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| Q and A with Dave McKae |
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2/5/2008
Pitcher Shares Thoughts on the Season and Writing a Book
Dave McKae posted a 5-1 record and
1.93 ERA in 11 starts with San Jose last
season before a promotion to Double-A
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In this edition of Giants Q and A, pitcher Dave McKae chatted with radio voice Joe Ritzo. Dave began last season with San Jose before a midseason promotion to Double-A Connecticut. The Bay Area native talked about the adjustment to the higher level, signing with San Francisco out of college, his offseason training schedule, and co-writing the book “In Pursuit of Pitching Perfection.”
Joe Ritzo: What was the biggest difference that you saw in the hitters going from Single-A to Double-A? Many people believe it’s the hardest jump to make in the minor leagues.
Dave McKae: It’s a big jump. I’d say there were fewer swings-and-misses. Particularly once you got ahead with two strikes, they were able to shorten up their swings and find a way to put the ball in play. Two strikes, the hitters were better.
JR: Were there any adjustments you had to make to your game after reaching Double-A?
DM: Nothing out of the ordinary. You still have to execute quality pitches in certain counts and know what you’re trying to do with each pitch. When I was getting ahead, I would often bounce a pitch in San Jose. But if I did that in Double-A, a lot of times the guys would just watch it. They wouldn’t chase the pitches that were clearly balls. You couldn’t just bounce your curve ball on the plate – you had to make it at a little more of a borderline strike.
JR: What do you feel is your most effective pitch?
DM: Definitely my cut-fastball is a great tool. I’m working on a two-seam, so I’ll have two pitches that run into righties and two that go away. I think having that fourth pitch will help a lot. I really started to develop it during the last month of the season in Connecticut. I knew we didn’t have a chance at the playoffs at that point. If there was ever a time to work on a pitch, it was then.
JR: Is there a pitcher at the major league level that you compare yourself to or even idolize?
DM: I definitely idolize Greg Maddux for his ability to dominate in the majors given his stuff. It’s been awhile since he’s thrown consistently at 90 M.P.H. He’s gotten away with mid-80’s for a lot of years and he’s still very successful. I like his mental approach to pitching – being aggressive and going after hitters. He can really paint on the corners. That’s what impresses me the most. As far as what pitcher compares to me, there was an A’s pitcher from Cal State Fullerton, Kirk Saarloos. The Fullerton coach said I compared to him when we faced them. He wasn’t a super-hard thrower. Threw upper 80’s. Had a similar cutting action on the fastball and had to rely on location just like I do.
JR: You signed with the Giants in 2005 before the draft as a fifth-year college senior. Describe that process. Why did you sign with the Giants?
DM: I had never received any attention from scouts until my fifth-year senior year at UC Davis. I had basically no leverage and no bargaining power to sign with teams if I was drafted. However, there’s a special rule for fifth-year seniors. I’m not sure why this works out the way that it does, but it allows fifth-year seniors to have a 24-hour window prior to the draft when they’re considered free agents and they can sign with any team. You enter into sort of a bidding war with all of these teams. You’re constantly on the phone. You might receive an offer and tell them, “thank you, I’ll call you back later.” Then you’ll talk to the next team. You never really tell anyone where you’re at as the day goes along. At some point, teams start to fall out. They start getting angry that you’re not going to commit to them. Little by little, they weed themselves out until you’re left with the top two or three teams. In my case, that was the Giants, the Red Sox, and the Padres. It came down to about 6:00 at night. I finally said, “You know what, I want to go with the Bay Area team. The Giants are my team. I’m willing to do it. I don’t care what the other teams have to offer.” So I called Matt Nerland. We met at McCovey’s Restaurant in Walnut Creek and I signed. It was a really exciting day.
JR: During that process, did you ever consider turning every team down and taking your chances with the draft?
DM: I was pretty sure because I had zero bargaining power. It was nice to be able to choose which organization to sign with. I had talked with other players who were professionals at the time. I got an idea of which organizations they liked. I heard some great things about the Giants through former San Jose Giant pitcher Greg Bruso, who also was from UC Davis. I knew I was going with a good team.
JR: You recently co-wrote the book “In Pursuit of Pitching Perfection” with Nick Pereira, another former San Jose Giant and a teammate of yours in Connecticut last summer. How did you come up with the idea to write the book?
DM: We were riding buses in Salem our first year and we had a lot of time on these trips. We first wanted to come up with a pitching training product of some kind. But then we found out the liability costs would be too great for us at the time. So we figured a training manual was something we could definitely do. Last year, I came home one night and said, “I’m going to start this.” All it took was a little initiation and once I got it going, made an outline, and assigned chapters to Nick and myself … before long we had all of the text written. We just needed the photos. Lulu.com was our publisher and they made it really easy to get that going. We also had some help with the photography from my fiance's father and we had help on the artwork for the cover from my fiance's aunt back in Chicago. It was a family and friends effort to help put it all together. It was a fun experience and I’ve had a chance to meet some pretty interesting people through it all.
JR: What is the goal of the book? What are you trying to teach young ballplayers who want to become pitchers or become better pitchers?
DM: That’s exactly what it is. We want to help the younger pitchers. We feel we had some really quality instruction since we’ve been young. I started getting pitching lessons from former Giants players like Fred Breining when I was about 10 years old all the way up to meeting Tom House when I was in San Diego. I also had some great instruction while I was at UC Davis from the pitching coach, Matt Vaughn. And Nick as well. His story just shows that with a little instruction, hard work, and dedication, you can go a long way. He was really a shortstop in junior college and then his coach realized he had a pretty strong arm and so he started pitching a little bit during his second year. Then he ends up getting a scholarship to the University of San Francisco and signed in the tenth round after his senior year. Now he’s already made it up to Triple-A Fresno. He’s a hard worker. I think that’s why we decided to do this together. We both feel like our preparation is similar. We hope to give back to the kids. We feel like we’ve benefited greatly from this instruction. I kept a journal as I’ve gone along. It’s easy to forget some of the techniques. You hear different things all of the time from different coaches. The key is to try different things and see what works best for you. Not everyone is going to be the same.
JR: And I understand you got an endorsement from Lee Smith after he read the book.
DM: Yeah, Lee Smith and Bob Stanley. That was very nice of them. They said some great things about our book.
JR: Where can people purchase your book?
DM: It’s online at www.pitchingperfection.com. They can use Pay Pal, so your credit card information isn’t exposed. It’s also available at the Giants Dugout Stores and some of the minor league stores in San Jose. And this coming Saturday, I’ll be at Giants FanFest at At&T Park from 10 A.M. until 3 P.M..
JR: Moving on, what is your offseason training schedule? Do you throw a lot or is there a time period when you don’t pick up a baseball?
DM: I learned from my first year. I had never really taken much time off from throwing before. But I understood after my first year that we were supposed to take about two months off entirely. That was the greatest mistake I could have ever made. So I maintain my flexibility and range of motion by staying active somehow. You decrease the repetitions or how much weight you’re doing. If you’re throwing, you don’t try to throw 100% - you work on mechanics and maybe just throw 70%. You want to keep it going during the offseason. Last year, I did some swimming. This year, I just continued to throw lightly. My arm feels great. I’ve been doing some conditioning out at AT&T Park with some other guys – Jesse Foppert is out there, Tyler Walker, Erick Threets. Between the four of us, we usually throw off the mound a couple days a week. We have catchers out there. We didn’t really pitch until January. It was a gradual process. Everyone working out there is healthy right now.
JR: What else have you been up to this offseason?
DM: Well, I got engaged. That’s big. A lot of my time has been preparation for that. I’ve been spending a lot of quality time with my family and my fiance's family. Other than that, I’m doing a lot of baseball instruction in Danville with a former Giant, Erik Johnson. He was a second baseman. Spent parts of two seasons in the majors. He coaches some teams out in Danville and I’m an assistant. I’m also doing some private lessons out there.
JR: All right, thank you very much for your time, Dave.
DM: Thank you.
Giants Q and A Archive
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