http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/sports/baseball/01yankees.html?_r=1&ref=baseball&oref=slogin
Yankees’ Proctor Has a Fan in Gossage
By TYLER KEPNER
Published: March 1, 2007
TAMPA, Fla., Feb. 28 — When Goose Gossage watched the Yankees on television
last year, he found himself rooting for Scott Proctor. This was a common
occurrence, because Proctor worked in more than half the Yankees’ games.
“I really enjoyed watching him pitch,” said Gossage, the former All-Star
closer who is in camp as a special instructor. “Just the way he goes about
his business, his makeup, his attitude. Give him the ball, and he does a
great job.”
Proctor led the American League in appearances, with 83, and led the majors
in relief innings, with 102 1/3. No Yankee reliever had reached 100 innings
since 1996, when Mariano Rivera did it as a setup man. No major leaguer had
done it since the Angels’ Scot Shields in 2004, according to the Elias
Sports Bureau.
Gossage exceeded 100 relief innings four times in his career. Closers
typically work only an inning now, and Gossage said that was the way it
should be. Setup men like Proctor, he said, are more and more essential.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you see a setup guy considered someday for the
Hall of Fame,” Gossage said. “That’s the way the game is changing, and how
important these middle-inning guys are. They’re becoming a huge part of the
game, and in some ways it’s almost a tougher job than the closer, because
they come in with more inherited runners.”
For Proctor, the demands of his role came with a cost. Shortly after the
Yankees’ five-game sweep at Fenway Park in August, a series in which Proctor
pitched four times, he heard a clicking sound in his elbow. He would hear it
during routine movements, like bending his elbow when hanging up a telephone.
“I’d hear it pop every now and then,” Proctor said. “I expected it to
hurt when I pitched, but I would go out there and it wouldn’t bother me. The
team needed me at that time. I knew it wasn’t affecting my velocity or my
command, so I didn’t see any point in raising a red flag.”
The Yankees did not even expect Proctor to make the opening-day roster last
season. He had a minor league option remaining (he still does), and veterans
filled all the bullpen spots.
But Aaron Small strained his hamstring in spring training, and Proctor made
the team. He pitched mostly in long relief in April, but by May he had earned
the trust of Manager Joe Torre and was sharing the setup load with Kyle
Farnsworth.
Proctor, who had a 5.81 career earned run average entering last season, went
6-4 with a 3.52 E.R.A.
“At times early on, he got a little stubborn as far as his selection of
pitches, and he got himself in trouble,” Torre said, referring to the 2004
and 2005 seasons. “He’d come in and throw ball one, ball two, trying to
make perfect pitches. Once we convinced him how good his fastball is, and he
shouldn’t be afraid to throw strikes, I think it made him a better pitcher.”
Proctor was so good that Torre kept calling for him through the playoffs,
when he pitched in three of four games in the division series against
Detroit. When the Yankees were eliminated, Proctor decided to investigate his
clicking elbow.
He drove across Florida from his home in Jensen Beach to see the Yankees’
doctors in Tampa. A magnetic resonance imaging exam found only inflammation,
and a doctor in West Palm Beach told Proctor he had a cleaner elbow than most
pitchers.
The Yankees shared Proctor’s test results with James Andrews, the noted
orthopedic surgeon in Birmingham, Ala. Proctor was pleased not to have to see
him.
“He said he wasn’t ruling out that there would be a bone spur, but he said
it didn’t show anything,” Proctor said. “It would be more of an
exploratory surgery, and I don’t like to open myself up unless I need to.”
The presence of another durable right-hander, Luis Vizcaino, could take some
pressure off Proctor this season. Torre also said on Wednesday that a starter
like Jeff Karstens had a good chance to make the team in the bullpen.
“The thing that hurt us last year was the fact that we didn’t have a
legitimate long man,” Torre said. “You had to go to everybody more often
than we needed to, or wanted to.”
Torre went to Proctor more often than anyone expected. Proctor is looking
forward to more of the same.
“I trained this off-season to be used in the same way,” he said. “The last
thing I want to do is not be prepared.”
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