MESA, Ariz. — Cubs pitcher Brett Anderson has lost so much time to the disabled list in his career that almost two-thirds of his contract this season is tied to how many games he starts. He has had two back surgeries in the last three years — and says one more back injury could end his career.
So far, he has been healthy in his first spring with the Cubs, and one of the reasons he believes he can stay that way is a change that pitching coach Chris Bosio suggested early in camp.
“It’s just to try to limit the pressure on my back,” Anderson said, “a minor mechanical adjustment where I don’t land on my heel as much and kind of land on the ball of my foot or my toes so it’s not such a whiplash effect.”
If Anderson stays healthy for a full season for just the second time in eight years, he may count as another pitcher in the win column for Bosio, the Cubs’ resurrection specialist whose career rehab successes include Jake Arrieta, Scott Feldman, Jason Hammel and Pedro Strop.
Since coming to the Cubs as Dale Sveum’s pitching coach in Theo Epstein’s first year running the organization, Bosio also has helped transform Jeff Samardzija from a reliever into a $90 million starting pitcher, helped Ryan Dempster perform well enough in 2012 for the Cubs to get Kyle Hendricks in a trade for him, and helped Kyle Hendricks become the pitcher who led the majors in ERA last year.
Bosio is part of a larger Cubs pitching infrastructure that also includes unsung catching/strategy coach Mike Borzello, who breaks down video and puts tailored pitching plans together better than, perhaps, anyone in the game.
But Bosio’s own success as a pitcher, his eye for mechanics, his communication style and his philosophy of letting pitchers be themselves — sometimes at the expense of what might be considered more ideal mechanics — have led to a string of successes. The Cubs had the top-ranked pitching staff in baseball last year despite not having one homegrown pitcher on the playoff roster.
“Boz is awesome at what he does,” said team president Epstein, who made a priority of keeping the Bosio-Borzello-Lester Strode team intact even after firing Sveum. “They all have their roles, and they’re all awesome.”
That group’s success has been critical for the Cubs, who have drafted and developed hitters over pitchers as a philosophy and consequently produced none of their own starting pitchers since Epstein took over.
“That’s my job — that’s my responsibility,” Bosio said. “I don’t look at it as, ‘Oh, my God, I’ve got another guy to fix.’ ”
But those repair jobs won’t stop coming. Arrieta and John Lackey are eligible for free agency at the end of the year, and the farm system doesn’t look ready to produce the next Arrieta anytime soon.
The Cubs go into this season again without a homegrown pitcher on the roster. The National League Central rival St. Louis Cardinals, Pittsburgh Pirates and Milwaukee Brewers all have at least three homegrown pitchers, including Opening Day starters for the Cardinals and Pirates.
“We haven’t had that luxury,” Bosio said. “But this organization’s done a great job of getting those position players and recognizing them, and they move through the system fast. They’ve also done a great job of being able to recognize [pitchers] who we can change and make better. I take a lot of pride in that. And it’s a challenge for me.”
Much of the success of Bosio’s part of the pitching program involves simplicity and communication. Case in point: Anderson’s change. Bosio also had Strop move to the other side of the rubber. He took Arrieta out of the cookie-cutter mold his staffs in Baltimore tried to impose and worked from Arrieta’s natural, cross-body mechanics.
In the cases of Hendricks and Hammel, Bosio talked in golf analogies to help the communication.
“I haven’t changed that much as a pitching coach over the years,” Bosio said. “I’ve learned from my guys.”
Follow me on Twitter @GDubCub.
Email: gwittenmyer@suntimes.com
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