Chase Anderson thrives on competition for D-backs starting spot
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- Right-hander Chase Anderson does not dance around the competition for a spot in the Diamondbacks' starting rotation. He bear-hugs it. Anderson does not like the challenge. He loves it.
It is an approach as much about DNA as ERA.
"Even if I am lucky enough to get a contract, I want to be a guy who is going to prove himself every year, who is competing for a spot every year. It keeps me hungry. That's the way I was raised," Anderson said.
"I have never been a guy who has been at the top of the radar. I've always been a guy under the radar. I like it that way. In my whole life I've had to earn it, and I wouldn't want to change that from year to year. I always want to have to earn it. You just appreciate things more in life if you earn it.
"Baseball. Life. Whatever. I'm just excited to be here. Great competition. Great team. We'll see where it goes."
At this point, the road would stop at Chase Field, with Anderson joining a starting group that already includes Josh Collmenter and Jeremy Hellickson.
"If we were to break (camp) right now, he'd be one of our five for sure," D-backs manager Chip Hale said.
Anderson was the among the best rookie pitchers in the National League last season, with plenty of evidence to support his return to the rotation even with all the D-backs' offseason moves. He won his first five starts after being promoted from Double-A Mobile on May 11, joining Jered Weaver (seven) and Kaz Ishii (six) as the only rookies to win their first five starts since 1998, when the D-backs began play.
Anderson was 9-7 with a 4.01 ERA in 21 starts and was tied for NL rookie lead in victories while finishing 10th in the NL Rookie of the Year voting.
Not that Anderson, 27, stopped there. He spent the offseason building on that. He gained about 20 pounds in winter workouts, arriving in camp at 194 pounds after ending his longest pro season at 176. He hopes to be able to keep the weight on, and because his father was a late bloomer, he expects to keep adding weight and strength in the next few years.
"Hopefully I can take that and keep getting bigger," Anderson said.
Anderson also worked on adding a third pitch to his repertoire, developing a two-seam fastball that has seemed to improve as the spring has gone on. After giving a one-out triple in his most recent start against San Francisco on Saturday night, he got out of the inning with a broken-bat soft liner and a routine groundout. Both came on two-seam fastballs, sinkers.
"Fastball command is the main thing as a starting pitcher," said Anderson, who also throws a four-seam fastball and a changeup. "If I can add that two-seamer, it can help me out even more. It's just another weapon I can use to add to the arsenal. Hopefully I can get the ball on the ground more this year and create more double plays. Ground balls don't go over the fence."
The D-backs like the progress Anderson has made with the two-seamer. Even more, they like his commitment to expanding his tool box, which is not easy in the face of the natural trials. Can it be difficult?
"Definitely, when you are competing for a spot like this," Hale said.
"What he realizes is, he's a smart enough kid to know that he needs that pitch to be a successful major league pitcher. He's going to keep working on it. These guys are trying to build their repertoire of pitches, and unless you throw it in the games . . . Sometimes guys hit you out of it. You get panicky on staying with what you are working on, and you go to what you know you have. He stayed with what he is working on, and that's what we want."
The D-backs also like the way Anderson can handle the bat. He put down a sacrifice bunt and also singled between first and second against Giants starter Ryan Vogelsong on the Saturday.
"He's a competitor. He's controlled the (strike) zone. He's handled the bat, which is important to us for starting pitchers," Hale said.
Anderson showed he could handle a spot in the rotation last season, when he was second among NL rookies in starts and strikeouts (105), fourth in innings (114-1/3) and sixth in ERA. He had a career-high 153-1/3 innings counting his five weeks a Mobile, after elbow and triceps injuries stole time in his previous three seasons.
He understands the process begins over every year.
"Last year was great, but last year's over with. It's about 2015 now," Anderson said. "I know there are going to put the best team out there on Opening Day, and hopefully I'm part of that. I'm going to do my job to win that spot. I don't think you ever deserve anything. You have to earn it."
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