Brackman Hoping For A Turnaround Season

Ben Shpigel of the NY Times wrote a nice article on Yankees prospect Andrew Brackman and how he's looking to bounce back after a rough few years. Brackman describes what those struggles were doing to his psyche:

“When you’re not being successful, you take a step back and look at things and wonder why,” Brackman said. “Sometimes you panic and things start moving faster and faster, and I think that’s what happened to me. Everything just rolled into a big ball."

He also says he "used to want the season to end as soon as possible.” “Then", when he started to taste some success as a reliever, he "didn’t want it to end at all.”

He's battled through injuries and mechanical issues, all of which were expected by the Yanks when they drafted the 6'10" pitcher out of NC State:

“We weren’t surprised that he had these growing pains,” said Mark Newman, the Yankees’ senior vice president for baseball operations. “We knew that going in. Where we draft, we don’t get opportunities for guys like Andrew, who’s a heck of an athlete and has an incredible arm. That’s what’s so attractive about him.”

The most significant move, Brackman said, was when the Yankees shifted him to the bullpen. He pitched fewer innings, but more often. He focused on only two pitches — fastball and curve — and showed an aggressiveness that the Yankees had not seen for some time.

In 10 relief appearances, Brackman held hitters to a .218 average. He closed the season by not allowing a walk over 10 scoreless innings.

“He knew the game wasn’t going to rest on his shoulders,” Ware said. “Almost immediately, his velocity went back up into the mid-90s, and he started throwing strikes.”

Brackman will be back in the starting rotation this season, likely in Single-A Charleston, but the good habits he picked up last year should stick with him. His confidence is clearly back to where it needs to be:

“I feel normal again,” Brackman said. “The mound doesn’t feel like I’m in outer space anymore. It feels like I can stay there and be comfortable, and it’s been a while since I could say that.”

The Yankees have high hopes for Brackman, and his early struggles remind a lot of people of another basketball-sized pitcher, Randy Johnson, who went through the same sort of mechanical issues early in his career. The stuff is there, it's just about getting everything else in order and staying healthy, if he can do all that he should fulfill the Yankees expectations.