Jesse Crain Minnesota Twins(11-1-2004)

What’s your pitching philosophy?

Make life easy, throw strikes, keep the ball down, and get people out.  It’s not too in-depth, but that’s all you need to do. You don’t want to think too much.

What are your pitching strengths right now?

Right now I’ve been throwing all three pitches of mine for strikes which is good. The main thing I’m working on is keeping the ball down and I think I’ve been doing a pretty decent job of doing that.  So I’m just trying to stay consistent with my delivery and keep everything down and throw a lot of strikes.

What do you call your out pitch?

I think all three of them actually are out pitches.  I can get outs with all three of them and I can throw all three of them for strikes. I guess it depends on my fastball because I throw it most of the time. I’ve got good life on it so I’m able to get guys out with that. For the most part when everything’s going wrong I’ll always have my fastball. So for the most part I’d have to say my out pitch would probably be that.

Do you pitch to your strengths or a batter’s weakness?

You’ve got to pitch to your strengths. Everybody has weaknesses, the batters have weaknesses, I have weaknesses, so you’ve have to do what you do best whether that be the hitter’s strengths or not. They always say good pitching beats good hitting, so if you’re out there doing what you can do, throwing at your strength and doing what you’re good at, then most of the time you’re going to get outs.

Do you approach hitters individually or do you have a basic style for everybody?

I don’t want to have a basic style for everybody. You’re out here every day and you learn, you kind of see what guys are doing, and you get an idea of what you need to do. For the most part I go out there every day the same and pitch to my strengths.

It seems sometimes they say this guy has all the talent in the world but doesn’t seem to go as far as guys with lesser talent, do you think that’s true?

You see that sometimes because the game’s so mental, it’s not all physical.  Some guys have the best stuff in the world but they can’t throw strikes, can’t find a breaking ball, can’t keep the ball down, there’s so many different things that go together and everything’s so mental up there. You’ve got to be strong and realize that you can do those things. If you think you can most of the time you’re able to get that done.  There’s so many times where guys do have real good stuff but they’re not able to get up there because they don’t have the mental capacity to do it. Yogi Berri said the game was 90 percent mental the other half is physical. It’s true it’s a real mental game.

Do you think the high draft picks get more chances?

That’s hard. I’d have to say that they do. They’ve got so much invested in them already, they want to get them to be up there. They didn’t draft them for no reason; they obviously see something they had.  So they’re going to give them as much time as they can to see if they can develop how they thought they were.  So if you’re a lower pick the best thing to do is keep on doing well. If you’re playing well no matter where you’re drafted you’re going to be seen.  I can say that they will get looked at a little bit more.

For spring training the Twins trade for more pitchers, bring more pitchers in, draft more pitchers, and they’re all competing for your spot, how do you approach that?

All I can do is do what I do and go out there and do the best I can. I can’t worry about anything else. I can’t worry about what they do or whom they pick up or whatever, I’ve just got to do what I’m the best at. Just like pitching go to my strengths and hopefully that’s good enough to make the team.  That’s what you got to look at.

Was there ever a time in your career you wanted to quit baseball?

No, there’s never been any time I really wanted to quit. There were a couple of times coming up through college, I went to a couple of different colleges, where there were some tough times. There were times where I didn’t know what was going to happen but I never wanted to quit.  So I think that’s what kept me driving towards doing my goal and getting to the big leagues.

Do you read the sports pages and the Scouting reports about you?

The thing is every time my parents or someone I know reads it they’ll sit there and tell me about it. I don’t go out hunting for it but if somebody told me I might glance at it and see what it says. There’ll be a lot of stuff written that doesn’t make sense or is wrong so you’ve just got to kind of blow it off.  I mean it’s fun.

How does the chemistry in the clubhouse affect the team?

I’ve never really been on a team that didn’t have good chemistry. Every team I’ve been on has been pretty successful.  Things have been hard, if guys aren’t getting along or don’t like each other it’s hard to gel as a team, so I mean it’s important that everybody gets along.

What’s something about pro sports you had to learn the hard way that nobody told you about?

About the every day grind of being out here every single day. You play 162 games plus, not including spring training and not including coming down to the fall league. It’s a lot of games and it takes a wear on the body. You’ve just got to take it easy, you can’t go 110 percent every day you’ve got to save it for the game. That’s something you’ve just got to be ready for.

How do you handle the fans, the loudmouths, people screaming, how does that affect you with the kids and autographs?

It’s hard, especially being out here you get people every single day, the same old people coming out asking for autographs and it kind of takes the good things about giving autographs away.  Obviously you want to sign for the kids and you sign for the kids and all of a sudden some other guys comes with 10 cards that you know you’re going to see on Ebay the next day.  I wish that didn’t happen as much but you always try to give the kids as much as you can because you know when you were younger you were there too.

How do you handle the umpires?

The umpires, obviously they’re going to miss calls here and there but so are you. You’re going to throw a pitch that you might think is a strike but really not looking at it later.  They’re human too. They’re not going to be perfect but hopefully by you staying positive and not getting on them they’re going to help you as much as they can. They’re not there to make you look bad so you’ve got to be doing the same thing.

What’s your opinion on knockdowns, brush backs and retaliation?

Well obviously you have to pitch in to get people out. If you throw over the plate or away all the time people start diving.  You’ve got to show them in. At least show them that you can throw it in there. You’re going to get it in there and stop their diving all the time. It’s going to happen. Sometimes you’re going to get hit. Not all the time it’s on purpose. Obviously if something happens earlier in the game then it might be a part of what happens later, but nothing is intentional to hurt people. Usually you’re just out there protecting somebody ’cause they got hit or they were thrown inside and there was an accident.

Do you have any thoughts on being traded?

You can’t really think about that, especially where I am right now. Obviously you’ve just got to perform wherever you’re going. If someone else trades for you then it’s good to know that someone else wants you.  I guess when that happens you worry about it then and just try to go out and do the same thing you always have done.

What would you tell kids in high school on down about professional baseball?

I’d tell them it’s hard work. It’s not all physical, there’s a lot of mental to it and you’ve got to be ready to work hard every single day. I went to college and I think it was real good for me to go to college, learn how after college to live on my own, be playing every day.  If I talked to someone high school and younger I would say college is a good thing. I’d tell them it teaches you responsibility and how to be on your own. If I were talking to some college or some high school and younger people I’d tell them to go to college.

Anything else about baseball I didn’t cover that you’d want to tell somebody?

It’s a great game; it’s a fun game.