Going deeper in the count with Webb

Thursday, July 3, 2008 | Feedback | Print Entry

The concept was simple: Spend five days side-by-side with a starting pitcher as he prepares for a forthcoming start. Arizona right-hander Brandon Webb, the only 12-game winner in the majors, graciously agreed to let us tag along, with notepads and cameras, and TV and the Magazine are running long-form pieces this week. Here are some of the leftovers that landed on the cutting room floor:

    1. Second baseman Orlando Hudson thinks Webb reminds him of a former teammate, Roy Halladay, because of his hard sinker. In pressure spots, Hudson will sometimes remind Webb, in his distinctive machine-gun voice and jovial manner: Hey, I know what Halladay would do in this situation. Webb laughs as he relates this; he is very different in his personality from Halladay, who is intense and serious. Webb is a 30 mph personality in a 65 mph zone; he is as laid-back as a seventh-inning stretch in March, but possesses the confidence to not feel threatened by failure. Arizona manager Bob Melvin once headed to the mound during a game in San Diego to discuss a defensive situation with the infielders, and halfway to the mound, he looked up and saw Webb extending the baseball toward him. The pitcher mistakenly thought Melvin was going to take him out, at a moment when Melvin would never consider pulling his ace. "Any other pitcher with his résumé would've been upset to see me out there at all," Melvin said, "and they would've been resistant. But that's just the way he is."

    2. Brad Hawpe of the Rockies has been Webb's professional nemesis, a left-handed hitter who hammers him the most: a .333 batting average in 45 at-bats, with four homers. Consequently, Hawpe has been used by Webb and catcher Chris Snyder as something of a lab rat because, hell, nothing else works. As Webb refined his changeup, in 2006, they measured its improvement by how it worked against Hawpe. And earlier this season, Webb started tinkering with a cut fastball, a pitch that veers into the hands of left-handed hitters. Naturally, Hawpe was the first to see it. Hawpe grinned and looked down at Snyder and said, "Oh, OK, we've got a new one."  
     

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  • Buster Olney Buster Olney

    Buster Olney is a senior writer at ESPN The Magazine. He began covering baseball in 1989, as the Nashville Banner's beat reporter assigned to the Triple-A Nashville Sounds. Later, he covered the San Diego Padres (1993-94), the Baltimore Orioles ('95-96), the New York Mets ('97) and the Yankees ('98-2001). Olney joined ESPN The Magazine in 2003, after six years at The New York Times, and he's the author of the Times' best-seller "The Last Night of the Yankee Dynasty," a book about the Paul O'Neill-Tino Martinez Yankees dynasty of 1996-01.

    He grew up in central Vermont collecting baseball cards and listening to Red Sox, Expos, Phillies and Pirates radio broadcasts, and was a rabid fan of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He graduated from Vanderbilt University the same year as hoops legend Will Perdue, and ranks among the all-time leading scorers in pickup basketball at Memorial Gym. He claims to have witnessed the Commodores' winning football season in 1982 (although anthropologists have not yet confirmed this).

    Olney also contributes to ESPN.com, ESPN Radio, ESPNEWS, "SportsCenter" and "Baseball Tonight."

    Follow Buster on Twitter: @Buster_ESPN

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