West, Anselment finding their groove again

Published 12:01 am Wednesday, July 20, 2011

There were times when Aaron West thought this was it, when he wondered whether his baseball career was over.

Like the numerous starts in the spring of 2010, when he pitched through swelling in his elbow while refusing to acknowledge the pain. Or the time that spring when he felt as strong as

ever while pitching against Brigham Young, only to be told by the University of Washington pitching coach that his fastball topped out at 84 miles per hour — six mph slower than his typical range and two mph short of the slowest fastball of his college career.

Then there was the time, after he was shut down and told he would need surgery to repair torn cartilage, that the scheduled surgeon told him many pitchers never come back from the procedure.

And when West finally returned from an eight-month layoff, only to stumble to a 1-8 record and 5.18 ERA, it appeared that the former Snohomish High School star’s luck had finally run out.

But thanks to a strong start to a summer season with the Humboldt Crabs, West is one of two UW players who seem to have re-invented themselves in recent weeks.

West and former Meadowdale star Chase Anselment have used this summer in an effort to stoke their dreams of one day playing in the major leagues.

While West has re-discovered his 90- to 94-mile-an-hour fastball as well as his confidence, Anselment has gone back to familiar territory behind the plate. The junior outfielder has been playing catcher with the Brewster Whitecaps of the Cape Cod League in an effort to become more attractive in the eyes of major-league scouts.

“Chase wants to play in the big leagues,” said UW coach Lindsay Meggs, who added that Anselment will battle UW teammates Ryan Wiggins and B.K. Santy for the starting catching position in the spring. “There’s a lot of talent in that body. Being a catcher, it’s a lot faster road than any other position.”

Said Anselment, who played catcher at Meadowdale before moving into the Huskies’ outfield: “Catching is a lot more valuable (to baseball scouts) than the outfield is.”

The Edmonds native said he’s still getting used to the position, despite his wealth of experience there as a high school player.

“It’s a lot of fun,” said Anselment, who took over as full-time catcher for the first-place Whitecaps when Taylor Davis was signed by the Chicago Cubs earlier this month. “It’s like learning the position all over again. The biggest thing is just remembering to stay focused. … Any mistake, when you’re catching, is magnified.”

Heading into this week, he was hitting .273 with one home run and six RBI in 22 games with the Whitecaps of the Cape Cod League, perhaps the most well-regarded of the collegiate summer leagues.

West, meanwhile, has been mowing down batters in the Far West League. Playing against competition mostly from colleges in California, West had a 4-0 record and 0.29 ERA with the Crabs heading into this week’s play. Just as impressive, he had 49 strikeouts, and just eight walks, in 31 innings of work.

“It’s been going great,” West said last week. “No pressure at all. In summer ball, you’re just playing and pitching. You’re not as worried about the standings, so you can just relax and pitch.”

West said he has “normal soreness” after his starts but that there is no additional pain related to his April 2010 procedure.

Meggs said that the Huskies weren’t worried about West suffering from over-use in his elbow this summer. Rather, they thought it would be a good time for him to get his confidence back.

West and Anselment, like many returning players at UW, are trying to come back from a horrific season on the diamond. The Huskies went 17-37 last season, 6-21 in the Pacific-10 Conference and saw several players struggle along the way.

After hitting .347 as a freshman in 2010, Anselment struggled at the plate early last season and ended up hitting just .245.

“He got off to a slow start with us,” Meggs said. “But by the end of the season, he was swinging the bat better.

“He’s someone who does everything 120 miles per hour. He wants to be the leader of the program and hit in the middle of our lineup, and when that didn’t happen, he ended up putting a lot of pressure on himself.”

West had his share of struggles as well. He matched the team lead with eight losses, allowed opposing batters to hit .321 against him and finished the 2011 season in the Huskies’ bullpen.

“I don’t think my confidence was gone,” West said last week, “but I hadn’t pitched in so long that I had to get used to it again.”

Meggs admitted that West “worked so hard to come back so quickly (from the surgery) that he might’ve overdone it.

“… He was trying to be too fine because we weren’t giving him a lot of runs,” Meggs added. “It was discouraging, more than anything.”

By the way things have been going this summer, West is anything but discouraged lately.

“It’s given me a lot more confidence,” he said of his fast start to the summer season. “I just have to keep throwing and working hard. I’m pitching well, and I hope to just keep it going.”