Adams working his way up from Minors

02/24/2006
PHOENIX -- If he could do it all over again, Mike Adams would keep his mouth shut.
But he can't go back, and now the lanky Milwaukee Brewers right-hander will have to pitch his way back to Milwaukee. Adams is competing for a spot in the Brewers bullpen, but barring injuries to others will start the year at Triple-A Nashville, according to a club source.
"I kind of said some things that were pretty uncharacteristic," Adams said this week. "You can't take back anything you said, but I was out of line. I didn't see the true picture of everything."
Some background:
When the Brewers traded All-Star Dan Kolb to the Braves and Luis Vizcaino to the White Sox at the 2004 Winter Meetings in Anaheim, they essentially handed the closer's job to Adams, then a 26-year-old coming off a surprisingly solid rookie season with the team.
Adams had a poor Spring Training -- he was not alone in that regard among Brewers relievers. When he struggled to command his fastball as March turned into April, he quickly fell out of favor with manager Ned Yost.
Derrick Turnbow assumed the closer's role in late April and Adams appeared in only five games in May. On May 27, the Brewers demoted Adams to Triple-A Nashville to make room for Ben Sheets, who was coming back from an inner-ear ailment. At the time, Adams was 0-1 with a 2.70 ERA, only one save and 10 walks in 13 1/3 innings.
Caught completely off guard, Adams wasn't happy.
He blamed his early struggles on slight shoulder soreness, which he claimed began after Brewers coaches suggested a mechanical adjustment to his delivery.
"I don't think I'm a Triple-A pitcher, to be honest with you," Adams said at the time. "I think I deserve to be in the big leagues. I guess it's business.
"It's kind of rough to be in the big leagues [doing] what you think is getting the job done and get sent down to Triple-A. It's discouraging. I'm not gonna lie about it. It's discouraging. I just hope I can look past it. I hope I can get over the disappointment and go down there and throw the ball."
Looking back now, Adams wishes he had kept those sentiments private.
"There were a lot of emotions going at once," he said this week at Maryvale Baseball Park, where he has kept a bit of a low profile during the first week of camp. "The emotions were speaking there. But I said what I said, and I can't take it back."
Adams said he has not yet mended fences with pitching coach Mike Maddux. Bullpen coach Bill Castro said he was not even aware that Adams had popped off after being demoted last season.
"I wasn't trying to blame anybody. It just kind of came out that way," Adams said. "It really came down to my performance. I never got off to a good start last year."
Exactly the opposite was true in 2004, when Adams won the Brewers' "Newcomer Award" after posting a 3.40 ERA in 46 games. He began his Major League career by pitching 13 consecutive scoreless innings, and Yost raved about the way Adams defied his thin frame by pounding the strike zone.
"I've seen broomsticks with that build," Yost quipped.
It was the zenith of a fast rise through the Brewers' system. Adams went undrafted out of tiny Texas A&M University-Kingsville in 2001 but signed with the Brewers and advanced all the way to Double-A Huntsville by the end of his second professional season.
Given all of that quick success, 2005 was a major letdown. Nashville won the Pacific Coast League title, but Adams missed five weeks in midsummer with a left oblique strain and never got back into a groove. He went 3-4 with a 5.75 ERA in 26 games for the Sounds.
"Overall, it was a real disappointing year," Adams said. "Things didn't go the way I planned on them going, and it's always disappointing when that happens.
"It was the first year I didn't have success, so it was a big learning year for me. I had to learn how to deal with failure."
Looking back, has he figured out what went during his time with the Brewers?
"I knew I had a job, and I think I let up a little bit," Adams admitted. "This year, I'm back to where I have no guarantees. I have to win a job. I have a lot of work to do, and I think there might be even more pressure now than there was last year. The difference is that I know how to handle it."
Instead of trying to be a prototypical closer, something Adams said he struggled with last Spring, he will get back to his strengths.
"I would much rather be a groundball guy in the big leagues than a strikeout guy in the Minor Leagues," he said.
"I'm trying to slow everything down to get back to where I was two years ago. There are a few mechanical things, but I think it's more mental. A lot of things got into my head last year and that was the biggest thing that hurt me. I think I came out and I was trying to do too much. I set my standards too high and I was trying to become a success too fast, instead of taking it step-by-step like I did my first year. I was trying to go straight to the top."
Turnbow is now entrenched as the Brewers closer, and the team re-signed Kolb to pitch setup alongside Matt Wise. Assuming the Brewers break camp with an 11-man pitching staff, including five starters and one long reliever, that leaves two open bullpen spots.
Left-handers Jorge De La Rosa and Dana Eveland and right-handers Jose Capellan, Justin Lehr, Kane Davis and Chris Demaria -- among others -- are all on the 40-man roster and competing with Adams.
"When the team is getting better, it's tougher for a guy to make a team," Castro said. "And it's tougher for us coaches to make decisions. In the past, it was easy. You were just hoping to have enough guys good enough."

Source: http://milwaukee.brewers.mlb.com/