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| SFDugout.com: Prospect Interview with Dave McKae |
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5/4/2007
 This week, SFDugout.com talks with Dave McKae, one of the starting pitchers who have helped lead the San Jose Giants to an early lead in the California League. McKae, a Bay Area native from Danville and who pitched for UC Davis, was named the California League Pitcher of the Week for the week ending on April 22nd. Through the games on May 2nd, McKae has a 2.08 ERA and a 2-1 record on the year. Here is an excerpt from that chat.
SFDugout.com: So Dave, tell us how it felt to win the California Pitcher of the Week award last week.
Dave McKae: It was a great honor. I just came in here this season trying to prove myself at each level. I think I’m gonna have to do that every step of the way. I’m just trying to play as well as I can and let everything happen.
SFD: You’re one of the older pitchers on the team, and one of the older pitchers in the league. What sort of advantages do you think that gives you, if any, pitching in the league?
McKae: Well I definitely had some quality instructors in the past, one of them being Matt Vaughn at UC Davis. I think I really learned a lot about how to be a successful pitcher from him, and I was fortunate to have been at UC Davis for five years to absorb all that information. I red-shirted my freshman year there, and played four before being signed by the Giants. So yeah, I think the experience definitely helps, especially when you don’t have a rocket arm.
SFD: Why don’t we talk about Davis for a bit. You were there while they were transitioning from Division-II to Division-I. What was it like to be there for that sort of a transition?
McKae: Well, we definitely felt like we were ready to make that move. The year before we made the transition, we set a number of school records like the consecutive winning streak, and we were pretty dominant in the CCAA, which is that Division-II league we were in. The first year in D-I we wanted to prove we belonged in that league, and our goal was to go above .500 that year, and we just missed that mark in the last weekend. We had a shot to do it, but we faced some pretty good talent: Long Beach State, (Cal State) Fullerton, (UC) Irvine, (UC) Riverside, Cal Poly. And among those teams you had some top draft picks that year: Troy Tulowitzki, who’s already in the show, Cesar Ramos, Brian Anderson, who’s with us obviously, Ricky Romero. Just a long list of guys that are pretty good athletes.
SFD: After Davis, you signed as a fifth-year senior. There was a report that there were at least 10 teams after you, and that you were acting as your own agent in negotiations. Why the Giants?
McKae: Well Greg Bruso played at UC Davis, and he signed with the Giants in ’02. He was a pitcher who throws similar to my style. We are both command pitchers, we don’t have a lot of velocity, but we’re still able to get outs. They gave him a really legit chance here, and that’s what I was looking for: A team that was showing a lot of interest, and who was going to give me a chance to compete for a spot in the majors leagues. He made it up to Double-A before he had some arm problems, and they ended up trading him straight up for Eric Young, Jr. Yeah, I was just looking for a team that would give me a chance to make it to the major leagues. And it was also the team that I grew up rooting for in the Bay Area. It kind of all came together, the whole package.
SFD: Over the offseason, you wrote a book with Nick Pereira. Why don’t you tell us a little bit about what the book is, and what you put into it?
McKae: Well back in 2005 when Nick and I signed, we had a lot of time to talk on these bus rides. So we were trying to come up with ideas of what we could do in the offseason, and one of the things we thought of was to write a book. So we finally had the time this last offseason. I was doing some pitching instruction out in Danville, and just found that there was a strong need for a book that younger kids could understand that explained pitching mechanics and training methods used by professional athletes or professional pitchers. So I just started writing things down while I was commuting to San Francisco for workouts, and I assigned a couple of chapters to Nick to write, and combined it all together. I had a photographer come out, who just happens to be my girlfriend’s dad. I definitely have had a lot of help from friends and family to put this together and make it happen. Lulu.com was the publisher, and just made it real easy for me to write the book, and just upload it in a PDF file online, and there we had it. It’s available now. We purchased a domain, pitchingperfection.com, so you type that it, it will forward you right to the Lulu (Web) site. There’s an option to buy it right on the page; it’s $14.95. So far it’s done real well, so far we have close to 700 copies in circulation.
SFDugout.com subscribers can read McKae’s interview in full at SFDugout.com.
Purchase "In Pursuit of Pitching Perfection"
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