Verlander not focused on big contract
February 28, 2010
LAKELAND, Fla. (AP)—Justin Verlander(notes) says Tigers manager Jim Leyland can relaxif he is worried about his ace trying to do too much to justify his bigcontract.
“I can’t give any more than I’ve been giving,” Verlander said Sunday.
He has a point.
The 27-year-old right-hander led the major leagues in games started (35),innings pitched (240), strikeouts (269) and total pitches (3,937). He tied forthe lead in wins (19) last season before signing a five-year, $80 millioncontract.
The heavy workload comes with the kind of pitcher he is, Verlanderexplained.
“Being a power pitcher, you get more foul balls, more swings and misses. Ihave no problem with that and I feel like I’ve conditioned myself for that,” hesaid. “I’ve worked hard since I got here to be a workhorse, to go out there andthrow 130 (pitches) and still be able to come back and feel fresh.
“I don’t make a big deal over pitch counts; that didn’t start coming arounduntil recently, the last 10 years,” Verlander said. “Before that, you’d pitchuntil you weren’t getting guys out anymore.”
Leyland said he would have a chat with Verlander about avoiding thementality that may have affected him in 2008, when he had an off-year.
“He made a long commitment to us, we made a long commitment to him,”Leyland said. “The expectations are no different from if he had a one-yearcontract. I don’t want him to put an extra burden on himself now that he’s madethe commitment.
Verlander blamed his problems in 2008 on bad habits that he has sincecorrected.
“It’s a game of adjustments and I’ve talked about it before—in ’08 I wasstill trying to adjust to different things,” he said. “It didn’t work and itled to some bad habits so I nixed that, and I felt like last year was a programthat worked good for me, so I’ll stick with that.”
The contract, signed on Feb. 4, locks up Verlander through 2014. Thelong-term security won’t change anything on the field, Verlander insists.
“Every fifth day I’m on the mound, and it doesn’t matter whether I’m makingone cent or a billion dollars,” he said. “It’s not going to change the way Iam.”
Entering his fifth major league season, Verlander says the thought ofpitching his entire career with the Tigers appeals to him.
“I figure that’s something that doesn’t happen very often in this day andage in baseball,” he said. “The likelihood of me sticking around Detroit forthe rest of my career is slim, but you never know, and the first step is stayingthere for a little while longer than (the first years of eligibility for) freeagency. So we’ve got that under the belt, and we’ll see what happens.”
NOTES: Phil Coke(notes) will start for the Tigers in Tuesday’s exhibition openeragainst Florida Southern College at Marchant Stadium. Eddie Bonine(notes), EnriqueGonlaez, Cody Satterwhite, Fu-Te Ni(notes) and Joel Zumaya(notes) will also face the Mocs. …Jeremy Bonderman(notes) will pitch against the Toronto Blue Jays in Dunedin onWednesday, followed by Nate Robertson(notes), Armando Galarraga(notes), Ryan Perry(notes), BradThomas(notes) and Daniel Schlereth(notes). … Rick Porcello(notes) is scheduled to pitch against theBlue Jays in Lakeland, followed by Max Scherzer(notes), Dontrelle Willis(notes), AlfedoFigaro, Phil Dumatrait(notes) and Jose Valverde(notes).
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