Quick Relief : Percival’s Easy to Figure Out, but Hitters Still Have Problems With Him

He’s crouched low, like the catcher he once was, behind the mound, facing center field. What’s he doing? What’s he thinking? When at last he stands and turns to face home plate, he squints at the hitters as if he can’t see them. Truth is, he can’t--at least not very well.

This is always a batter’s first look at Angel relief pitcher Troy Percival. Before the hitter knows it, a 95 mph fastball has blazed by for strike one.

Every hard-throwing pitcher needs a routine, a shtick. Percival seems to have taken a little from each of four masters.

Lee Smith walks so slowly from the bullpen it seems the next batter will be lulled to sleep waiting for him.

Ryne Duren, who wore thick eyeglasses, used to throw his first warmup pitch to the backstop.

Goose Gossage threw so hard it seemed his right arm might come unhinged and plunk the batter right in the noggin.

Mitch Williams stalked to the mound as if he were ready for a fight, slamming the ball into his glove before looking to the catcher for a sign.

Like Smith, Percival moves at his own pace. Like Duren, his poor eyesight intimidates hitters. Like Gossage, his velocity can be frightening. Like Williams, he can be cocky.

It’s no act. Percival, converted from catcher to pitcher at Class A Boise, Idaho, in 1990, figures there should be no secrets. Batters should know by now he’s going to perform his ritual behind the mound, then start throwing fastballs.

Simple. Effective.

“I’ll break out the curveball once in a while, but at some point I’m going to show them the gas,” Percival said.

“I think by actually only having one pitch, it makes it more difficult for me. I’ve got to be fairly accurate. There are times when I let it loose just to let it loose. There’s such a thing as effective wildness.”

Effective wildness is ‘90s baseballspeak for intimidation.

Consider the batter’s plight. His team trails. It’s late in the game. Maybe there’s a runner on base. Maybe not. Percival enters the game. The hitter knows Percival will be firing bullets right from the start. If the hitter thinks one might be aimed at his head--intentionally or not--that’s all the better. Percival has won the battle without yet throwing a pitch.

“They have to know,” Percival said. “It just comes with the territory. [Batters] don’t care if they hit a line drive off my forehead. It [the possibility of beaning someone] doesn’t faze me.”

Hard-throwing, fearless. In his rookie season, Percival was 3-2 with a team-low 1.95 earned-run average and three saves in 74 innings over 62 games as Smith’s set-up man.

No one, Manager Marcel Lachemann and General Manager Bill Bavasi included, expects Percival to improve on those numbers.

Bavasi is succinct when asked if it’s possible for Percival to better his rookie season.

“No, he can’t,” Bavasi said. “If he maintains that kind of stuff, we’ll just graduate him to the closer’s role.”

It looked for a while this winter as if it would happen by opening day. Smith, the majors’ all-time saves leader with 471, underwent surgery to repair a tendon in his right knee after a November hunting accident.

Smith recovered faster than originally thought, and late in spring training it seemed he might be fit and ready to pitch by opening day. If not, Percival would be ready to step in as the closer.

“Role-wise it doesn’t matter to me,” Percival said. “I know we’re a better team with [Smith] than without him. I know I can close. I’m not worried about that.”

What’s important to Percival is retiring batters and continuing to learn as much as possible from Smith. Last season, Percival tagged along with Smith, watching how he did everything from tie his shoelaces to handle a ninth-inning loss.

It never bothered Smith, who calls Percival the best set-up man he has ever had. Smith said he did the same when he was young and eager to learn the ropes. Percival plans to do it again this year.

“I still learn from him,” Percival said. “I like to watch other power pitchers, too. I’d rather learn it now than wait 15 years.”

Through good times and bad last season, Percival tried to remain consistent above all else. If he was brilliant one night, he tried not to relive the experience later. If he was terrible the next, he forgot that game too. Tomorrow was another day, another game.

This was the most important lesson he learned from Smith.

“I was locked in a zone,” he said. “I zoned every time. I felt comfortable. There were times when I didn’t feel good, when my arm didn’t feel good. I was always able to throw strikes.”

The statistics told the story. Percival had 94 strikeouts and only 26 walks last season.

“He’s blessed with a good arm, but I’m really impressed with his command and his control,” Bavasi said.

Percival has adopted a new goal for ’96.

“I want to try not to strike out everybody,” he said. “I’ll try to get quicker outs.”

So now Percival wants to be known as a ground-ball, fly-out pitcher? He figures it’s just one more way to keep the hitters off balance and off base.