Don’t Look Back : Blue Jays’ Guzman Finally Learned to Control His Fastball, and Now Buries Memories of Failure

The double-A Knoxville Blue Jays lead the Chattanooga Lookouts in the bottom of the eighth inning, 6-3. The Blue Jays have called on a 22-year-old right-hander with a reputation common to young power pitchers: great stuff, terrible control.

The first three he faces reach base--one gets a hit, two walk. With the bases loaded, he hits the next batter. Then he hits the showers.

Knoxville loses, 7-6, and after the game, in the tiny visitors’ clubhouse at Chattanooga’s Engel Stadium, Juan Guzman sits at his locker and cries.

That was on July 9, 1989. It was one of many moments Guzman would rather forget.

“I had a lot of problems in baseball,” he said the other day, his usual smile disappearing. “I just try to keep it out of my mind. What’s in the past, I’ll leave in the past.”

Today, Juan Guzman, of the Toronto Blue Jays, is one of the dominating pitchers in the majors.

He has a fastball that has been clocked at 98 m.p.h. and moves like crazy, Blue Jay catcher Pat Borders says. He throws a slider that looks like a split-finger fastball because he throws it so hard. Top it off with an effective changeup, and Guzman has three “out pitches.”

Since being recalled from the minors on June 4, 1991, Guzman is 22-6. He has a 2.35 earned-run average and 137 strikeouts in his first major league season. He had been leading the American League in both categories, but sat out a start because of a sore right shoulder last week. He returned to the mound Monday night and gave up six runs in 4 1/3 innings in a 7-1 loss to the Boston Red Sox.

Last month, he pitched an inning in the All-Star game in San Diego.

Two years ago, that was beyond anyone’s expectations. Even Guzman’s.

Juan Guzman, 25, was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, where he grew up and played baseball with Dodger pitcher Ramon Martinez.

Guzman and Martinez were discovered in 1984 by Ralph Avila, then a Dodger scout who was selecting players for the Dominican Olympic team. Actually, Avila said, “a kid whom we had working in the clubhouse recommended Guzman for the tryouts.”

Avila liked Martinez, who made the Olympic team, for his head as well as his arm, but he labeled the powerfully built Guzman immediately.

“He had great arm strength but poor knowledge of the game and poor mechanics,” said Avila, now a Dodger vice president.

After the Olympics, the Dodgers signed both players. And in 1985, Guzman began his trek through the minors, where the objective was clear: learn to throw strikes.

Easier said than done.

Guzman spent three seasons in the Dodger farm system. In 283 1/3 innings, he had a 20-16 record and a 4.03 ERA, but he also had 199 walks and 50 wild pitches.

“He just couldn’t control the ball,” said Kevin Kennedy, who managed Guzman in 1987 at Bakersfield.

Some said the problem was his mechanics. Others, including Kennedy, said it was a matter of confidence.

Whatever, the Dodgers apparently considered him too much of a project. Fred Claire, then in his first year as the Dodgers’ executive vice president, was interested in acquiring Mike Sharperson from the Blue Jays in September of 1987.

The Blue Jays asked for Jose Offerman. Claire said no.

The Blue Jays asked for Guzman. Claire said yes.

“We felt (Guzman) was probably several years away,” Claire said. “We recognized the potential was there, but you don’t know what is going to happen. And we felt we were receiving a player that was going to help our organization.”

Kennedy, now a coach with the Montreal Expos, said he wasn’t sure trading Guzman was a good idea.

“Some of us didn’t want to (make that trade), because we thought Guzman would develop,” he said. “I like Mike a lot, but at the time, I didn’t want to make that trade.”

For the next three years, however, the Dodgers looked like they had gotten the better of the deal as Guzman continued to struggle with his control.

From 1988-90, Guzman pitched 310 innings, walking 231 and throwing 40 wild pitches. He spent most of each season at Knoxville.

“He always threw 90-plus, but he just didn’t have the poise and the command,” said John Stearns, who managed Guzman in 1990. “He used to stand on the mound and hold the ball. He would think too much.”

Mel Queen, who was the Blue Jays’ roving pitching instructor, said it was simply mechanical, that Guzman was inconsistent with his release point.

There was no question, however, about Guzman’s work habits or desire. In Knoxville, it was typical to see Guzman running the stadium steps in the middle of the afternoon, despite the oppressive east Tennessee heat and humidity.

“You get some pitchers that you have to just stay on them all the time about doing their running and doing this and that,” Queen said. “Juan wasn’t like that at all.”

He worked on his mechanics, too, Queen said, practicing his delivery in the outfield during batting practice.

Said Stearns, now an analyst for ESPN: “In the beginning, I didn’t know how coachable he was. Looking back, he was a kid who listened and worked on things. Looking at him now, I can see that he was on a mission to get out of double A.”

But his numbers--11-9, 4.24 ERA, 21 wild pitches in Knoxville in 1990--were still mediocre. At the end of the season, the Blue Jays left him off their 40-man roster. Any team could have taken him in the Rule V draft for $50,000.

“There are guys every year who are left unprotected who are prospects,” Queen said. “But you can only protect so many individuals. At times, you play a little Russian roulette.”

Claire, who said he doesn’t regret trading Guzman, acknowledged he does regret that the Dodgers didn’t take him back in the Rule V draft.

Guzman didn’t consider being unprotected as a snub. In fact, he expected it.

“I didn’t do a good job (in 1990),” he said. “I wasn’t ready to pitch in the big leagues.”

He spent the off-season between 1990 and 1991 as he had every other--pitching in the Dominican Winter League. But it was different this time.

He finally found the plate. More important, he found himself.

Pitching for Licey, in his hometown, Santo Domingo, he was 7-1 with a 1.69 ERA.

“It was like a different Juan Guzman,” Queen said. “He was full of confidence. He had good control. He just knew he was going to win.”

Said Guzman: “I was ready for the big leagues then.”

Suddenly, after six years’ worth of minor league coaches who could do nothing with him, Guzman was throwing strikes.

“I did it by myself,” said Guzman, clearly brimming with the confidence he lacked for so long. “It’s not that (the coaches) didn’t help me, but everyone was giving me different ideas of how to throw.

“I decided I had to go out and do it on my own.”

Guzman started 1991 at triple-A Syracuse, where he was 4-5 with a 4.03 ERA after two months. When Dave Stieb was put on the disabled list because of a herniated disk, Queen was asked which pitcher was ready to be called up.

In his opinion, there was only one.

“My mind went back to what I had seen in winter ball,” Queen said.

After two rough starts in the majors, Guzman stopped aiming for the corners and started to throw his fastball over the middle of the plate. He was 10-1 the remainder of the season.

Guzman was the only Blue Jay to win a game in the American League championship series against the Minnesota Twins. With a 12-3 record this season, he has been the most effective starter for the team that leads the East Division. He has walked 54 in 141 2/3 innings.

But Guzman won’t tell you he knew it all along. He’s not so bold as to say that he could envision this on days such as July 9, 1989, when he was merely another hard-throwing, wild minor leaguer with potential, but little else.

“Everything goes through your mind,” he said. “I thought maybe I’d make it, but maybe I wouldn’t.”