Brian Kamenetzky: Being Chad Billingsley

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On a metaphorical level, managers are certainly like puppeteers. That said, I can vouch for the perfectly normal level of the ceiling in Joe Torre’s small office, and so far as I know there’s no portal into Chad Billingsley’s brain hidden behind a file cabinet. (Interestingly enough, there is one leading to one-time Dodgers utility man Jeff Reboulet. Who knew?) That hasn’t stopped most of Los Angeles from trying to get into the head of their suffering starter. Billingsley, an All Star earlier in the summer who save for a few good starts in August has generally vacillated between un-acey and just plain bad over the second half, was again ineffective Sunday afternoon in San Francisco. Eight hits, three runs, 71 pitches, four innings. We’re at a point now where some suggest, not without wisdom, that it would be best to let Billingsley skip a start just to get some rest and clear the dome of negative thoughts.

Before Monday’s game against the Pirates, Torre was noncommittal on the subject, saying that the Dodgers ‘need to get him back out there,’ but stopping short of revealing when they actually would. With two days off over the next week, Torre noted only that his rotation is set through the remaining pair of games against Pittsburgh. ‘Physically he’s fine,’ he said of Billingsley, ‘which is the good news. It’s just a matter of getting that good feeling back. He knows everything he needs to do, it’s just a matter of going out there and being committed to it and trusting the fact it’s going to get where he’s trying to go.’

Unfortunately for the Dodgers, right now that feels a little like hopping on the 5 Freeway and trusting it’ll get you where you want to go without hitting traffic.

Billingsley’s problems, and I say this as a major supporter of his work (save the last few weeks of it at least), seem to have centered less on his mechanics and more his mind. That’s the popular narrative, at least, for this season and his career generally. Some of the concerns are overrated, the result of too many assumptions made and labels attached in the wake of last year’s NLCS, when the Dodgers lost to Philadelphia and the eventual World Series champs lighted up Billingsley like a Cohiba.

But just because it’s overwrought doesn’t mean there isn’t a strong element of truth.

With that in mind, I tossed a few questions concerning Bills at Torre before Monday’s game. If Torre’s comments are accurate, the issue could be as simple (and as hard) as allowing Billingsley to believe he’s the first half edition of himself rather than the one currently on display.

Q: The knock on Billingsley, at least from what is commonly written in the media, is that the mental end of things--that he’s too sensitive to failure, that he has trouble bouncing back when things look like they might get away--is where he struggles. Do you see some of that from him?

Torre: Unfortunately when you do it on the big stage it never goes away, until something else happens on the big stage that makes you forget that. It happens in all sports, I think. Somebody does something, and it’s ‘Ah, that’s the reason he can’t win the big one.’ I’m not saying you shouldn’t report it, but that’s the way we look at it. This kid’s not afraid of anything. That I can tell you right now. He’s certainly not looking for a reason not to pitch. He wants to go out there and do well. Yesterday, he went out there and was aggressive, but his aggressiveness was so apparent that he was missing his location. So he sort of overdoes, rather than tries to find that fine line in between.

Q: Can it be hard to pull back?

Torre: Yeah, it is. Especially in a pitcher’s case. A hitter goes out there everyday, and can make subtle adjustments as you go from at bat to at bat. A pitcher goes out there, and now you wait five or six days until you go out there again. Unfortunately, you’ve got to think during that time. If you could just put your head in a box somewhere and you won’t over-complicate it for yourself it would probably be easier. There’s really no--that I have found anyway, somebody might have an answer for this--but I don’t think there’s one particular thing that is going to solve the problem. It’s all about going out there and being able to go through it.

Q: And I would think an awareness of what his place in the rotation is supposed to be doesn’t make it easier.

Torre: I don’t even think that’s in there, to be honest with you. We’re at a point in the season now where when we hand him the ball he wants to do his job. Say for argument’s sake that we go out there and say he’s not going to pitch in the postseason (to be VERY clear, Torre didn’t say anything of the sort), that’s not even important. Right now, he just wants to get his stuff straightened out so when his team needs him that he’ll be there. I don’t think it’s a status thing at any point, or that he’s counted on for this, that, and the other. He just wants to pick up his end of the load. That’s the personality he has, which is good. You wouldn’t want anything other than that.

I agree with Torre when he says Billingsley isn’t scared, and the Cubs would debate those who contend he can’t pitch in pressure situations. Fear isn’t the vibe he projects. But I’d also agree that Billingsley tends to over-think and press. Does that make skipping his next scheduled start smart? Only if he takes it as an opportunity to decompress. Otherwise, he’s just thinking about bad stuff for 10 days instead of five. If the Dodgers do go that route, Billingsley would be wise to do a little channeling of Derek Lowe. L.A.’s former quasi-ace may have been a little flaky, but was outstanding at the business of keeping past performance, good or bad, out of his head in between starts. On game day, where most pitchers are stoic and silent, slapping on giant noise-reducing headphones and staying away from the media, Lowe would gab away. Whatever kept him comfortable and loose.

Call him the anti-Chad.

Clearly there’s some armchair psychology at work in the analysis and no question Billingsley’s temperament isn’t suited to a full-on Loweian approach to pitching, but there are still likely lessons there. It could be something as simple as saying ‘screw it,’ and just throwing. Again, easier said than done. Maybe he could look behind some stuff at his place to see if there’s a portal to Atlanta, and D-Lowe’s head? Just to poke around a little?

He doesn’t have to stay.

-- Brian Kamenetzky