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Minnesota Twins prospect Philip Humber fixes flaw and revives career
By eliminating a flaw in his delivery, the right-hander revived his pitching career.
By Kelsie Smith
ksmith@pioneerpress.com
Article Last Updated: 09/07/2008 12:07:34 AM CDT

Philip Humber didn't think this is how things would go.

The former first-round pick never envisioned elbow surgery would interrupt his path to the big leagues, never thought he'd be sent to the bullpen in the minors four years removed from being selected third overall by the New York Mets, never expected to be wrestling with his delivery and with his future.

"About halfway through the season this year when things are going so bad and you're having a hard time figuring out what it is you need to do, at times you start thinking maybe this isn't for me," said Humber, who came to the Twins this offseason in the Johan Santana trade.

"Even though you keep working and my work ethic didn't suffer at all, my confidence did. You kind of get to the point where you're like, well, it's not going to work out like I thought it was going to work out."

Despite an encouraging spring training, the 25-year-old sputtered to 4-7 with a 5.92 earned-run average in the first half of the season with Class AAA Rochester. He'd been tossed from the starting rotation and made a reliever by the time Red Wings pitching coach Stu Cliburn suggested a simple change in Humber's delivery that helped inspire the pitcher's confidence and his resolve for a career in the big leagues.

Humber said Cliburn noticed that the right-hander was dragging his front toe during his stride. Humber said the toe drag diminished his lower-body torque and left him relying too heavily on his upper body, which in turn made it difficult to command his pitches.

"It was probably something that I just got into along the way," said Humber, who missed the 2006 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery. "I think it's a matter of when your body gets tensed up, your leg muscles or whatever, you're kind of extended. I never even noticed it before he pointed it out. I was like, wow, I've never done that. I looked at video from in the past, even when I was in college, and I didn't do that."

He easily eliminated the habit, and in the second half of the season he moved back into the rotation and went 6-1 with a 2.67 ERA. Humber said he also learned to relax his entire frame, focusing less on velocity and more on command.

"It's kind of being not real fluid, kind of more herky-jerky. Even though you feel like the ball is going to come out harder when you try harder it doesn't really work that way," Humber said of his first-half mechanics. "Even though I had a good spring this year, I still wasn't really sure what it was I needed to get back to. It took me awhile to figure that out, and then once I did it was just about commanding my pitches and getting everything over the plate."

Humber made his Twins debut Thursday in Toronto and left, perhaps, too much over the plate. He entered in the eighth inning and gave up two singles and a double, allowing two inherited runners to score along with one of his own.

Pitching coach Rick Anderson puts little weight on a young player's first big league outing of the season and said even in Toronto on Thursday, Humber seemed different than he was in spring training.

"You could see he was overthrowing a little bit, but he was trying to calm himself down from what we saw in spring," Anderson said. "On the mound in spring, everything he did was a max effort, violent delivery and violent finish, and it looks to me like he's trying to calm it down."

Before teaching himself to relax on the mound, Humber said his tense body also affected his mind, causing angst when he would give up a hit or his fielders would fail to make a play. Now he's better able to let go of bad outings, and his second half in Rochester gave him reassurance.

"(If) I hadn't been called up I wouldn't have been disappointed," Humber said. "Obviously I'm excited to be in the big leagues and everything, but I'm mostly happy with how my season ended and the fact that I'm confident that, you know what, I am as good as I thought I was, and I'm hopefully going to be able to have a long career."