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Repairing his confidence a big part of his recovery
By Sheldon Ocker
Beacon Journal sportswriter
Published on Tuesday, Feb 26, 2008
WINTER HAVEN, FLA.: The first thing you notice is a book by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
It is in Jeremy Sowers' locker. He is reading it. Right-side up. He has an understanding of global economics and their effect on world governments. And why not? Sowers majored in political science at Vanderbilt University.
Indians fans already know that Sowers has a brain. That fact has been documented many times. He is the thinking man's pitcher, which makes it all the harder to understand the season he had in 2007, when he compiled a 1-6 record and 6.42 earned-run average.
Even though it was Sowers' first full season in the majors, nobody believed it could happen to him. The usual impediments and pitfalls that afflict almost all young pitchers with limited experience wouldn't touch Sowers. That's what everybody thought, including the Tribe's deep thinkers.
After a rookie year in which he went 7-4 with a 3.57 ERA, a year that included a six-game winning streak and 1.93 ERA, Sowers tanked. He spent much of 2007 in Buffalo to reconstruct his delivery and regain his self-assurance.
''You can lay all those stats on a table and see that they weren't very good but not god-awful,'' Sowers said. ''I learned a lesson about the kind of mental approach you have to take. I never had prolonged failure. But I learned that no matter who you are, somebody will be able to get the better of you.''
If Sowers was talking about American League batters, by the time he was sent to Triple-A on June 10, there was quite a lengthy list. Sowers seemed a little shell-shocked, not only by his inability to retire hitters, but also because he was unable to come up with corrective measures.
''At some point, I think I started to see them (batters) hitting the ball hard,'' said Sowers, who would visualize situations in his mind's eye. ''I went from being in aggressive mode to being in defensive mode. If you're only throwing (fastballs) 80-something, there's no way you're going to be successful unless you're aggressive. You
have to be like Paul Byrd, who pretty much says, 'Here it is, hit it.' ''
Managers and coaches approach hitting and pitching slumps mostly by trying to correct mechanical defects in a swing or a delivery. If they can induce a hitter or pitcher into repeating the perfect swing or delivery, performance will improve, and that will take care of the emotional problems.
But the mental aspect of Sowers' success is so important, it had to be addressed.
''Jeremy didn't have a lot of experience with things going wrong,'' pitching coach Carl Willis said. ''Jeremy has an analytical mind, so maybe the first time he had to dig deep and couldn't figure out what was wrong, he lost a little confidence.''
Did Sowers' delivery get out of whack first, leading to a loss of confidence, or was it the other way around?
''The only way to get out of a slump is to pitch well,'' he said. ''The only way to get your confidence back is to get outs. You can't give hitters any more credit than you have to. If you have to fake it, then you have to fake it. Maybe nobody will know the difference.''
If a pitcher can fool others into thinking he is in command of the situation, maybe he will fool himself and things will begin to turn around for him. Except that most athletes give themselves away.
''Whether it's in your eyes or your mannerisms, they can tell,'' Sowers said. ''So the idea is you can't get down on yourself. You can't be a pushover. There's a sixth sense or something. Even if you can't see it (in yourself), guys know when a pitcher doesn't have his confidence.''
Manager Eric Wedge and Willis noticed in spring training that Sowers' velocity was down. He is not a power pitcher, but maintaining normal pace on his fastball is important. It turned out that in anticipation of spending an entire season in the big leagues, Sowers decided to pace himself from the outset of training camp. That probably was a mistake.
Sowers also thinks the beginning of his slide was affected by small events out of his control.
''Maybe I had a little bad luck,'' he said. ''There were some ground balls that got through for hits, and instead of putting a cork in it, I let that fester and it got to be bigger than it was.''
Only time will tell whether Sowers has resolved his dilemma, but he seems to have put a season of discontent into perspective.
''I came to the conclusion that if last season is the worst thing that ever happens to me, I'll have a pretty good life,'' he said. ''If I never pitch another season in the majors, I can say I pitched up here against the best of the best.''
Sheldon Ocker can be reached at socker@thebeaconjournal.com.
WINTER HAVEN, FLA.: The first thing you notice is a book by former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan.
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