Lou Marson & Jason Donald Olympic bronze medalists
double bobble head.
Carpenter rebuilds his season
Tony Zonca
The Andrew Carpenter we had heard so much about, the one who had won 19 games at Clearwater last year, never showed up the first two months of the Double-A season. The bear of a man wearing No. 44 was an imposter . . . in more ways than one.
OK, if all that is true, what was Mr. Carpenter doing pitching a scoreless inning the other day against the Mets at Citizens Bank Park?
Explain that, resin breath?
Well, here’s the way it went: Carpenter, listed at 6-2 and anywhere from 225 to 245 pounds, came in looking as though Ruben Stoddard was his fitness coach.
Recently married, Carpenter might have been registered at Pierogies R Us.
(Sorry, Andrew, we couldn’t resist a couple of fat jokes.)
And so he struggled. Whether the added poundage and/or lack of conditioning had anything to do with it, he was 2-7 with a 6.94 ERA before being sent back to Clearwater for a new start.
“I don’t think it (the extra weight) was that big of a deal,” Carpenter said. “I just think it (the poor start) was more in my head or something. I went down and lost (conservatively) 10 pounds, and I’m doing good now, so I don’t know if that was it or not.
“Maybe it was putting too much pressure on myself. I really don’t know what it was; I can’t explain it, but I really wasn’t myself. I wasn’t hitting spots (in the strike zone) like I usually did; I was walking too many people. It just kind of seemed like everything was all wrong.”
He was dispatched to the heat and humidity of Clearwater, where he was put under the care of Shawn Fcasni, the minor league conditioning coordinator, and Steve Schrenk, his pitching coach from last year. He also started to eat a lot of fruits and veggies after meeting with a nutritionist.
“I started to have more energy,” he recalled. “All I did down there is pretty much run all the time. I just ran and lifted the whole time. I got back to where I was physically. I felt like I was back to what I was doing last year. I wasn’t walking anybody, and all my pitches started to get sharper.”
Seventeen days after he was sent to the “fat farm,” he got his first start for the Threshers. Overall at Clearwater he went 3-3 with a 2.92 ERA in eight starts.
“Being sent down kind of brought me back down to earth a little bit,” he said. “Everything happens for a reason, so this will make me better in the long run.”
In the short run, the 2006 second-round draft pick went 4-1 with a 3.44 ERA in five starts
during his second go-around with the R-Phils, and that includes one horrible start against Trenton, when the ball was flying out of FirstEnergy Stadium and Carpenter was tagged for eight run in six innings.
Other than that, he has been the Carpenter we expected.
Then came the call from Philadelphia. It was after that 13-inning classic against the Mets, and Kyle Kendrick, the next day’s scheduled starter, was a little weary after being up in the pen a couple of times that night. Carpenter would be his backup.
“The call came from out of the blue,” Carpenter said. “They called me at 8:30 in the morning and I was sleeping. They told me and I woke up pretty fast. I had to stop at a store to get some pants and some dress shoes so I’d look decent going in there.
“After that, this is something I’ve been wanting to do my entire life. I got a taste of it. I’ve just got to get back up there now.”
Carpenter wound up doing mop-up duty in a game that got away from Brad Lidge. He allowed a walk and a hit.
“It was fun,” he said about his big league debut. “When you’re out on the field I guess your instincts take over and you’re just playing ball as usual. I didn’t even notice the big crowd and everything. Overall, it was a good night. I hope to get back up there as soon as possible.”
Carpenter opened up the organization’s eyes in the spring when he pitched four shutout innings against the heart of the Yankees’ order.
The thing is, when you first get a look at the hulking Carpenter you expect him to overpower hitters. Actually, it’s the opposite. He’s more of a finesse guy who hits his spots, changes speed, keeps the ball down and is aggressive in the strike zone without lighting up the radar gun.
His dad, Larry, instilled those concepts in him as a youngster. As it turned out, father knew best.
“I threw hard in college (Long Beach State), and I guess that was the hardest I’ve ever thrown,” Carpenter said. “I don’t know if it’s the long seasons now or what, but I’ve always tried to hit my spots better. It’s better to locate than throw hard, and get overall movement. That’s kind of the way I’ve been all my life.
“Now that I look back on the first two months here I wasn’t being as aggressive as I should have been. My father told me when I went down to be aggressive in the strike zone with my fastball and everything will come after that.”
Nearly three months ago Andrew Carpenter was the poster boy for this disappointment of a season. Now he might be the feel-good story, along with Olympians Lou Marson and Jason Donald.
“I’ve seen more life in his pitches,” said pitching coach Tom Filer. “His total package is much better. All his pitches are so much better across the board. I see him pitching with more confidence that he didn’t have earlier. I told him it’s just because of the life in his fastball. He just needs to get a little more angle consistently on all his pitches.”
Carpenter got another call this week. He's moved up to Triple-A with the Lehigh Valley club. Spiffy traveling outfit was optional.
And so, as Andrew Carpenter has slimmed down, so has his ERA. So, too, have the odds of his soon making it back to the big leagues.
