No matter whether Davey Johnson returns to manage the Nationals in 2012 and beyond — which I think he will — the most secure member of the Washington coaching staff should be Steve McCatty. Since taking over as pitching coach from Randy St. Claire on June?2, 2009, the Nationals’ staff ERA has fallen from 5.00 to 4.13 in 2010, and the team had a 3.66 ERA entering the weekend. Sure, there’s been a lot of turnover personnel-wise, but what was a glaring weakness just over two years ago is now the club’s greatest strength. I’m not sure those same fans who love to bash the hitting coach for a lack of offense are spending equal time praising McCatty for his labors, and that’s just not fair.
With Stephen Strasburg’s return to the rotation this week, it’s worth pointing out the contrast between 2009’s overall first pick and his pitching coach. Strasburg was already a brand name while he was still a student at San Diego State. McCatty was a big high school name in Oakland County, Mich., in the early 1970s but never got a call on draft day. He eventually signed with the A’s as an undrafted free agent in 1973 and made his big league debut in 1977.
In all or parts of nine big league seasons, McCatty broke even at 63-63 with a 3.99 ERA. It may not sound like much, but given the fact that 24 big league teams passed him over in the draft and every pitcher drafted in the first round that year (including first overall pick David Clyde) combined to win a total of 47 big league games, it’s a pretty impressive body of work.
The number that may look like a typo to the younger generation, though, is this one: in 161 starts, he completed 45 games. He was the best right-hander in the AL in 1981, the strike-shortened season, when he went 14-7 with a 2.33 ERA, 16 complete games and four shutouts in 22 starts. While he admitted that was a pretty good year, McCatty also added: “It’s too long ago to mean much of anything to these kids.”
The Nationals, by the way, have three complete games this year, though obviously, there’s no emphasis on that anymore.
With the season winding down, the competition for rotation spots in 2012 is heating up. It’s a given that Strasburg, Jordan Zimmermann and John Lannan will have three of the five spots next April. The field for the other two spots includes, in no particular order, Ross Detwiler, Chien-Ming Wang, Yunesky Maya, Brad Peacock, Tom Milone and perhaps Livan Hernandez and Tom Gorzelanny if they’re re-signed. McCatty will have a lot to say about that competition next February in Viera, Fla., and it’s hard to find much fault with his process up to this point.
Examiner columnist Phil Wood is a baseball historian and contributor to MASN’s “Nats Xtra.” Contact him at [email protected].
