August 20, 200520 yr Notes: Leiter's impact felt "MIAMI -- Even though Al Leiter is no longer a Marlin, the veteran left-hander's influence has rubbed off on Josh Beckett. With a 12-6 record and 3.15 ERA, Beckett is performing at the high level expected of him since he was the second overall pick in 1999. Now 25, the hard-throwing Texan is showing the dominance that he displayed when he became the World Series MVP in 2003. On Thursday night, he tossed seven shutout innings and delivered an RBI single to open the scoring in a 2-0 win over the Padres. Since the All-Star break, Beckett is 4-0 with a 2.66 ERA in six starts. He was in line to win all six of those games, exiting with the Marlins ahead in the late innings only to settle for a pair of no-decisions. In his last two starts, both wins, Beckett has battled out of some late-inning jams. Certainly, having a 97-mph fastball as a secret weapon is helpful. But he's spotting it better, changing speeds, and working in his breaking pitches and changeup. When he has command of three pitches, he is especially difficult to hit. "Myself, A.J. [burnett], all the young guys who have been here, we've never had the luxury of having [veteran pitching advice] until we had Al this year," Beckett said. "That's kind of where he was good for us. We got to learn a few things that he's learned from other guys. All of us have kind of been, 'Here's the ball, go learn in the big leagues.' None of us were in the Minor Leagues very long, and there is certain stuff you can't learn there anyway." While Leiter struggled on the mound, he talked regularly about "executing quality pitches." That advice has sunk in with Beckett, despite the fact Leiter is now pitching for the Yankees. "There are things you can learn, just from being here," Beckett said. "I don't think you can learn them anywhere else. You learn not to give in. You learn situations. All you can do is focus on executing a pitch. You say, 'If I execute this pitch, everything else is out of my control.' That's all you do is focus on executing a pitch. That's how I feel in those situations. I'm thinking, 'I'm going to execute this pitch, and it's not going to be his pitch. It's going to be my pitch.'" Beckett points out that philosophy is shared by Mets veteran Tom Glavine, a former teammate of Leiter. Much is made about the Marlins relying on their three young starting aces, Beckett, Burnett and Dontrelle Willis. None of the three have had extensive grooming at the Minor League levels. Of the three, Beckett has the shortest amount of Minor League work. He tossed 199 1/3 innings in the Minors before being called up in September 2001. Burnett had 386 2/3 innings of development before appearing in seven games for the Marlins in 1999. And Willis jumped to the big leagues with 315 2/3 innings of Minor League development. By comparison, Leiter's Minor League numbers were 26-46 in 692 innings. What Beckett has learned is fastball velocity alone won't get hitters out. "I'm not throwing it right down the middle," Beckett said of his fastball. "These guys can hit it, no matter how hard it is, right down the middle. Now, it's going to be that far [a few inches] off the plate. If he swings at it, he ain't going to hit it hard. It's just something I've learned. I'm going to help as many people as I can. I had to learn the hard way. I had to be a .500 pitcher to all you guys [in the media] for three years. I'm not saying I've got it all figured out. Every day you learn something new. I'll help guys like [rookie Jason] Vargas so they don't have to go through all the [stuff] in the paper." Manager Jack McKeon sees the importance of allowing pitchers to get out of their own messes. "I think we've been letting these guys battle out of some jams instead of taking them out every time they got in a tough situation," McKeon said. "They are not going to learn anything that way [coming out early]. Sure, you are going to get burned every once in a while." Maybe signing AL was worth it if he helped our young pitchers...
August 20, 200520 yr By comparison, Leiter's Minor League numbers were 26-46 in 692 innings. What? Did they get that right? That's awful...how'd he get called up?
August 20, 200520 yr He'll have a lot to offer as a pitching coach. 908472[/snapback] He'll go right to the broadcasting booth. Coaching isn't in Al's immediate future
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