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Velocity rarely fast track to top; BY BOB HERZOG, Newsday
Topic Started: Mar 20 2007, 03:18 AM (54 Views)
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JUPITER, Fla. -- Watch Ambiorix Burgos' eyes light up like the red digits on a radar gun when asked about his fastest pitch. "Last year, 103 [mph]. Three or four times," the Mets' 22-year-old reliever said.

Watch pitching coach Rick Peterson grimace at the same question.

"The issue is this: High-end velocity without location doesn't get anybody out in the big leagues," Peterson said. "That's the bottom line. Until guys realize that's the priority, they won't succeed in the big leagues."

The Mets love Burgos' stuff, even if the edges are more than a little rough. They want to be confident he can be an important late-inning component of a potentially deep bullpen. But they don't want him to fall so in love with his fastball that he breaks their heart.

Leave it to Peterson to describe it in typically pithy terms.

"He's just got to understand there are no more stuffed animals to win in the big leagues," he said. "You have to make pitches. Rearing back and throwing as hard as you can toward home plate is no value. It actually has a negative value."

If Burgos, who says he has "no doubt that I'll make the team," needs proof of Peterson's mantra, there is recent evidence.

On Friday, he allowed a two-run homer to Florida's Hanley Ramirez on a 97-mph fastball. Yesterday, another high fastball to Scott Rolen was driven into the rightfield corner for a two-run double in the Cardinals' 5-4 victory over the Mets.

"He threw one ball up in the zone and got hurt," manager Willie Randolph said. "That's typical of a young pitcher."

Burgos, acquired in an offseason trade with Kansas City for Brian Bannister, has been hurt repeatedly this spring. He allowed two runs in two innings yesterday, which actually lowered his ERA to 9.58.

Burgos' biggest problem has been elevation. His pitches have been too high and two have gone for long home runs.

"My problem is being up in the strike zone. When you are up, your fastball is straight," Burgos said. "That's why I have been working so hard. [Peterson] is working every day on my location, on being down in the strike zone. Rick tells me it's not how hard you throw but where you throw it."

Burgos has struck out 11 in 10 1/3 innings, so all his pitches aren't in the wrong spots. But Peterson knows he'll have to be at his persuasive best to convince Burgos that his ultra-high test gas isn't always the best way to travel.

"He's got a splitter and a slider, and they're both quality," Peterson said. "His split is a swing-and-miss pitch."

These are Peterson's priorities for what he calls the four tools of pitching: location, change of speeds, movement and velocity.

High-90s fastballs? "Ask every hitter if that bothers them," he said, then answered his own question with a derisive laugh. "If they're geared up for a 97-, 98-mile-an-hour swing and the ball is out over the plate, watch what happens."

As a pupil, Burgos represents a challenge to his teacher because he is so proficient at Tool No. 4.

"When you were an amateur and wrote you a check , that was a velocity check," Peterson said.

"If you throw 97 and have no idea where it goes, they'll pay you a lot of money [initially]. They think that we [coaches] can make you learn how to pitch. But when they wrote that check for velocity, you cashed out. You're not going to make another dollar on velocity. You'll make all your money on location."

So can Burgos be a money pitcher? "I always think anybody can get it," Peterson said.

Burgos is confident, too. "There is no doubt in my mind that in three or four years, I will be a closer in the big leagues," he said.

When told of Burgos' assertion, Peterson said, "Take the best closers; take Mariano Rivera. He doesn't miss the glove. He hits his spots. If location becomes [Burgos'] No. 1 priority, if that has value to him, then yeah, he can do it."
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