said. "He's kind of the guy in the background that nobody's talking about. He's the silent guy. But once the season starts, he'll be an eye-opener."
Carpenter will open the season at Class AA Reading, where Kendrick began 2007. And the similarities don't stop there.
Like Kendrick when he was called up, Carpenter is 22. He is right-handed, and his fastball won't set any radar guns ablaze. But he throws four pitches, including a slider and splitter that tail away from right-handed hitters, like Kendrick's sinker.
Most of all, Carpenter wants to emulate Kendrick's rags-to-riches saga.
"We talk about it a lot over here, who's going to be the next Kendrick," Carpenter said last week in the minor-league clubhouse, a few hundred yards from the major-leaguers but seemingly a million miles from their world of luxury and big paychecks.
"I hope it's going to be me. It gives me a lot of hope, seeing [Kendrick] do that. I want to make their decision harder to not keep me where I'm at.
I'm working hard to get up there as fast as I can."
Carpenter's work includes a conditioning program designed to minimize his weight. At 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds, he is built more like a fullback than a finesse pitcher. And after the Florida State League All-Star break last season, he vowed to lose 10 pounds.
That commitment paid off in victories. Carpenter went 10-2 with a 2.05 ERA in the season's second half for Class A Clearwater. He tossed a three-hit shutout July 19, a seven-inning perfect game Aug. 27, and closed the regular season at 17-6 with a 3.20 ERA in 163 innings.
In the playoffs, he pitched 121¼3 innings and picked up two more wins, including the clinching game of the Florida State League championship series against Brevard County.
"Toward the end, I was going out there knowing I was going to win," Carpenter said. "I was really confident. It didn't really sink in until I got home and sat down and thought about what went on. Then, it hit me. I was like, 'Dang, it'll be hard to top that again.' "
Count Gorman Heimueller among those who think he can.
Heimueller, the Phillies minor-league pitching coordinator, believes Carpenter will make the adjustments required to succeed against more experienced Class AA hitters. And during his annual meeting with the minor-league pitchers before their first official workout Friday, he reminded them that Kendrick was sitting in their place a year ago.
"That was my theme," Heimueller said. "Kendrick was 5-22 in his first two years. He really struggled to get people out. But he worked hard and got the chance to go up for one start in Philly, and we all saw what happened. I don't want them to feel like, because you didn't go to big-league camp, that nobody knows who you are.
"Carpenter was very successful at Long Beach and with us last year. He has the ability to turn it up, and he likes to pitch in big games, whether it's in A ball or the big leagues. There's no doubt he can handle it. I wouldn't be surprised at all to see him get there."
Just like Kendrick did.
