Mike Maroth, Turning a giant negative into a positive.

(Since the writing of this article Mike has gone on to become an accomplished Major League Pitcher. He has withstood arm surgery and has just recently been traded to the St. Louis Cardinals to shore up their starting rotation.)
 
Mike Maroth will not go 0 for 2003. Finally winning his first game, a 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox, he pitched another quality game. Leaving after seven strong innings, he watched and cheered as the bullpen came through over the last two innings to preserve the win. To say the least, it has been a tough year for Mike to endure, going 0-9 until tonight.
 
Last Saturday I sat down with Mike to find out how he was coping with his season. Before I approached him, I had in mind to write about how he should give Roger Craig a call. After all, Roger had endured two horrendous seasons with the NY Mets. In 1962, Roger went 10-24 with 3 saves and in 1963, he went 5-22 with 2 saves. His lifetime record was 74-98, but if you take out those two years with the Mets, he was 59-52 with 14 saves. A long time ago, when Roger was the roving instructor with the Dodgers and I was a struggling Dodger farmhand, I asked him about those years when he struggled. He told me that he just kept telling himself that he had to be pretty good for the Mets to keep sending him out there to pitch. After all, the team lost 231 games during those two years. At least he was one of the best in their organization at the time.
 
While it is always nice to know that other pitchers have endured the same frustrations and adversity, I found that Mike didn’t really need that kind of encouragement. I expected him to be sick of one more guy asking him how he was doing, but he showed no sign of that because of his rock solid answer.
 
He told me that his faith in God has kept him on an even keel which allows him to see positives even through this rough start to the season. What impressed me was that he wasn’t repeating something he had memorized, and he wasn’t trying to proselytize me; he was calmly stating a fact that is real and controlling in his life. He trusts that God has him in the big leagues right now for a reason, and because of that, he is free to go out each time and give 100% of his ability and trust the stuff that he has been given.
 
At the time I talked with him, he was 0-8. He hasn’t pitched anywhere near as bad as his record would indicate. Bob Cluck, his pitching coach, says that, “This guy is so solid emotionally and mentally. He is such a battler. He’s 0-8 and he should be 5-3 or 6-2. He has remained strong through this whole thing.” He points out that if he were on the Yankees right now he would probably be 7-2 and people would be talking about him for the All Star Game.
 
Trouble is, he is not pitching for the Yankees. He doesn’t have the advantage of day after day, watching interacting with, and learning from veterans like Roger Clemens, Andy Pettitte, or Mike Mussina. Rather, he was the opening day starter for the young inexperienced Tigers who currently are having trouble scoring runs for any of their pitchers.
 
How does Mike look at his situation? To hear him talk, it is one big opportunity for him. Instead of dwelling on what might have been, he says, “I keep my focus on Him (God) and I am able to get positives out of all of this”. So much of that is centered on his maturity. He is only in his second year in the Big Leagues but you can see something special in his eyes when you talk to him. He’s right. He has the opportunity to learn how to pitch in the Big Leagues. He also has the advantage of having a teaching Pitching Coach in Bob Cluck. Mike is thankful for that. He is thankful that Bob is positive every day, keeps things simple for a young staff, and is easy to communicate with. Mike has the attitude that he can learn something every day. By his own admission, he has been able to throw his two-seam fastball for strikes for only one year. Coming out of college and the minor leagues, he was caught in the trap of trying to impress scouts with his velocity. He says he could throw his four-seam fastball at 90, which was enough for the scouts to recognize that he had an average major league fastball, but not so good for getting major league hitters out. He’s already figured out that pitching under the major league average with control is more effective than throwing his hardest with no consistency. He’s working to be more consistent with his slider.
 
Each time out gives him more confidence to trust his stuff. He used to pitch defensively by trying to nibble on the corners. His mentality was that he had four balls to work with before a hitter would get on base, and he felt he could nibble with the corner before he would walk the hitters. Now he takes the approach that he is going right after the hitters with strikes. He trusts his stuff. He wants the hitters to swing and be aggressive so that now, when he throws the ball a little off the plate, the hitters are still going after it.
 
Bob Cluck believes Mike Maroth is “ a Tom Glavine waiting to happen”. He shows flashes of that. In his next game against the Mariners, he threw a sequence of pitches against Brett Boone that was vintage Glavine. He changed speeds on the outer half and just off the plate that Brett couldn’t handle. Then, when he had slowed Brett’s bat down, he jammed him with a fastball. Ahh, it was great to see! He doesn’t yet have Tom’s mastery of the low and away zone, and he doesn’t have Tom’s range of speeds, but for sure, the potential is there.
 
The hard truth is that adversity, handled the right way, is the best teacher. Learning to pitch and win for a team that doesn’t score a lot of runs makes you a better pitcher for the future. How is Mike handling this adversity? He doesn’t have time to feel sorry for himself and think of himself as a victim. He is too mature for that. Thankfulness for the opportunity and for the good people around him, along with his rock solid faith cause him to be totally occupied with turning these negatives into positives and learning every day to be a better person and pitcher.
 
I for one, hope he runs off ten straight wins. If the rest of the young Tigers follow his lead, they just might turn this around faster than expected. His positive attitude is infectious.
 
May 23, 2003, updated June 25, 2007
By Geoff Zahn Former Head Baseball Coach University of Michigan and 12 Year Major League Veteran Pitcher