Twins starting pitchers Glen Perkins and Scott Baker expressed extraordinary praise for pitching coach Rick Anderson during interviews with Sports Headliners earlier this month. No aspect of the Twins’ performance this season has been as surprising as the team’s starting pitching.
Forced through trades, free agency and ineffectiveness to rebuild from last year’s staff, the Twins have used a starting group most of the season consisting of Scott Baker, 26, Nick Blackburn, 26, Kevin Slowey, 24, and Glen Perkins, 23, who collectively had won 21 total games prior to 2008 (17 by Baker). Early on and now again in August Francisco Liriano, 24, has been part of the rotation, too. Collectively this group of five has won 42 of the team’s 75 victories that have the Twins in second place in the Central Division and chasing a playoff position.
Perkins was asked how much credit Anderson deserves for the success of the pitching staff, particularly the young starters who have been winning games all season. “He deserves as much as you can give him, other than us going out there and doing it,” he answered. “I think he’s the one that if we have a good outing, he doesn’t let us get too excited about it. And if we have a bad outing, he’s not going to let us get too far down about it. He always tries to find the positives out of outings. …”
Perkins was asked if there is a better pitching coach? “Absolutely not. …The things he does, you look forward to throwing bullpen (practice) because you want to talk to him and you want to learn more from him. I can’t even imagine anyone even being able to do what he does with our guys.”
Baker said Anderson “doesn’t get a lot of the credit he deserves” and he, too, admires his coach’s approach with the pitchers. “He’s unbelievable,” Baker said. “He really, truly is. He knows how to handle the young guys very, very well. He knows when to say something, and when to kind of let us work through things on our own. He’s very good at what he does. …”
Perkins described Anderson as having an “innate ability” to see what a pitcher needs to correct. “If your pitches aren’t acting how they’re supposed to, he’s got an ability to see that and pick out what you may need to do. …”
Baker said sometimes a pitcher’s problems are mechanical and other times they’re not. Anderson knows how to approach either situation. Anderson will watch a pitcher and sometimes won’t even say anything, and that can be what’s needed, Baker said.