Oakland Athletics: Kendall Graveman Gets Advice From a Hall of Famer
By Jason Burke
The Oakland Athletics starting rotation barely resembles what it was on opening day, with the only remaining pitcher at the moment being Kendall Graveman, who got some a advice earlier in the week from a Hall of Famer.
While Graveman’s 4.09 ERA for the season is unspectacular, he has been showing signs of improvement of late, posting a 3.41 ERA over his last 13 starts dating back to June 12. Oakland has won ten of those contests, which, considering the team’s winning percentage of .434 (53-69) is no small feat. It should also come as no surprise that Graveman put an end to a five game losing streak with his performance on Friday night.
As Susan Slusser of the San Francisco Chronicle noted in her game recap from Friday’s game, Graveman, an Alabama native, was able to talk to Greg Maddux earlier in the week about the art of pitching. He then fired a two-hit shutout, needing just 98 pitches to go the distance against the White Sox, facing one over the minimum and not allowing a runner to pass first base.
From Slusser’s article: “I was like a kid in a candy shop. I was just asking him questions and he was very generous to talk to me for 15 or 20 minutes about the mental side of the game. One pitch at a time is one of the biggest things he told me. No matter what the situation just continue to make outs, and count down to 27. If you get 27 outs in a game, you’ve really done something.”
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While his ERA on the season won’t turn any heads, and even his mark during a recent streak isn’t necessarily Cy Young candidate worthy, the Oakland Athletics are seeing spurts of the pitcher they hoped they were acquiring when they traded Josh Donaldson to the Blue Jays after the 2014 season.
Graveman’s performance of late is noteworthy because of Sonny Gray‘s absence from the rotation due to injury and former top starter Rich Hill being traded to the Dodgers at the trade deadline. If the A’s hold onto Gray this winter, he, Graveman, left-hander Sean Manaea (acquired at last year’s deadline for Ben Zobrist), and a number of other options could form a solid, if unspectacular, starting rotation in 2017.
After being selected in the eighth round of the 2013 draft by the Blue Jays, Graveman rocketed through four levels of the minor leagues in 2014 on the back of his cutter to make it to Toronto before season’s end. He was then traded to Oakland, where the cutter has been a staple of his, being offered 25 percent of the time. His strikeout rate (5.37) is modest, but his 2.49 walks per nine is solid and his groundball rate on the season stands at 52.7 percent. He has a very particular way to being successful on the mound, and after talking with Greg Maddux, he may be well on his way to becoming a bit more than a slightly-better-than league average pitcher.