Sam Howard was having a sit down with his coaches.
They were trying to convince him not to quit the team.
He barely got to play his freshman year in high school. A small, soft-tossing left-hander, there weren’t many opportunities for him to pitch or get at-bats in the outfield.
“I wasn’t any good,” Howard was telling me. “I didn’t get to play at all. My friends were the ones who got to play, and I was so far behind everybody physically. It crushed me to not play, so I was going to try something else.”
That something else was cross country. He would be competing with himself each time, so he wouldn’t be envious of his friends getting more playing time than he was.
That Cartersville High School baseball team had just won the Georgia state championship and would go on to repeat the following year. Howard just didn’t see himself getting the playing time to make staying on the team worth it, and he wasn’t going to spend his high school years just sitting on the bench.
But his coaches were able to convince him not to quit. They told him they thought he could be a starter one day. That was good enough for Howard, and he changed his plans.
“I’ll stick this out throughout high school and then go on with life,” he thought.
This weekend, Howard returned to Georgia as a player for the first time since his high school and college days. Now, he is one of the best pitchers on the Pirates and is having one of the best seasons of any reliever in the game.
In this new year of the pitcher, no pitcher in baseball gets a higher percentage of whiffs than Howard. A mind-boggling 45.4% of all swings against Howard have come up empty.
Of pitchers with at least 20 appearances so far this year, his .137 batting average allowed is the second-lowest in the National League. That comes in a year where NL hitters have the lowest collective batting average (.235) in the league’s 145-year history.
Armed with one of the game’s best sliders and a four-seamer that lives in the top of the zone, Howard has emerged as the go-to lefty in one of the game’s best bullpens.
“When he goes out there, he's out to get you. He's out to get you as fast as possible,” Pirates pitching coach Oscar Marin said about the lefty. “He wants to sit guys down.”
VISUALIZING SUCCESS
Howard’s small size held him back as an underclassman, but he finally hit his growth spurt the summer going into his senior year of high school. All of a sudden, he had a chance of playing at the collegiate level, especially after playing in his first competitive summer ball league away from his high school teammates.
“Nobody in town really knew where I was,” Howard said.
When he came back, his velocity had jumped into the mid-80s, flooring his coaches. He began working with a weightlifting and pitching coach outside of the school, and the results were showing. He should have been drawing attention from colleges, but since he was a late bloomer, few programs knew about him.
So Howard’s dad, Tom, started cold calling colleges. If he saw they were having a showcase, he would reach out to see if he could get Sam a spot.
It became their weekend routine. They would go to a school, Tom would drop him off, Sam would pitch and then the two would drive back home.
It worked. Howard got about 10 offers, mostly from smaller schools. The one that grabbed him was Georgia Southern University. It was on the other side of the state, about 250 miles and four hours away, but that’s where Sam wanted to go.
“It just felt right,” he said, saying the small town feel appealed to the outdoorsman in him. “It felt like home.”
There, he picked up two lessons from pitching coach B.J. Green that would mold the rest of his career.
The first was physical. Green was the first to introduce Howard to weighted baseballs. While common in today’s game – and a staple in Marin’s coaching of the Pirates’ pitchers – it was still very experimental in 2012. Green developed plans for each of his pitchers and asked them to give it a shot over the winter break.
When Howard returned to school five weeks later, he was throwing 5 mph harder. Within two years, he had gone from throwing in the 70s to about what the average Major League starter threw. While he had been selected in the 48th round of the 2011 draft out of high school, it was here that he really started to pop onto team’s radars. He was a real prospect.
The second was mental. After practice, Green would tell his pitchers to find a shaded spot in the outfield and lie down. Green would put on music and tell his pitchers to close their eyes and visualize. Visualize being in big situations. Succeeding in those moments. Visualize being the best they can be.
Those imagery sessions would usually be only five or so minutes, but they left an impact on Howard.
“That was something I never really experienced before,” Howard said.
Unless he’s told before the game that he is getting the day off, Howard continues this pregame routine. He’ll find a dark, secluded room, put on music and disconnect. Visualize coming into that game and making the big out. It helps manage the stress of being in the majors.
“I think those little things are what helps you control the big things on the field,” he said.
FINDING THE SLIDER
Eligible for the draft again for the first time since high school, the Rockies selected Howard in the third round in 2014. They weren’t deterred that Howard went to a smaller school and invested a high pick and a full slot bonus to get him.
A starter through his rise to the majors, the Rockies transitioned Howard to the bullpen when he was promoted to the show for the first time in 2018. That promotion to the bigs signaled the end of his starting career.
It was a new situation for him, one that he was not entirely comfortable with. Pitching at the highest level? In this role? At the notoriously hitter-friendly Coors Field?
“If the phone rings, is it going to be me?” he would think to himself. He was scared, and a lot of times hoped that call wasn’t for him.
He sought out advice from Scott Oberg, the Rockies’ best reliever at the time, for how to deal with those fears. The veteran’s message was to slow down and trust his best stuff.
For Howard, that meant his slider.
Howard learned the pitch going into his first year in Class A. It was a cutter back during his college and Rookie ball days, but it didn’t get much movement.
Once he got to Ashville and the Carolina League, pitching coach Mark Brewer taught him a new grip. It was the same one that Brewer’s dad, Jim Brewer, had for his 17-year Major League career.
That got Howard’s attention. He threw it like his fastball and was aiming to throw it right down the middle. It moved so much that it dove off the heart of the plate. All of a sudden, he had a new weapon. He went on to lead the Tourists in strikeouts and started to climb up the Rockies’ prospect chart.
He continued to climb until he reached the majors. After a cup of coffee in 2018 and 19 mediocre innings the following year, the Rockies changed their mind and exposed him to waivers. It wasn’t entirely his fault. He had a good breaking ball, but he was throwing it in the worst environment.
“Obviously in Denver, at the high altitude, no matter what breaking ball you throw, it doesn’t break as much,” Howard said.
The Pirates believed he had potential at a lower elevation and picked him up. They also had him dive into what makes the pitch successful, and how they could enhance it.
It was a dive into analytics and spin efficiencies that Howard had never done before.
“It was night and day,” Howard said, comparing the Rockies’ analytics department to the Pirates. “Nothing against the Rockies, but they were really far behind. I wasn’t even aware of it because I’m doing what all the other guys are doing over here. But once I got here, the way they can use all the analytical numbers and know how to use them and tell you, ‘hey, your stuff will play much better if we use it this way, and if we execute this and this is your game plan.’ It’s been awesome to build on those things.”
The goal was simple: Find out what his best slider is and try to throw it every time. For him, it would tunnel off high four-seam fastballs. If executed properly, the two pitches would look identical up until the hitter had to decide to swing. At that point, the slider would begin to break and miss the bat.
The mindset was to live and die with your best stuff. Howard bought into it.
But that offseason, the sting of being let go by the only club he had ever been with still stung.
“Nobody wants to get let go, no matter what team you’re with,” Howard said. “That sets a little burning edge inside of you.”
That desire would be tested over the coming months.
PITTSBURGH PIRATES
STUCK IN ALTOONA
It’s 10:30 at night when Joel Hanrahan’s phone starts to buzz.
“I need to talk to you tomorrow,” the text reads.
“Where is this conversation going to go?” Hanrahan thought to himself.
He and Howard had just gotten to get to know one another at the Pirates’ alternate training site in Altoona, Pa. Before the Pirates had claimed Howard, Hanrahan admits he had never heard of him, but was intrigued by his fastball-slider combo during spring training meetings that February. That was Hanrahan’s bread and butter over his seven-year MLB career and two All-Star seasons.
Hanrahan was supposed to be the pitching coach for Class AAA Indianapolis, but since the minor-league season was cancelled, he was reassigned to coach the alternate site.
Once spring training 2.0 got started in July, the Pirates were able to invite up to 60 players to their camps, with one catch. Only 40 were allowed to go to the main site at PNC Park. The other 20 would be sent to Altoona.
Howard fell in the latter group, despite being on the 40-man roster and having MLB experience. He struggled in the first spring training, and while the Pirates still wanted to hang on with him, he had been passed on the depth chart and would have to wait his turn for another crack at the majors.
It didn’t help that Howard became a Pirate at probably the least optimal time in recent memory. Previous general manager Neal Huntington was fired Oct. 28. New general manager Ben Cherington was hired Nov. 15. Howard was claimed off waivers on Oct. 30. While most of the front office and scouting stayed intact through the transition, neither GM could really claim him as their own.
Turns out no man’s land is in Altoona.
It was during spring training 2.0 that Howard and Hanrahan got to know each other a bit. Sometimes on the field, but mostly off it, playing cornhole and sipping Elijah Craig barrel proof bourbon.
Drinking your coach’s booze and beating him at cornhole (“He could be on ESPN,” Hanrahan said) isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, though. Those spring training troubles kept popping up, and throwing a live batting practice every three days wasn’t going to fix that.
“I was struggling there,” Howard said. “I was not throwing well.”
So Howard texted Hanrahan. The next day, the two sat down and Howard told him that he had not really been himself.
“Oh thank God,” Hanrahan joked.
The two talked. Howard brought video of himself pitching in Albuquerque the year before. He felt he did his best work there, and he wanted to return to that form.
Howard focused on the mechanical side, especially with his back leg, working on his pre-set to make sure that he was in the right position to push off the rubber. He had gotten away from that since leaving Class AAA.
“It wasn’t a big adjustment for him,” Hanrahan said. “It was something that he was comfortable doing. He did it, and right away, right away, he was having success with it.”
It was the tweak that Howard wanted to make.
Now it was Hanrahan’s turn.
“What else is going on?”
‘HAVE FUN WITH IT’
Before the All-Star games, Hanrahan was a fringe reliever in the Nationals’ bullpen. They saw he had closer potential and gave him leverage innings, but his inconsistencies kept him from truly clicking.
The Pirates changed his career, but the switch flipped before he put on the Black and Gold. It came late in his Nationals career, squaring off against the team that would trade for him later that season.
He had a terrible series against the Pirates, allowing four runs over three games and taking a loss in one. But he was friends with Pirates Delwyn Young and Andy LaRoche, so they got together after one of the games.
There, they told him something he didn’t know he needed to hear.
“Man, you looked like crap.”
Not stuff wise. They were talking about his body language on the mound and how he carried himself.
It was a wakeup call.
“I said, ‘screw this!’ ” Hanrahan said. “This is a kid’s game. I’m lucky enough to be here. I’m gonna go out there and have fun with it.”
From then on, Hanrahan pitched with an attitude. A belief that he was the guy you wanted to turn to late in games. That he was going to challenge you, and you weren’t going to beat him.
“I don’t know why, but the majority of the time if you believe in something, it’s probably gonna work the way you want it to,” Hanrahan said.
Howard needed that. More importantly, he bought into it.
“We don’t have the best stuff,” Hanrahan told him. “But if you believe in your slider, if you rip it, you’ve got a really good slider. But it all comes with you.”
Just like it did for him over a decade earlier, Hanrahan saw that switch flip for Howard. The emphasis wasn’t on location, but with the conviction he threw it.
“The attitude changed,” Howard said, describing his new mentality. “I’m tired of playing around. I’m tired of trying to figure this out. Like, I know what I’m doing, and I’m about to go show everybody. I’m gonna be consistent every night, and I’m not changing.”
That attitude carries over into games now. He wants the ball in those big moments. When a starter starts approaching their pitch count, he’s one of the first to start stretching or tossing weighted balls.
“It’s gonna be me when the phone rings,” he says to himself.
Howard was not the first pitcher the Pirates called up from the alternate site that season, but he is the one they never sent back down to the minors. He recorded a 3.86 ERA in 2020 and found himself pitching higher leverage innings as the year progressed. Those late-inning opportunities have continued this year, and the Pirates felt confident enough in him to be their only lefty in the bullpen at the start of the season.
“He wants to pitch every day,” Derek Shelton said. “He wants the ball and will come in and tell me every day that he wants to pitch. I love that.”
HOMECOMING
By Howard’s account, he and Nolan Arenado were pretty good buddies during their time with the Rockies.
Facing him Wednesday night, Howard was still going to try to strike him out.
And he did.
Right before that, Howard got Paul Goldschmidt swinging as well.
That attitude he now pitches with showed itself as he left the mound. That undersized kid who almost quit in high school, who was once scared that he might be called out of the ‘pen, just sat down two potential future Hall of Famers in a row.
“He's one of the greatest players in the game,” Howard said about getting Arenado. “If you can get a guy out like him, for me it's an awesome feeling.”
It was just a little sweeter because he knew his next time out will be back home in Georgia.
A Braves fan growing up, Howard hadn’t been to Truist Park before this past road series. Not even during the offseason. Truist Park has “The Battery,” an entertainment center with restaurants, music and axe throwing to draw people year-round. It’s a popular spot.
Howard got invitations to go but would decline. “I don't want to go to that stadium until I'm going to play in the stadium,” he said.
There were plenty of friends, family and GSU boosters at Truist Park Saturday to watch him make that apperance. While he allowed a run in his inning of work, the experience is what Howard was looking forward to the most.
“A lot of them haven’t seen me throw in the big leagues,” Howard said.
Shelton heard about Howard’s homecoming from his relievers “ad nauseam” over the past week. A bit of levity from the group about the bullpen’s southpaw.
“When you have an opportunity to come back to a place where you grew up and play in front of your family and friends, it’s really special,” Shelton said. “I’m excited for him.”
It was a special moment for that former high school kid who almost ran cross country instead.
“It's just -- it's awesome how many times I've been counted out in my career from high school to college. The hard times I went through and the grind to be here today, going out and playing in Georgia against the Braves and with all my family and friends here. Will probably be holding back some tears right before the game.”
