PHOENIX (AP) -Derrick Turnbow will never be perfect. Finally he can acknowledge that and be fine with it, too.
“I’m a perfectionist. Whenever I throw 10 pitches good in a row and then that one pitch that I throw bad, I’m changing something and trying to throw another 10 perfect,” Turnbow said. “With me, I learned if I just get away from that, I’ll have more natural mechanics, be more consistent and things are going to be fine.”
A never-ending source of criticism when things go badly for the Brewers, the hard-throwing reliever with questionable control says he’s done with worrying about every little aspect of his game. Instead, he didn’t throw for three months in the offseason while sticking by his new philosophy.
“Don’t work on as much, don’t get as consumed by it as much, don’t study it as much. Don’t practice, don’t anything. Just go out there. Throw the baseball. Worry about throwing strikes and everything else will just take care of itself,” said Turnbow, who pitched a perfect inning Sunday in a win over Seattle.
Easier said than done.
The once All-Star closer has had a forgettable year and a half, failing time and again on the mound. Fans vilify him with every bad outing and call for Brewers manager Ned Yost to be fired for sticking with him.
“Why am I that guy? It doesn’t make sense,” Turnbow said. “But I’m to the point now where I’m kind of glad I’m that guy and I accepted it. I’ve got broad shoulders. I’ve put it all on my shoulders and I’ll take responsibility – good or bad or indifferent. (The fans) expect a lot out of me, and it just means if I don’t do good they’re going to be on me pretty good.”
Still, it was all too much for his wife, Becca, who broke down crying toward the end of last season after one particularly brutal performance.
“It bothers you as a player, but it doesn’t really bother you as much as it bothers your family because what happens is they’ll listen to the broadcast or they’re the ones that read everything or hear it in the stands,” Turnbow said. “I stay away from reading or hearing anything, except whatever happens at the ballpark.”
By the offseason, he said he’d had enough of trying to figure out the negative reactions.
“I told my wife I just got tired. I got tired of fighting it, I got tired of dealing with everything,” he said. “When I got home in the offseason, I just let it all go and just came back with a new attitude and a fresh start.”
Yost still has confidence in his former closer who is in line to reassume the setup role in the eighth inning in front of new closer Eric Gagne. Turnbow, who throws fastballs in the high 90s (mph), went 4-5 with a 4.63 ERA in 77 games last year. But he gave up at least one run in 15 games and at least two runs in 10 of those.
“Any team would die for this kid. You can’t lose sight of the fact, especially me, to be swayed by people who have an opinion one way or the other,” Yost said. “For him, there’s always that guillotine effect where it’s one bad outing and everybody wants to pull the trigger and that’s not fair.”
After the Brewers lost All-Star closer Francisco Cordero to the Reds in free agency, they signed Gagne, the 2003 NL Cy Young Award winner, to a one-year, $10 million contract to keep Turnbow from the pressure of having to close again.
“I realized that most of my numbers last year were really good. It’s just those 11 games or so where I just didn’t throw strikes,” Turnbow said. “If I can be a little more consistent 10, 11, 12 more times a year throwing strikes, my numbers are going to be really good.”
There are other things that bode well for a turnaround for Turnbow. He’s throwing well in spring training and is no longer the first power pitcher out of the bullpen after the team traded for relievers Salomon Torres and Guillermo Mota and signed David Riske.
“(The bullpen) should work out really well because we’ve got a lot of experience this year and we’ve got a lot of arms,” Turnbow said. “We’ve got a lot of hard throwers now, it’ll take a little pressure off going out four out of five or four days in a row.”
And Yost thinks Turnbow deserves a break from the criticism.
“It’s hard going through it, especially when you give your heart and soul like he does every day,” the manager said. “There’s no reason for it. It’s not like he’s a dog or he’s popping off or he’s degrading the fans or he’s disrespectful to our country. You’ve got no reason to boo the kid.”
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