Focus On: Brett Myers

Ever since coming into the league back in 2002, baseball scouts have always touted Brett Myers as a pitcher with great potential.  Two years have passed and the Phillies are still waiting for Myers to put all his talent together.  Everyone agrees that he has great stuff, but Myers has shown more inconsistency than potential in his major league career.  Expected to be the clubs fourth or fifth starter this year, Myers has a chance to prove he really has the potential to become an ace and it all starts with confidence.

Drafted number 1 overall in 1999, Brett Myers boasted an overpowering fastball and a great curveball.  In addition, he has an average slider, a splitter, and a changeup.  Myers made his MLB debut on July 24, 2002 and has shown flashes of brilliance since then.  But the inconsistencies outweigh the positives as he finished the year 4-5 with a 4.25 ERA.  Nevertheless, at 22 years of age, the future was bright for the Phillies prospect.  He got his chance to become a full-time major league starter as the team’s 5^th starter in 2003. 

The Phillies got off to a hot start in 2003, thanks to the solid pitching provided by the starting rotation, Myers included.  Myers ended the first half of the season with a solid 9-6 record and a 3.66 ERA.  This type of production was exactly what the Phillies were looking for when they drafted Myers.  But as the team started to fade, so did Myer’s confidence.  Since the beginning of the 2003 season, Myers has never regained his confidence and has steadily begun to lose his command.  He had a tendency to overpower the hitters with his fastball instead of mixing up his pitch selection.  Myers finished the year 5-3, but with an inflated ERA of 5.72. 

Other problems that Myers faced in the 2003 season came in the clubhouse.  The major story of the season came during the Phillies playoff run when pitching coach Joe Kerrigan and Myers reportedly had a heated discussion in the locker room about Myers's pitching mechanics.  The argument ensued into a shoving match that left a scar on the resume of Kerrigan as well as the morale of the whole team.  The relationship between Kerrigan and Myers was never the same after that confrontation and Myer’s confidence suffered because of Kerrigan’s presence.  Later in the season, Myers had another problem that involved his delivery.  At the time, Myers was struggling with his command.  Kerrigan discovered a flaw in his delivery that involved Myers looking to his left just before releasing his pitch. Kerrigan also reported that Myers was tipping off his pitches to the opponents, which is never a good pitching maneuver.  Myers could never quite figure it out, but he had the offseason to work things out.

The 2004 season was the worst season of Myers’s major league pitching career, but the good news is that he has only one other season to compare it to.  Myers got off to a slow start, but there were some flashes of potential during that stretch.  In May, Myers tossed a 5-hit shutout against the Dodgers, but in his next start, he returned to his old habits.  This shows how inconsistent Myers still is and if Myers is to ever straighten himself out, his good starts must outnumber his bad ones.  He finished the first half with a 5-6 record and a 5.68 ERA.  The second half wasn’t much better, and his conditioning was questioned by the media.  Joe Kerrigan’s presence also could have been a difference maker, but Myers showed some maturity at the end of the season when he asked to pitch on three days rest in order to even his record to 11-11.  

Brett Myer’s potential hasn’t decreased by much if at all, but the Phillies may become tired of waiting for Myers to develop since he is arbitration eligible for next year.  In order to be successful, Myers must realize that he can’t overpower everyone with his fastball and that he must mix up his pitches to keep the opposing hitters off-balance.  Now that Joe Kerrigan is out of the picture and with Larry Bowa’s firing, Myers may be able to regain his confidence in the more relaxed atmosphere that Manager, Charlie Manuel, brings to the team.  This is the year that Myers must flash his brilliance because now he has no more excuses for why he hasn’t lived up to his potential.

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