Angels opening day starter Jered Weaver grows into ace role

Success seemed to come easily for Jered Weaver in 2006, when he went 9-0 to start his big-league career, finished with an 11-2 record and 2.56 earned run average and held opponents to a meager .209 batting average.

So when then-teammate John Lackey began harping on him to increase the intensity of his workouts between starts, Weaver all but ignored him.

Who needs direction from a more experienced pitcher when you’re rolling through the American League as if it were the Big West Conference?

“I was probably just thick-headed, young and dumb,” Weaver, now 28, said of his early years. “You come in, you have success, and you think you’re on top of the world.”

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The world knocked Weaver off that pedestal. Slowed by a shoulder injury in 2007, the right-hander went 13-7 with a 3.91 ERA, opponents hitting a robust .280. He slipped again to 11-10 with a 4.33 ERA in 2008.

At that point, the former Long Beach State star figured it was time to tune in to the big Texan. Though he is a lean-and-lanky 6-foot-6 and 210 pounds, Weaver fit nicely under Lackey’s wing.

“My first couple years, he was all over me, trying to get me in the weight room,” Weaver said. “I’d do it here and there, but I wasn’t consistent with it. John was the big guy in the clubhouse. I finally started listening to him.”

“The day you start, I’ve come to realize, is the easiest day. The hardest days are in between starts.”

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Improved work ethic — combined with the refinement of his off-speed pitches, overall command and deception, and knowledge of hitters — has helped Weaver develop into one of baseball’s best pitchers entering the 2011 season.

After going 16-8 with a 3.75 ERA and 174 strikeouts in 2009, Weaver went 13-12 with a 3.01 ERA and a major league-leading 233 strikeouts in 2010, his record sagging because the Angels scored two runs or fewer in 12 of his 34 starts.

“He’s evolved into a lead-dog-of-the-rotation type of guy,” Manager Mike Scioscia said. “He’s not intimidated by any situation. He understands his stuff better as he’s gotten older.”

That Weaver is an ace is not surprising. He was the 12th overall pick of the 2004 draft and signed for $4 million, the largest bonus ever awarded by the Angels.

That he led the big leagues in strikeouts last season was a bit of a shocker.

Weaver’s fastball sits in the 91-mph range and tops out at about 93 mph, hardly overpowering. His curve and slider are very good but not nasty. His changeup is excellent, but no one compares it to Trevor Hoffman’s.

“In college, it seemed every time he picked up a ball he’d strike out the first nine guys, so you knew the punch-out was part of his game,” Angels pitching coach Mike Butcher said. “But to be honest, I never thought he’d lead the major leagues in strikeouts.”

Weaver threw harder at Long Beach, his fastball hitting 96 mph, electric stuff that helped him whiff the first 10 batters of games twice in his junior season, against USC and Brigham Young.

“That was amazing, phenomenal,” recalled Long Beach State Coach Troy Buckley, the 49ers’ pitching coach in 2004. “I should have framed those scorecards.”

The K rations weren’t as plentiful in the big leagues. Weaver struck out 105 in 123 innings as a rookie for a decent average of 7.68 per nine innings, but he didn’t have much of a put-away pitch in 2007-08.

He’d often get to two strikes and give up foul balls in bunches, driving up his pitch counts. He’d usually reach 100 pitches in the fifth or sixth inning and averaged only 52/3 innings a start, with nine-inning strikeout averages of 6.43 in 2007 and 7.74 in 2008.

But in the middle of 2009, Weaver added a two-seam fastball that tails down and away to left-handed hitters, a pitch he throws to both sides of the plate. He always had a good slider, but he gained more confidence in his changeup and slow curve.

Though his 174 strikeouts in 211 innings was an average of only 7.42 per nine innings, Weaver used his two-seam fastball to turn what had been foul balls into ground-ball outs. More efficient with his pitches, Weaver boosted his innings-per-start average to 61/3.

Then, last season, Weaver began changing speeds on his fastball, keeping the same arm speed but manipulating his grip so the pitch would come in anywhere from 79 to 92 mph.

Weaver’s lanky frame and across-the-body motion have always helped him hide the ball well. As he mastered the art of setting up hitters, he kept them off balance with pinpoint control of his fastball and his vast off-speed repertoire.

Instead of trying to blow a fastball by hitters with two strikes, he’d fool them with slow, looping curves and soft changeups.

“I just have a better grasp and feel for pitching, knowing hitters better and how to get them out,” Weaver said. “There’s a way to get everyone out; you just have to find out how.”

According to Fangraphs.com, 33.5% of the pitches batters swung at against Weaver in 2010 were outside the strike zone, the seventh best “O-swing” mark in the major leagues and considerably better than Weaver’s career average of 28.5%.

Weaver threw first-pitch strikes to 62.4% of the batters he faced and held opponents to a .150 average on two-strike counts, the lowest of his career. He averaged 9.35 strikeouts per nine innings and 62/3 innings a start.

“He can throw any pitch in any count for a strike, he knows when to elevate, and he can bounce a breaking ball when he needs to,” Butcher said. “A lot of it is deception and command. He has what we call a strike-to-ball breaking ball. It looks like a strike, finishes out of the zone, and he gets guys to chase.”

According to Fangraphs, only 56.1% of the pitches Weaver threw in 2010 were fastballs, a career low. He threw sliders 17.1% of the time and curves 13% of the time, a considerable jump from his career curve percentage of 9.8%.

Weaver threw his changeup 13.9% of the time, a noticeable drop from the previous three years, when at least 16% of his pitches were changeups. But he said that is his best pitch.

“I really have a good feel for that — it’s my favorite pitch,” Weaver said. “It’s always a good feeling when you out-guess someone: They think a fastball is coming, and they’re so far out in front they kind of turn themselves into the ground.”

The steady stream of off-speed stuff makes Weaver’s fastball seem quicker.

“He changes speeds, has deception with his windup, hides the ball well — then all of a sudden it’s on you,” said Vernon Wells, who was traded from Toronto to the Angels in January. “He’s developed a way to maximize a low-90s fastball to make it look harder.”

Though Weaver is rarely mentioned with Felix Hernandez, CC Sabathia and Roy Halladay in conversations about the game’s elite pitchers — he finished fifth in American League Cy Young voting last season — he is the clear-cut ace of a staff that includes two other highly regarded right-handers, Dan Haren and Ervin Santana.

Weaver, who will start Thursday’s season-opener in Kansas City, has also evolved as the leader of the pitching staff, much like Lackey was when he was coming up.

“No matter how he feels, he’s always getting his work done, competing, leading by example,” Angels reliever Kevin Jepsen said. “He puts personal statistics and accomplishments on the back seat to winning. That’s what you need to win championships.”

mike.digiovanna@latimes.com