Shane Bieber’s rise from soft-tossing strike-thrower to Indians playoff ace
Zack Meisel Sep 28, 2020 9
CLEVELAND — Long before he blossomed into the AL’s top Cy Young Award candidate, before he developed into the Indians’ ace and an All-Star Game MVP and before
he walked on at UC Santa Barbara, Shane Bieber was a 10-year-old pitcher for Ben Siff’s ASD Bulldogs. He was an unassuming kid with a gap-toothed smile and chestnut bangs that stuck out beneath the bill of his baseball cap.
And even then, Bieber consistently threw strikes.
Siff, a longtime pitching coach in San Clemente, Calif., maintains a spreadsheet containing all of his players’ statistics over the years. Bieber, who credits Siff with helping to launch his career, logged 212 2/3 innings, a 2.04 ERA and a pedestrian strikeout rate of 7.8 per nine innings during his eight years with the program.
“He was always our best pitcher,” Siff said, “but he was never our hardest thrower.”
That has been a common refrain throughout Bieber’s ascent. He was never the most gifted or most imposing, lacking the sort of velocity that lured droves of scouts to his games. But he was always solid, reliable and bound to toss strikes.
So, no, Siff never foresaw Bieber evolving into the hurler who just completed one of the most proficient 60-game stretches in the sport’s history. Bieber will soon claim his first Cy Young Award. He’ll receive consideration on some MVP ballots. And on Tuesday, he’ll take the hill for Game 1 of the Indians’ opening-round postseason series against the Yankees.
“It’s like a dream, honestly,” Siff said. “It happened so fast.”
Matt Blake first watched Bieber pitch in the Cape Cod League in 2015. Months before he joined the Indians’ player-development team, Blake was the pitching coach for the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. Bieber was a college sophomore who possessed a fastball that chugged along at 88-91 mph, a “loose” slider that “wasn’t super sharp” and a change-up that hardly resembles the one he throws now, which tails away from left-handed hitters.
“He didn’t have anything that was a true put-away pitch,” said Blake, now the Yankees’ pitching coach.
That was the scouting report on Bieber before he arrived in Santa Barbara, too. He racked up strikeouts because teenage hitters wouldn’t offer at his precisely located two-strike fastball on the outside corner. He outwitted, not overpowered, his opposition. And that paved his way to the big leagues, but it also prevented anyone from tagging him with Cy Young-type expectations.
The Indians are careful never to place a ceiling on any of their prospects. They have data-based projections on every player, but they understand that those simply provide a framework, not a guarantee. Bieber’s rise to prominence proves why.
“He’s the perfect example,” Blake said. “You never know what a guy is going to be.”
As Bieber began his climb through the Indians’ farm system, the organization identified a series of tweaks that would aid his cause: tightening his delivery, adding some strength, boosting the spin on his pitches, sharpening his breaking balls. In his first full professional season, Bieber posted a 2.86 ERA at three different levels. He surrendered more than a hit per inning, but he issued only 10 walks in 173 frames.
Even as Bieber breezed through Double A, Blake offered suggestions, such as refining his change-up to better equip him against lefties. It’s one thing to conquer a hitter at Canal Park; it’s another to strike out a major-league All-Star at Progressive Field.
Bieber always welcomed the advice, whether from one of his rotation mates, a coach or a front office operative. That’s a trait the Indians seek when scouting amateur players. As Blake defined it: “Do they have a willingness to grow and learn and adapt?”
“If they have attributed what you can build on and they have the mindset to do it, the sky is the limit,” Blake said. “He was always really good about filtering the information and not throwing the baby out with the bathwater.”
When members of the Cleveland rotation unveiled the “King of the Hill” crown last year — bestowed upon the starter with the best performance in each series — Bieber was typically tasked with crowning the winner and awkwardly posing alongside them for a photo. He opened last season as Cleveland’s No. 5 starter and played the role of little brother to Trevor Bauer and Mike Clevinger, who lightheartedly teased Bieber about throwing in the 80s upon his arrival in the big leagues. They also guided him through his rookie campaign.
And now, the 25-year-old Bieber is the ace. Clevinger and Bauer are gone. Bieber is now the guy the other starters try to mimic. Not long after Bieber debuted his new cutter this summer, Clevinger unleashed one of his own.
Bieber now throws in the mid-90s. He wields perhaps the league’s most lethal curveball, which induces frequent fruitless swings even when it plunges into the dirt a few feet in front of home plate. He mixes in that tailing change-up, a slider or the cutter when he determines a hitter is too comfortable.
“He’s a case study in a strike-thrower who adds some power and has a knack for the game and understanding hitters,” Blake said. “It’s put all together, and it’s hard to believe this is what you’re getting, but at the same time, it’s like, ‘It kind of makes sense.’ It’s like the 99th-percentile outcome that you’re normally not going to get.”
Even though he’s three time zones away, Siff doesn’t miss a Bieber start. He texts him before each outing about a topic specific to that game. When Bieber faced Pittsburgh earlier this season, Siff researched the world’s most feared pirates, and the two toasted to the fact that Blackbeard wouldn’t be stepping into the batter’s box that evening. Other times, Siff sends a poem. The style and tone of the message depend on Bieber’s recent results.
They’re superstitious; if a poem preceded an eight-inning masterpiece, Siff will send another poem five days later. This year, there hasn’t been much deviating because Bieber hasn’t encountered a single speed bump.
In fact, Siff can’t recall a time Bieber has ever struggled. Blake can’t, either. A couple starts here and there, sure. Maybe his mechanics get out of whack, or he loses the feel for a certain pitch. But a prolonged stretch?
“Nope,” Siff said. “I’ve never seen it.”
Blake commended Bieber’s adaptability, how he can make adjustments during a start and hang around long enough to rectify whatever was ailing him. That explains how, even when Bieber has lacked ideal command or labored through certain innings this season, he has still churned out one gem after another.
He became the ninth different pitcher to capture MLB’s pitching triple crown (wins, strikeouts, ERA) and was the first to do so in 14 years. The first six to accomplish the feat — Grover Alexander, Walter Johnson, Dazzy Vance, Lefty Grove, Hal Newhouser and Sandy Koufax — are all Hall of Famers. That’s not the sort of company anyone would have predicted he’d keep.
“That’s what keeps me going and keeps me driven,” Bieber said. “Just trying to prove people wrong and continue the uphill climb.”
(Photo: Brace Hemmelgarn / Getty Images)
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