PEORIA, Ariz. — They met for only a few minutes in the Seattle Mariners’ clubhouse Sunday morning. The outcome could have as much impact for pitcher Carlos Silva as his 30-pound weight loss this offseason.
Former Mariners reliever Jeff Nelson, now a radio analyst, was in the clubhouse and Silva approached him with a baseball in his hand.
He asked Nelson to demonstrate the grip he used when he threw a slider. It’s a pitch Silva would like to improve this year, and Nelson gladly showed him.
“This is the perfect place for a guy to ask something like that,” Nelson said. “But not that many guys do it. A lot of them are too proud to be asking something like that.”
After the year Silva had — a 4-15 record and a 6.56 earned run average — no question is a bad question. Nelson made a living with his slider in a 14-year career.
“I showed him the grip and told him how you need to feel the pressure off your middle finger,” he said.
Silva, primarily a sinkerball pitcher, would like to throw a better slider to keep right-handers honest. He struggled on the inner half of the strike zone last year, often when umpires wouldn’t call borderline pitches.
“There were times when the umpires weren’t giving him the inside corner,” Nelson said. “He’s a control pitcher, so when he couldn’t get the call or guys weren’t swinging, he had to come over the middle of the plate.”
A better slider, Nelson says, might give Silva a pitch that induces more swings and alter right-handed hitters’ tendency last year to lay off anything off the plate and wait for a fastball they could hit.
It’s a pitch that defined Nelson’s career after he’d sought advice from former stars.
Not long after the Mariners drafted Nelson in 1986, he said the late Pat Dobson showed him how a grip on the slider worked. He later dropped his arm angle and became one of baseball’s best setup relievers.
“I had been a fastball pitcher, but Pat showed me the slider and said, ‘Stick with this,’” Nelson said.
Nelson did, and that pitch helped him produce a 3.41 career ERA and earn four World Series rings with the Yankees.
The Mariners would love to see that kind of success with Silva.
No number needed
Manager Don Wakamatsu’s insistence that every player and coach wear their numbered jerseys got its first test Sunday.
Interestingly, the player in question was Ken Griffey Jr., who wore a team-issued blue sweatshirt. He was the only player or coach without a number.
“I might have to get some tape and put a No. 24 the back of it,” Wakamatsu joked.
Of note
First baseman Russell Branyan took batting practice for the first time since Thursday after dealing with back stiffness. … Pitcher Tyler Walker was on the field but limited after feeling tightness in his right quad Friday during a defensive drill. … Wakamatsu spoke with catcher Jeff Clement about having him field ground balls at first base during spring training. “I told him I probably wouldn’t put him in a game over there during the spring, but let’s see how the workouts go and if it’s something he can do, it gives us another viable option,” Wakamatsu said. … Wakamatsu held one of his get-to-know-you meetings after practice with Adrian Beltre, Jose Lopez, Endy Chavez and Yuniesky Betancourt. Among the topics was the World Baseball Classic, which all but Betancourt is likely to play in.
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