SEATTLE – A dozen starts separate Gil Meche from perhaps the end of his days with the Seattle Mariners and what’s sure to be a multi-million-dollar free-agent contract.
With all of that hanging in front of the 27-year-old right-hander, he goes into Monday’s start at Baltimore with one thing in mind.
“Why did I throw that first-pitch changeup to Catalanotto?”
That, as much anything, may represent the growth of Meche into a pitcher and not just a hard thrower with a nice curveball. At this point in his career, he recognizes that one poorly selected pitch will have as much impact on a game as the urge to alter his mechanics after a poor start.
The changeup to Frank Catalanotto, who hammered it for a third-inning RBI double that launched the Blue Jays to a 12-3 victory, was a lesson that Meche fully understands now, when years ago he might not have.
“Every game I pitch, good or bad, there’s always a situation where I think, ‘Why did I throw that pitch?’ ” Meche said. “Catalanotto comes up with a guy on second base, and the last pitch I probably would have thought of throwing was a changeup because I wanted to get ahead of him. He’s looking for something to put into play. I throw the changeup and bang, base hit up the middle.”
A man with a 96 mph fastball and a 12-to-6 curve doesn’t try to get ahead in the count with a hittable 85 mph changeup, even if that’s what the catcher calls. Meche understands that to become one of the upper-echelon pitchers in baseball, he can’t make that mistake.
“Why not juice a fastball down and away or flip a big curveball for strike one when guys don’t swing at that pitch?” Meche asked himself. “Once I really take a step forward in my career, it’s going to be in that situation where I throw the pitch I’m thinking about throwing and not so much talking myself into it. I still hate the part of my game where I can’t commit to one pitch and throw it no matter what the catcher calls.
“When I do that, then I can say I’m a complete pitcher.”
Meche admittedly isn’t there yet. But he’s pitching with more confidence now than any other time in his six major league seasons. He’s 9-5 with a 4.19 earned run average and feeling more enthused now than 2003 when he won a career-best 15 games.
That’s because 2003 was Meche’s first full season after shoulder surgery and he spent much of that year wondering when the falloff would happen after he’d gone 10-5 in the first half. It happened in the second half, when he was 5-8.
“Even halfway through the 2003 season I was having doubts,” he said. “I was wondering, ‘When is this thing going to end?’ I hadn’t pitched in a long time in the big leagues and I knew guys were going to start seeing me more and figuring things out.
“But now it’s different, not so much because of better stuff, although my curveball and slider are better. Maturity has a lot to do with it. I’m feeling more comfortable in the big leagues, I know the hitters, I know how to pitch and not just throw. If I’d had a bad start before, my head would be filled with all sorts of things. On the way home I’d be trying to figure out what kind of new delivery I should try. I’d be trying all sorts of new things.”
This isn’t the same Gil Meche. Oh, he’s still the guy with such a strong right arm that scouts and teams around the majors still would love to have.
Meche says he now has a sense of how to corral his natural-born ability with a thought process that he needs to become a complete pitcher.
“I always knew I had good stuff, but I’m at a point now to where I’m trying to focus on the mental side,” he said. “It’s understanding pitch sequence, pitch location and the situation of pitching. That’s when you become a pitcher.”
Meche has pitched more than 126 innings and, with a dozen starts remaining, could reach 200 innings for the first time in his career. It’s an important mark.
“Every starter wants to do that because that kind of sets you apart from the guys who pitch 180 innings and are considered fifth starters,” he said. “Being consistent will get you 200 innings. Not walking guys will get you 200 innings. If I had to set a goal for the end of the year, it’s to throw 200 innings. If you accomplish that, it means you’re on the mound, that you’re in games and you’re going to get wins.”
And beyond that, Meche says he finally will think about next year.
He swears it’s not on his mind now, despite the certainty of a big contract and the possibility he won’t pitch anymore for the Mariners, who drafted him in the first round in 1996.
“God honest truth, I haven’t thought about it,” Meche said. “It’s something that’s going to happen but something I don’t want to think about. It’s a weird situation because most people can’t wait for it.
“But it’s something I can’t control now, so why worry about it? I’m here to win with this team. We’re in this race and everybody here thinks we’re capable of catching fire. Until the last day of the season comes and I actually go home, that’s when I’ll think things like, ‘I don’t know what’s going to happen. I don’t know if I’ll be back in Seattle or where I’ll be.’”
Mariners left-hander Jarrod Washburn, who signed a $38-million free-agent contract with the Mariners last winter, told Meche to enjoy the next offseason, let the free-agent process work itself out and not worry about it.
Meche had done enough of that, anyway, with the trade rumors that followed him much of his career.
“Going into this year, I was thinking that I was going to get traded,” he said. “I’d seen my name out there and going into spring training, I thought it definitely would happen. That was definitely on my mind.
“But as far as money, and contract years and what team I’ll be playing for next, I don’t think about it.”
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