By Don Leypoldt
David Carpenter did not want to be there.
Carpenter was a catcher. A good catcher. Good enough to be All-Big East and the Cardinals’ 12th round draft pick during his junior year at West Virginia. Good enough to make it into Big League camp in the spring of 2008 and get promoted to High-A.
But instead of High-A, Carpenter found himself toiling and broiling in the Florida sun while stuck in baseball’s ultimate backwater: the Gulf Coast League. Where you play with the rawest of rookies in front of 15 fans a game.
To add insult to injury, catcher Carpenter was standing on a pitcher’s mound.
“I was there (in High-A) for about two months and then started playing only once every four or five days. I wasn’t really sure what was going on,” Carpenter recalled.
“(The Cardinals) had a meeting and they decided to convert me into a pitcher because they had success with another former catcher, Jason Motte. (Note: Motte caught for the 2002 Sanford Mainers. He is now an integral piece of the Cardinals’ bullpen.) And with (Yadier) Molina having signed a pretty big contract extension that year, that kind of stopped every catcher that was below him.
“They felt that that was the best path for me to get to the Big Leagues.”
Ultimately, the Cardinals’ brass were right. It didn’t mean that their decision made Carpenter a happy camper.
“I really disagreed with the decision but they weren’t too interested in hearing what I had to say about it. At first,” Carpenter admitted, “I fought against it and voiced my opinion whenever I could.
“But I was really lucky at the same time. Even though I was being stubborn, I had Chris Carpenter there. I had Josh Kinney there and I had Jason Isringhausen. Three guys who had success in the Big Leagues. They took me aside and said ‘Hey, here is why they made the change. You’re going to be successful. You just have to go about it with the right mindset.’ It was going all-in and being willing to make the change.”
Carpenter showcased his big arm in 2005 when he caught for the Vermont Mountaineers. He gunned down 30% of would-be base stealers in a summer that Carpenter remembers fondly.
“A good organization,” Carpenter reflects, “I still stay in contact with a lot of the guys I played with up there. To be able to have that opportunity to play summer ball with a lot of good guys and be with really good people, it was definitely a highlight of my life.
“That place was a blast. As far as fan support, it was unbelievable. It was comparable to a good minor league city with how excited people were to go to the park and watch us play.”
Carpenter’s exposure to Vermont, with its cool Julys and a ballpark straight out of a Norman Rockwell painting, may have made the heat and sparse crowds of the Cardinals’ extended spring training complex that much more glaring.
But with his change in mindset, Carpenter went about learning the mechanics and mentality of being a pitcher.
“The best advice that anyone ever gave me on how to make that transition was from Chris Carpenter and (ex-Brave pitcher) Derek Lilliquist," Carpenter stated. "They told me that the main goal is not to be a Big League catcher or a Big League pitcher. The main goal is to have the ability to get to the Big Leagues and stay there.
“One of things I had in mind was ‘I’m going to make it, no matter what.’ Some of the coaches I had worked with, thank goodness, had made it to the Big Leagues and knew what it took to make it to the Big Leagues. When you have guys who have been to the highest level, it’s a lot easier taking their advice and criticism because they wantyou to make it there.”
In 2008, David Carpenter put together a 1.84 ERA in between two levels of Rookie ball. The next season, he struck out 77 in 67 innings at low-A Quad Cities. In 2010, he made it back to the Cardinals’ High-A affiliate: this time as a closer where he saved 20 games.
“The common thing is that a closer comes in and throws strikes. They are the aggressor,” he notes. “They put pressure on the hitter. A lot of them throw extremely hard and some throw just 90-91. Some of them have three or four pitches and some of them have just one. But they all come in with an aggressive demeanor, that ‘You have to beat me, I’m not going to give into you’ type of attitude. That is what, I think, makes a lot of closers successful.
“On the other side of it, there are days when you’re going to get beat. The thing about that – and I’ve learned this from Isringhausen and Derek Lilliquist - is that you have to have such a short memory when you’re in the back end of the bullpen. As soon as you leave the ballpark that night you have to forget about it. You have to come into the ballpark the next day ready to compete and get the job done.”
Carpenter adamantly declared, “If you continue to let bad moments play over in your head, you’re going to lose that edge of being the aggressor. You’re going to start to be timid and think ‘I don’t want to make this mistake. He might hit it out of the park.’ And that’s a big problem, because you don’t want to think ‘What if.’ You can’t pitch scared no matter what level you’re at. You have to pitch with confidence in yourself and what you have in your repertoire.”
In August 2010, Carpenter was traded straight up to Houston for Pedro Feliz. Feliz was less than two years removed from starting for the World Series champion Phillies. Veterans like Feliz don't come cheaply.
“As far as a true transition from one organization to another, there really wasn’t one. But I did have to get used to a few little tweaks here and there," Carpenter described, "such as maybe changing how high my leg lift was or how far my stride would be or a different arm angle.
“Guys have been successful throwing the way they have their entire life so they aren’t necessarily going to change that type of stuff. They want to show you that, you’re trying to throw a curve ball but maybe with your arm angle a slider would be better suited for you. Or maybe you try to throw a four seam fastball but if you threw a two seam fastball with a little more movement, it will help you be more successful.
“The big thing is you have to throw strikes. If you go in and pound the strike zone, I don’t care what organization it is,” Carpenter concluded, “they are going to like you."
The Mountaineer finished the year by putting together a 3.52 ERA for the Astros’ Lancaster (CA) affiliate, an excellent figure considering the pitcher’s horror that is the high-elevation California League.
After opening 2011 at Double-A, Carpenter was promoted to triple-A where he promptly did his best 1988 Orel Hershiser impersonation. In 19 games for Oklahoma City, Carpenter did not allow a single earned run. He saved nine of those games.
On June 30th, the ex-NECBL backstop debuted in Houston’s 7-0 inter-league win over Texas. Carpenter did not score the game’s only touchdown. But he did throw a perfect inning, striking out the first Major Leaguer he ever faced.
“The actual debut is definitely one of the most memorable things of my life. Not only myself but my Mom and my Dad, we all looked forward to that day and we all worked hard for that day,” Carpenter said. “I told a lot of people this: I wouldn’t be here without my Mom and Dad.
“To be able to honor them by going out there and representing them in a good way because of how much they’ve given up for me and sacrificed over the course of my entire life. It was everything a son could hope for, being able to represent them, my family and friends back home, West Virginia University and all of those people who helped me to get there. It was really, really special.”
Carpenter’s ride continues to be special. The one-time disgruntled pitcher had appeared in eleven games for the Astros through August 3rd, striking out nine in 8.1 innings.
And while it isn’t fully complete, a skilled Carpenter usually crafts an impressive final product.
David Carpenter’s Advice to NECBLers:“The one thing I would tell them is go out there every day with the thought that somebody is there to watch you play. And if that is their only chance to see you, you want to leave the best impression that you can. I’m not necessarily talking about going four-for-four with a couple of home runs or pitching seven or eight scoreless innings. It’s representing yourself well, how you carry yourself on and off the field, running balls out, having a good mound presence and playing the game the right way. No hot dogging. No one wants to see that. Everyone wants to come and watch a good, clean baseball game. Watching guys run on and off the field. Playing the game the right way. If you do that, people are going to take notice. They’ll say ‘Hey, this guy is a gamer. He wants to be out there and he’ll give you this every single day.’
“You can say that, without a doubt, about Hunter Pence. He came to play hard every single day. He busted his butt and gave you everything he had on that day. When he walked off the field, there was no doubt that he did everything he could that day to help us win.” |
