 04/17/2002 9:37 pm ET
Williams taking rapid approach
Young hurler already holding his own in Triple-A
By Chris Shuttlesworth / MLB.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- Jerome Williams experienced several firsts Tuesday afternoon. He visited Pacific Bell Park for the first time. He allowed three earned runs for the first time as a Triple-A pitcher. But what brought a big smile to his face was that he got his first-ever professional hit.
Now, Williams isn't the Giants' No. 1-rated prospect for his bat -- far from it. The hard-throwing right-hander has rocketed through the San Francisco organization and shows no signs of slowing down at Triple-A Fresno, despite being only 20 years old.
So forgive him for being a little excited at getting his first hit with a wood bat, an RBI single in the second inning of Tuesday's 7-5 loss to the Nashville Sounds, the opener of a series being played at Pacific Bell Park because the Grizzlies' new downtown stadium isn't finished.
"I was pretty happy I got the first hit of my career," said the native of Hawaii. "In San Jose, there was a DH; in Shreveport, you had to hit and I never got a hit. This was my first hit out of my whole career -- actually touching the ball. I never got a foul tip; I just struck out every time. I hope they got the ball for me. I got on base the last time when I was in Memphis. I actually got hit by the ball, but that was about it. It's the only time I got on base."
Jerome Williams
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Williams may have been embellishing a bit -- his stat sheets show only eight strikeouts in 13 at-bats last season -- but the accolades over his ability and poise are not. He went five-plus innings Tuesday against Nashville, allowing four runs (three earned) while walking two and striking out three, but the box score doesn't show that he pitched through a huge scare suffered in the third inning.
A line drive came screaming back at him and struck the top of his right ankle so hard, the ball ricocheted to the third baseman for a flyout. Williams collapsed in agony, writhing around on the grass, but he got up, shook off the injury and pitched into the sixth inning, leaving after surrendering back-to-back hits.
"It was bad when it hit," said Williams, whose manager, Lenn Sakata, said he was "terrified" when he saw his pitcher go down. "I thought my ankle just blew up. I thought it was broken or something. But afterwards, it didn't really bother me because it just went away."
Another Doc?
Drafted out of Waipahu High School as the Giants' sandwich pick (39th overall) in 1999, Williams enticed the Giants with a mid-90s fastball. But since marching through Class-A San Jose and Double-A Shreveport each of the past two seasons, he's learned that his mighty arm isn't what will get him to the big leagues.
"I used to be a power pitcher when I started. I used to want to strike everybody out, throw hard, throw hard," he said. "Bert [Bradley], my pitching coach right now, in Class-A San Jose he taught me you can't just overpower people. You're not going to last that long.
"So I have to learn how to throw. Right now, I'm still learning. You gotta learn how to set up people, learn how to throw a curveball for a strike, first-pitch curveball, first-pitch changeup. You gotta learn -- it's a game beyond the game."
About the only thing that belies Williams' age is the way he peppers his conversation with "awesome" and "cool" and the fact that when his motion in high school was compared to Bob Gibson's, he admits he had no idea who that was (for the record, he does now and says he hears he was "pretty good").
In 2001, the 6-foot-3, 180-pound Williams won nine games for Double-A Shreveport with two complete games (one shutout) and pitched in the 2001 Futures Game in Seattle.
He has frequently been compared to Dwight Gooden, another hard-thrower who scorched a path to the Major Leagues and to whom Williams bears a physical resemblance. While Williams appreciates the comparison to Gooden's talent, he rolls his eyes when the name is mentioned.
"Oh, here we go," he says with a smile. "I've heard that a lot. I get it in the clubhouse a lot, too. I get it from [teammate Tony] Torcato; he always calls me Doc everywhere I go.
"The way I pitch, how I look, the way that I went through the system. I get tired of it sometimes, but it's all in fun. I don't care. 'Hey, he's Dwight Gooden' -- all right, cool."
But unlike Gooden, who won 17 games for the Mets as a 19-year-old, Williams isn't eager to bust into the big leagues. His goal for 2002 is to pitch the entire season at Fresno and perhaps earn a September call-up to the park for which he had one word Tuesday: "Wow."
"I'm patient. Every year I go through a lot of struggles in Spring Training," said Williams, who missed most of Spring Training in 2001 because of the death of his mother. "I'm real patient. If they want to hold me back as long as they can, hey, I really don't care, as long as I do have a chance to be there. If it takes two, three, four years, I'll wait that long, because that's how patient I am."
Waiting for a win
Sakata said the immediate goal is to extend Williams deeper into games, giving his pitcher's Tuesday outing a qualified thumbs-up.
"It was solid. I think he was a little nervous maybe, but he settled in," said Sakata. "The only mistake I thought he really made was he didn't cover first base [on an infield play ruled an error on Williams]. A couple of batters, he probably was trying to be too fine, trying to make perfect pitches. That's typical of him; he's a solid kid. He'll give you five or six innings, hopefully seven or eight when he gets stretched out."
Although he left with a 5-2 lead Tuesday, the Sounds tied the game when reliever Robbie Crabtree threw a wild pitch to score one run and then misplayed the throw home for another run. Mike Villano eventually surrendered two runs in the top of the ninth for the loss.
"He's got good stuff, especially when he got hit in the ankle and came back and just kept throwing," said first baseman Damon Minor, on a rehab assignment with Fresno. "Kid got some pretty good heart to stay in there for the game. He had good control, and we just made some bad plays in the field for him."
With a high-school teammate in attendance among the sparse crowd of about 700, Williams rated his outing about a 7 on a scale of 1 to 10, saying he had trouble getting his fastball down. His biggest asset at this stage would seem to be his poise -- he doesn't seem to let anything bother him on the mound, a quality instilled in him by his high-school pitching coach, Darren Chung.
"Every time when I was young, every time I give up a home run, I'd start throwing, kicking dirt, throwing the ball all over the place," said Williams. "The next batter, I'd probably hit him. [Chung] instilled into my brain, 'Hey, don't do that. You'll won't get anywhere if you do that.' I took his advice."
Williams has made other adjustments since starting his professional career, most notably changing his delivery in 2000 at San Jose. He said he used to have a high leg kick a la Nolan Ryan, whom he studied religiously as a youngster, to the point where he credits his fervent workout regimen to emulating Ryan's work ethic.
But that leg kick caused him to crash on his back leg, giving him an effective height several inches shorter than his 6-foot-3 frame and made his pitches come in at a flat angle. Combined with a habit of showing the ball too early to hitters, it wasn't a good recipe, so he eliminated both.
He's next looking forward to earning his first Triple-A win after starting the season 0-1 with a 3.00 ERA in three outings. And he's really eager for the Fresno Grizzlies Downtown Stadium to open May 1, since his team is currently in the midst of what's effectively a month-long road trip, the four "home" games at Pacific Bell Park notwithstanding.
"Living out of my suitcase is horrible," he said. "I'm pretty excited. I've seen pictures of the stadium already, and it is awesome. They said it's one of the top stadiums in the PCL. I can't wait to pitch there."
And he can't wait to pitch again at Pacific Bell Park -- this time wearing orange and black instead of Grizzlie purple.
Chris Shuttlesworth is the editorial producer of sfgiants.com and can be reached at sitecontent@giants.mlb.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.
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