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SMITH ON HUMBER

"Phil Humber had Tommy John surgery two years ago. He has been healthy for the last year and a half and pitched all last season at triple-A. He was the third overall pick in 2004. He's got a three-pitch mix (fastball, curveball, splitter), and we're looking forward to getting him into our organization." - Kelsie Smith

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02/17/2008 8:22 PM ET
Humber takes pressure in stride
Hurler focused on helping Twins, not on replacing Santana
By Kelly Thesier / MLB.com

ORT MYERS, Fla. -- Philip Humber knows that his name will forever be linked to Johan Santana, considering he was one of four Mets prospects the Twins received in return for their ace.

But when he arrived in the Twins' clubhouse at Hammond Stadium on Sunday, Humber learned that he would share yet another connection with the two-time Cy Young Award winner. Humber was given Santana's former Spring Training locker.

For some players, that might seem like a little bit of extra pressure to try to fill the big shoes left by Santana's departure. Humber had a slightly different take on the situation.

"I'm actually hoping there might be a little diary in there on how to throw changeups," Humber said with a smile.

Since the Santana trade was finalized earlier this month, Humber has taken just that kind of easy-going attitude regarding all the changes in his life.

Being traded for the first time was certainly a big deal for the former No. 1 pick of the Mets in the 2004 First-Year Player Draft, but it was just a small part of what Humber deemed to be a hectic offseason.

After finishing the '07 season as a September callup with the Mets, Humber headed home to prepare for his November wedding. Shortly after he was married, Humber found himself in the midst of all the trade speculation surrounding Santana. And then just about two weeks ago, he got the news that the Mets had completed a trade for the left-hander and that Humber would be joining the Twins for Spring Training.

Quite an unusual winter to say the least.

"It was pretty crazy, but all exciting," Humber said. "I was excited about the trade in general, on top of that coming to a place like Minnesota with a young group of guys. It seems like a team of guys that are just gamers. That's the style of ball I like to play and I like to see played. I'm excited about getting over here and getting the chance to contribute."

For Humber, the move to Minnesota signals what he feels is a huge opportunity. Things haven't exactly gone according to plan for the right-hander since the Mets took him as the third overall pick in the '04 Draft.

Humber didn't sign with the Mets until the following January. He inked a five-year Major League deal at that time, but didn't even make it through all of the 2005 season before having to undergo Tommy John elbow ligament reconstruction surgery that July.

He returned to the mound midway through the '06 season. But since coming back from the surgery, Humber has yet to fully regain his form. He made strides in his first full season following surgery in '07, finishing 11-9 with a 4.27 ERA in 25 starts for the Mets' Triple-A New Orleans club. It even earned him a callup in September, when he made one start for New York.

The general consensus with Tommy John surgery is that pitchers don't fully regain their form until their second full season removed from the operation. Humber hopes that's the case for him.

"When I came back in '06, it was just for half a season, and yet I still got to the big leagues in September," Humber said. "I never expected that coming off of rehab. It was kind of so fast that I couldn't take it all in.

"Last year I got to go out and pitch every five days and travel a lot in the [Pacific Coast League]. And so I feel I grew a lot from that experience. I think I'm past all the surgery now and I'm going to be healthy. I really feel like everything is good and I'm 100 percent."

Humber is expected to be in the mix for one of the rotation spots for the Twins this spring. But despite his inclusion in some of the discussions, the Twins have downplayed just when Humber might be ready to contribute.

Immediately following the completion of the Santana trade, Twins GM Bill Smith and vice president of player personnel Mike Radcliff expressed that outfielder Carlos Gomez was likely the only player who would have an impact on the Twins' big league club in '08.

Part of that hesitation to include Humber might have been to protect the 25-year-old, who has already dealt with his share of unfulfilled expectations.

But it seems that Humber has already tried to let go of some of the pressure he's put upon himself along the way. He's focused now on trying to enjoy the game more and place less emphasis on the results.

"Being the No. 1 pick, that pressure comes into play sometimes mentally wanting to live up to those expectations," Humber said. "But really, when you look at it, it's just a game. We're just a bunch of men playing a boys game. So you have to go out and have fun with it and not worry about what other people are thinking or saying or what they might write. If it's meant to be, it's meant to be."

Humber knows that the setbacks have tainted many people's view of his upside as a pitcher. And he has heard all the negative reactions that the Twins received for getting what many people deemed to be "too little" in return for their ace -- Humber, Gomez and pitchers Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra.

"We were laughing about that earlier," Humber said. "I mean, how can you really get equal value for Santana?

"But at the same time, I know the guys that came over here with me and I know myself. And I feel like they've got some good stuff. I really do. I feel like we are going to be able to go out and help the team -- soon. That's up to the management how soon that happens. But I feel like all of us have the tools to contribute to a winning team. I think the fans in Minnesota are going to be surprised in some ways at what they got, and I think they are going to be excited."

Humber knows it's not going to be an easy task to help some of the fans forget about Santana's departure. But while he hopes that there is some extra luck in taking over Santana's locker, Humber said he isn't about to try to make up for the loss of the ace all by himself either.

"I'm not going to try to be Johan," Humber said. "I'm just going to try to be myself. And I think that's going to be good enough, I really do. Johan was a Rule 5 [Draft] pick, and when he got here, I don't think he was like, 'I'm going to go out and win two Cy Youngs.' He just went out, did his best, worked hard and that's what happened. So that's kind of the approach I'm going to take."

New Minnesota Twins pitcher Phil Humber OK with being linked to Johan Santana
Ex-Mets pitcher no stranger to pressure
BY PHIL MILLER
Pioneer Press
Article Last Updated: 02/20/2008 12:56:26 AM CST

FORT MYERS, Fla. As the celebration began all around him, his Rice University teammates whooping and hollering into the Omaha twilight and congratulating him on his five-hitter, Philip Humber remembers feeling an unexpected emotion: relief.

"We had been so focused on every pitch for so long, all season really, that it took us a few seconds to grasp it," Humber said of the 2003 College World Series championship game. "The season was over, and we had achieved our goal. We looked at each other like, 'What did we just do?' "

What he did was establish himself as a big-league prospect, a power pitcher with the nerves of a winner. It set him off on a course that provided a handful of other baseball thrills, one frightening setback, and a permanent new identity: the guy the Twins got for Johan Santana.

No, Humber isn't the only one, but as the most polished of the four prospects swapped by the New York Mets for Santana, the lanky Texan is a decent bet to arrive first in Minneapolis, giving skeptical Twins fans a close-up look at what a two-time Cy Young Award winner gets you these days. He's not nervous, though. His collegiate breakthrough that complete-game 14-2 national title clincher against Ryan Garko and Stanford gives him a good understanding of how to operate under pressure.

"I don't feel any. I mean, how can you get equal value for Santana? I don't know about that, but I feel like the four of us are going to make a difference here," said Humber, who is even occupying Santana's old locker in the Twins' spring clubhouse. "I really think the Twins got a great group of guys to come over. I know I've worked hard and I'm ready to contribute."

He's ready, in part, because of a skilled surgeon who performed Tommy John surgery on his pitching elbow in 2005, two years into his pro career. That was a significant setback for a pitcher who had dominated collegiate hitters, then was drafted third overall by the Mets in 2004. He never felt "a snap or a pop or anything violent," Humber said, "but it just gradually hurt worse and worse."

He walked off the mound during his first Class AA game with Binghamton, his elbow ligament in tatters and his career in serious jeopardy. But, somehow, Humber turned a devastating injury into an advantage.

"A lot of guys hurt their elbows, so I'm really glad it happened early in my career, so I can put it behind me," Humber said. "I'm a new pitcher. I feel like I'm a lot stronger in my elbow, and my shoulder is really stable."

The Twins project Humber to keep improving as the surgery grows more distant. "He's at the stage where he trusts letting the ball go now, and we're very excited about that," manager Ron Gardenhire said. "After you have surgery like that, there's a lot of trust to regain, that you're not going to hurt yourself again, that you're not going to feel your arm pop. He has that trust."

Humber turned 25 in December and is getting old for a prospect. But the Twins' belief is that his stuff is as good as it ever was he frequently reached 95 mph with his fastball last season and his command is excellent. While mixing in a curveball and change, Humber has become a fly-ball pitcher, occasionally a little homer prone, but with above-average strikeout and walk rates.

His earned-run average at New Orleans last season was a little high at 4.27, but the Pacific Coast League is a notorious hitters' circuit, and his control stats were among the league's best. He missed no-hitting Iowa by two outs in August and in September enjoyed another emotional high: a call-up by the Mets.

"That was awesome," Humber said of his first major league start, in Shea Stadium last Sept. 26 against the Nationals. It didn't end so well, though, as Washington scored five runs in four innings. "We were on our way to a collapse we didn't know about," he said with a shrug. "But it was exciting nonetheless."

He got married in November, then experienced another thrill three weeks ago, when word leaked he was coming to Minnesota in the offseason's biggest trade.

"I was super excited. I'm coming over to a great organization, and they obviously wanted me," Humber said. "Minnesota's a little smaller than New York, too. Coming from a small town in Texas, it's a little more my speed. We have an opportunity to start something new here, to do some big things."

It won't be easy to top that June night nearly five years ago, though. Humber, Rice's No. 3 starter at the time behind Tampa Bay prospects Wade Townsend and Jeff Niemann, was battered by Texas in an early-round game and wasn't certain he would pitch again. When the Owls were forced to a winner-take-all game in the finals, however, the right-hander was the best rested Rice starter and got the call.

"I tried to sleep as late as possible so I had less time to think. It's such a mental game just getting through the first inning was big," recalled Humber, who was staked to an 11-0 lead in the first six innings and cruised, retiring 17 of the first 20 Stanford hitters. "I didn't have my best stuff, but I was commanding all three of my pitches, and that's what got them."

What it got him was a championship ring "gold with a lot of diamonds and a big 'R' in the middle," he said and a lot more.

"It changed the course of my career," he said of a career that already has had many unexpected changes.

Humber hopes to fill void for Twins
By DAVID DORSEY ddorsey@news-press.com February 28, 2008

The Minnesota Twins required subtraction to bring about addition to its group of pitchers during the offseason.

No pitcher should benefit more from the trades this season than former New York Mets prospect Philip Humber, a Texas native who will try to fill part of the gaping hole in Minnesota's pitching rotation.

The departures of pitchers Johan Santana and Matt Garza via trades and pitcher Carlos Silva via free agency meant that the Twins needed to find replacments for them.

Humber hopes to become one of them. The Twins received Humber, outfielder Carlos Gomez and pitchers Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra in exchange for Santana.

"He goes about his work great," Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson said.

"The ball comes out of his hand pretty well. He looks like he's a good guy to have around."

Humber, 25 and a 6-foot-4, 224-pound right-hander, throws a fastball, curveball and changeup. He guided Rice University's baseball team to the 2003 College World Series, in which Rice defeated Stanford.

Humber compiled a 13-4 record with a 2.27 ERA and 154 strikeouts in 115.0 innings pitched that season.

He went 11-9 with a 4.27 ERA last season at Triple-A New Orleans before receiving a three-game callup to the big leagues with the New York Mets.

"Everybody has a different touch on the ball," Humber said.

"I just like to go out there and pitch."

Q: How close did you feel you were to the big leagues a year ago while with the New York Mets versus now that you're with the Minnesota Twins?

A: I think my approach last year, I knew I had a shot to make the team and my goal was to make the team. Now, I'm my approach is to just get ready for the season. Making the team, it's really out of your hands.

Q: What Mets players had an impact early in your career and helped you along?

A: "Tom Glavine really had the biggest influence on me during spring training. He taught me a lot about the mental side of the game. When I was in the big leagues, I was in the bullpen a lot. I had the chance to talk to Aaron Sele a whole lot. He'd help me out on and off the field.

"We're similar type pitchers. We've got a fastball, curveball and changeup. Those two guys were probably the biggest influence on me."

Q: You were born in Nacodoches, Texas, and attended high school in Carthage, Texas. What was it like growing up in small-town Texas?

A: "It was good for me. The baseball part of it - baseball is huge in Texas. Texas is known for football, but baseball is pretty big. I learned a lot."

Q: Who else has made it big out of your hometown?

A: "Robert Ellis. He pitched with the Diamondbacks when they won the World Series (in 2001). He spent a lot of time in the minors. But he's probably the biggest name to make it."

Q: You hope to win a World Series with the Twins, but you've already won the College World Series while pitching at Rice. What did you do with your ring?

A: "We beat Stanford in '03. I wear it sometimes. I don't wear it a whole lot because I'm afraid I'll lose it. I'm proud of it."

Humber Sent to the Pen

Three months into a frustrating season, Red Wings pitcher Philip Humber has been moved from the starting rotation to the bullpen.

Humber is 4-7 with a 6.00 earned-run average. In his last start on Tuesday, he allowed eight runs on 10 hits in just 2 2/3 innings in a 12-5 loss to the last-place Lehigh Valley IronPigs. Mandelaro

Philip Humber won his third consecutive start as the Rochester Red Wings defeated Lehigh Valley 4-1 Saturday in Allentown, Pa.

Humber (7-7) struck out nine to finish one shy of his season high. The right-hander went a season-high eight innings, allowing six hits, one run and two walks. --- Dem&Chron

Philip Humber notched his third big strikeout game in his past four starts, fanning 11 Syracuse batters in 7 1/3 innings and walking only one. He allowed three runs, including Snider's two-run bomb, on eight hits. It's been a season of night and day for the 25-year-old Humber, who went 4-7, 5.92 in 79 first-half innings, intermittently losing his rotation spot. But in five starts since returning to the rotation on July 23, he's gone 4-0, 3.16 with 36 strikeouts, eight walks and four home runs allowed in 31 1/3 innings. --- bba

Philip Humber pitched a complete-game victory Friday and improved to 5-1 with a 2.68 ERA since the All-Star break, forcing the Twins to consider him for a September callup. --- LEN3