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No-nonsense manner on mound delivering game saves to Aeros
By Stephanie Storm
Beacon Journal sports writer
Published on Friday, Apr 24, 2009
The Indians don't develop closers. Few professional baseball teams do.
Yet Vinnie Pestano has never done anything but pitch in the ninth inning with the game on the line.
He closed in college at Cal State-Fullerton, and he's closed at all four levels he's played in his young, three-plus year career.
''I'm comfortable in this role because I've never done anything else,'' the Aeros' rookie closer said. ''But obviously, a side-armer throwing what I throw [88-90 mph] doesn't project well.''
That's the ironic thing about Pestano. Little about the soft-spoken and unassuming 6-foot-1, 195-pounder says closer. Yet everything about him on the field screams it, thanks to his no-nonsense, strike-throwing, aggressive manner.
''You don't usually see us groom a closer,'' Aeros manager Mike Sarbaugh said. ''But his stuff is firm, he has a good slider, he pounds the zone with his fastball and he hides the ball real well.''
Pestano, 24, knows that as good as he's proven so far — five saves in as many opportunities in his first taste of Double-A ball — he will likely be pitching in a different role in the future.
''I'm happy where I'm at now, but whatever the Indians want me to do, that's what I'll do,'' he said.
There's a part of Pestano that's just happy to be pitching again, playing the game he loves for a living.
He was a junior in college in May of 2006 when he hurt his elbow a month before the draft.
''I'd had tendonitis in my elbow that I'd been throwing through my college career,'' Pestano said. ''Once I'd get loose, I wouldn't feel it. But then one night it just popped. And the worst part is I was having a pretty good year. I was slated to go pretty high, anywhere between the third and fifth rounds.''
Some advised Pestano to not talk about the injury, hoping that some teams just didn't do their complete homework on him. But Pestano thought it best to be truthful — even as round after round passed by the first day.
''A lot of teams were calling me because they didn't know how serious [the injury] was,'' he said. ''Teams said they were interested in drafting me, and would ask how my arm was doing. I'd tell them up front, 'I need Tommy John [elbow ligament-replacement surgery).' I wasn't trying to trick anyone. I needed surgery, and wanted to get going with it so I could get back on the mound.''
The Indians selected him in the 20th round.
''They said they knew I needed surgery and they weren't scared because they had a great rehabilitation staff,'' Pestano said. ''So I was drafted in June, had surgery in July and signed in August.''
Ten months after surgery, Pestano was pitching in games. He's breezed through the lower levels of the Indians' farm system, racking up 35 saves — including 24 last season between low Class-A Lake County and high Class-A Kinston.
''He's just a young guy and yet he's got this presence on the mound,'' Sarbaugh said.
Stephanie Storm can be reached at sstorm@thebeaconjournal.com. Read the Indians and Aeros blog at http://www.ohio.com/tribematters.
The Indians don't develop closers. Few professional baseball teams do.
Get the full article here.
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