Friday, May 20, 2005
By Dejan Kovacevic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Just before Mark Redman made his debut for the Pirates seven weeks ago on a chilly night in San Diego, expectations for his 2005 season probably could not have been much further below zero.

Not without cause.

He had arrived in an offseason trade that was a blatant salary dump for both teams.

He was coming off a year in which he was one game below .500 on a team that finished 20 games above.

He was a soft tosser.

He had played for four teams in as many years and carried with him a history of being openly critical of teammates.

He was 31 and would be the old man of a promising rotation of twentysomethings.

And, perhaps most damning because it was most recent, he had just produced some of the worst spring training numbers of anyone in Major League Baseball.

In that April 7 road opener, Redman was sent to the mound to oppose Padres ace Jake Peavy, one of the National League's premier pitchers. And something thoroughly unexpected happened.

He caught Adam Hyzdu looking at a strike for his first pitch. Then got him to fan at the next. Two fouls and two balls later, Hyzdu struck out swinging.

By the time six innings were done, Redman had matched Peavy with a line of no runs and four hits. He consistently hit 93 mph on the gun and leaned heavily on his fastball. A few hours later, he deflected praise to his fielders when asked by reporters about his showing. And he displayed not the slightest trace of personal disappointment that the Pirates went on to lose, 1-0, in 12 innings.

The impression was instant. And, as the Pirates would learn, not without cause.

Redman has emerged as their most effective pitcher. He has a 2.44 earned run average that ranks sixth in the National League, has pitched through the sixth inning in all eight starts and has given his teammates a chance to win every one of those.

When he takes the mound tonight at PNC Park against the Colorado Rockies, he can become the first member of the Pirates to record three consecutive complete games since Rick Reuschel had four June 17-July 3, 1987. By going the distance against the San Francisco Giants and Milwaukee Brewers in his past two starts, he is only the fourth Pirates pitcher to go back to back, along with Randy Tomlin (1991), Tim Wakefield (1993) and Jason Schmidt (1997).

"He's the real deal," fellow starter Dave Williams said. "He's someone our rotation really needed."

Spring to action

On the first day Redman donned a Pirates uniform this spring in Bradenton, Fla., he joked about his many travels in baseball: "I guess I know how the nomads felt back in the time."

He also cited a business-like approach when asked how it would feel to play for a perennial loser after being a contributor to the 2003 World Series champion Florida Marlins and to the second-place Oakland Athletics last season: "I take pride in whatever uniform I happen to be wearing."

But his performance was no match for his apparent professionalism. His final numbers for the exhibition season: 7.04 ERA, .377 opponents' batting average and seven home runs in 23 innings.

Much of that was blamed on McKechnie Field and its swirling winds and close fences. Management went out of its way to stress that factor after each poor outing.

"Our place in the spring can be a difficult one in which to evaluate," general manager Dave Littlefield said. "You focus on individual performance as much as you can, which we tried to do with Mark."

Redman shrugged it off, too. He would talk about which hits might have been home runs and which might have been outs in another park, about how he was working on a sequence of pitches regardless of a specific hitter's strengths or weaknesses.

"You're really just trying to get your work in," he said. "I never got too caught up in the numbers."

That trait has served him well in the regular season, too. Despite his exceptional statistics, his record is only 2-3. That is because his offense has provided an average of just 2.28 runs of support, third lowest among all starters with 50 or more innings. Three times, he has allowed two or fewer runs without earning a victory.

"He has been tremendous for us, and it's a shame we haven't gotten more wins for him," manager Lloyd McClendon said. "I can't honestly say I'm surprised by how he's done, though. Now, if you're asking if I thought he'd have back-to-back complete games or shutouts, I don't know. But I knew he's always pitched well, always amassed innings. He's won a World Series. He knows what he's doing."

Redman was part of the Jason Kendall trade in December, and he came with a guaranteed price tag of $9 million over this season and next. But the bulk of the discussion at the time was about the unloading of the remainder of Kendall's $60 million deal.

That had much to do with the strange year Redman had in Oakland. His 2.90 ERA on the road was third best in the American League, but his 7.46 ERA at the Athletics' home was the worst such statistic in the majors. Overall, he was a mediocre 11-12 with a 4.71 ERA for a team that won 91 games.

That, coupled with his rocky spring, might help to explain why he does not seem to be carried away with his early showing this season.

"It's a good start, but you can always build off it," he said. "It's a lot better than having a rough start and having things to work through, but there are a lot of games left."

It surprises many to find out that, even though Redman's signature pitch is his nose-diving changeup, the strength of his repertoire is the fastball. That was evident that night in San Diego, when he used it roughly two-thirds of the time, and it has been the case to a slightly lesser extent since then.

His velocity is lower than any of the Pirates' pitchers, even some in their minor-league system. But there probably is not anyone who can pinpoint it as he does. Or keep hitters guessing about its location or timing.

"My fastball goes up and down. That night in San Diego, I was getting up to 91, 92 at times, maybe because I was in my hometown and had family there. But there are other times when I'm hitting 86. It's just how I happen to be feeling on that mound. I don't worry too much about speed. I worry about location. If you throw 86 and hit your spots and you've got 91 that you can reach, that's more than good enough to keep guys off your breaking pitches. It's about control."

Redman has walked only 14 batters in 55 1/3 innings, even lower than his career average of 2.7 per game. He also has stayed off the heart of the plate often enough to have allowed only one home run. Last season, he gave up 28.

"What he shows you is that you don't have to throw hard to be successful, even if you can," Williams said. "I watch tapes of him, and it looks like he's throwing at a dart board."

No spring chicken

Redman is not the oldest player in the Pirates' clubhouse, but he is the only one with a championship ring. And that is not the only reason it stands out. It is a large bauble, and he wears it regularly.

"To me, that's where it all starts when you look at him. That ring," Williams said. "You look around this room, and we've got a few guys who have been to the playoffs ... but there are a lot of us who have never seen that ring in here. That makes you pay attention."

Redman had a career-best 14-9 record for those Marlins and, although he was used sparingly in the postseason, he was credited with providing leadership to Florida's remarkable young staff that included Josh Beckett and Dontrelle Willis.

Williams, 26, is trying to make a name for himself in the majors, and he has achieved plenty toward that goal as evidenced by his staff-best 4-3 record. He and Redman have similar styles and similar stuff, so it is no accident that he has found a comfortable spot under Redman's wing since the first long toss in February.

"He's taught me so much," Williams said. "I can't say enough about him."

Redman has had the effect on others, too, and his influence has been lauded by management.

He arrived with a reputation as a player who was not shy about calling out teammates when he felt they were not performing up to capability. That trait, according to some in Oakland, did not endear him to a few in the Athletics' organization.

Redman displayed a trace of that after one exhibition this spring, saying of the Pirates' abysmal defense and base running that day: "That is not acceptable. We need to take care of it and get it right, the whole attitude of it."

McClendon rejected the idea that Redman is anything but a good teammate.

"You know, I've heard that kind of stuff about a lot of guys when they came here," he said. "Kenny Lofton was supposed to be that way. He was an outstanding team player. Reggie Sanders was another. Jose Mesa, too. All I can tell you is that Mark's been great here. It is great to have him in that locker room. I can't worry about reputations. I draw my own conclusions."

Redman acknowledged that he pushes his fielders, and he offers no apology.

"My style of pitching is that our guys know there will be balls put in play and that they're going to have to be ready for it. That's their job at stake. If they're not out there prepared for it, they might not be here for long. I take pride in my game, and they take pride in their defense. The two work hand in hand and, ultimately, that wins games down the road."

As for his approach, he added, "I treat my defense like a quarterback treats his linemen."

He does not match the standard leader mold on a sports team. A San Diego native who now enjoys the tranquil lifestyle of Catoosa, Okla., he is not the vocal type, and he generally keeps to himself.

"He's kind of a soft-spoken guy," Williams said. "Thing is, when he talks, people listen."

And when he bounces up on the mound after being felled by a line drive to the kneecap, as he did April 12 in Milwaukee, it gets noticed.

Redman speaks with pride of the way Marlins manager Jack McKeon used to praise him for a training regimen that inspires others, and he seems to relish his role as a mentor to the Pirates' other starters.

But he shakes his head when asked if his Florida ring sets him apart in any way.

"No, because I still want another one. I really don't feel like I'm above anyone," he said. "I feel like I've had a great experience and, if someone wants to ask about it, I'm happy to talk. But, mostly, what I'll tell them is that I want another one. And I want the players here to experience the same thing if they want it bad enough. But that's the key: You've got to want it bad enough. You've got to take pride in doing the little things that make a team successful. It takes all 25 guys."

A championship in Pittsburgh?

"Nobody thought Florida was going to win one except the guys on our team."

(Dejan Kovacevic can be reached at dkovacevic@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1938. Click here for more Major League Baseball news.)

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