July 20, 2012: J.A. Happ, David Carpenter and Brandon Lyon traded by the Houston Astros to the Toronto Blue Jays for a player to be named later, Joseph Musgrove (minors), Carlos Perez (minors), David Rollins (minors), Asher Wojciechowski (minors), Francisco Cordero and Ben Francisco. The Toronto Blue Jays sent Kevin Comer (minors) (August 16, 2012) to the Houston Astros to complete the trade.But despite a few bumps in the road, one thing is clear. The 2011 first rounder has excellent "stuff." I talked with both Quad Cities Manager Omar Lopez and QC Pitching Coach Dave Borkowski in my quest to better understand who this 21-year old pitching prospect really is, as both a person and as a pitcher.
Lopez had Kevin on his Greeneville team for a short time in August 2012 after the trade, "The kid that we have right now is not even close to the same guy. He's much, much better. He's been able to recover his velocity. His breaking ball is right there." According to Lopez, however, his change up is a work in progress.
Comer has had a couple of tough outings and Borkowski seems to think that Kevin's biggest challenge is simply to trust himself and his pitches. "He's still young. He's got plus stuff all across the board. I think it's a matter of him trusting it for nine innings. He gets to the point sometimes where things are going good and it's going really easy for him, and he thinks he can't just keep doing that at times. He gets away from what he's doing and instead of just attacking the zone and using all his pitches, he'll start to get fine and not trust his stuff.
"He's throwing a low to mid 90's fastball so he doesn't have to be perfect and that's one thing that gets him in trouble when he tries to be perfect. His stuff's so good that he needs to just pound the plate, split it in halves and go there instead of trying to [be] too fine with stuff."
I sat down with Comer and talked about the ups and downs he's been through, among many other things, during my recent trip to Quad Cities.
Kevin Comer - June 2014
Photo by Jayne Hansen
As always, I first asked about Comer's pitch repertoire. "I have a pretty simple pitch repertoire I'd say. I've got a fastball, regular 4-seam [and] a 2-seam. Those are anywhere from 88 to 94 range for velocity most of the time. And off-speed wise, I throw a curveball. It's a little slurvish so some people think maybe curveball-slider, but in my head it's a curveball. It's, I'd say, upper 70's in speed and I hope good break. I had a change-up last year, a regular 4-seam change-up, but I switched out this year. They let me start throwing my splitter again so I'm enjoying that, having that pitch back."
As far as the ups and downs of the last couple of seasons, Comer told me, "I think a lot of it has been learning the game. I'm getting better with that, starting to call my own games now and taking control of myself as a pitcher in my career. I think I'm doing a good job of that. I've found a little bit of velocity in my arm this year which is great because I haven't seen that in a while so that's been a big upside to the year so far. I've been back and forth, walking more people than I should, but overall I think I'm fighting pretty good and I like where I'm at right now."
What is he working on? "Getting walks down. And I just need to pitch to more contact. Trying to be too fine, trying to do too much with pitches and everything. That's probably the same case for a lot of people, but I'm working on that and just trying to better every part of the game as I can."
In response to a question about the trade that brought him to the Astros system, Comer said, "I think we, the guys who came over to the Astros, we like to use that as a chip on our shoulder a little bit. 'What were they thinking in trying to get rid of us?' But who really knows? Maybe they're happy with that they got a great guy in J.A. Happ who's doing pretty good work for them now. I'm sure they're happy with what they've done."
Is there any extra pressure in being a first rounder? "It's there. It's always there. It will always be there, not in a bad way I don't think. I'm obviously happy with what I've been and what I've had and how I came into the game and everything. I like to use that as motivation. To have that to my name is a great accomplishment and it's only a positive thing to me."
I then proceeded to ask him a couple of my standard silly questions. Who in the Astros system has a pitch he would like to steal? "There's plenty of them. [Jandel] Gustave's fastball would be nice. That would be a fun one to be able to have in your back pocket." Which Astros hitter would he least like to face in the batter's box? "There's a lot of them, especially that we have. We have a lot of good guys and, you know, I think one guy that has my number in the organization in the few times I've faced him is Teoscar Hernandez. He's got me pretty good. So, I think out of [the Astros minor leaguers], he's the guy I never like throwing to too much."
I also asked Comer if there was one player that he particularly enjoyed having behind him in the field, "I've always enjoyed having [Chan-Jong] Moon out there. I've always loved having him out there. From what little Korean I can speak to him, we have a good time out there most of the time. And I can trust him back there."
Who on the team makes him laugh? "There's a lot of people. I'd say [Albert] Minnis is a guy that can get you to laugh. He's a funny guy to have out there. Always looking on the light side of things."
What would he do if he couldn't play baseball? "That's a good question. There's a lot of things that I love to do. I've always been sports-oriented. My mother played basketball. I always did that until high school and that would be one thing that I wish maybe I could have learned to do, but as far as taking that as a profession, might not happen. But I always loved working around food with my mother. We always made a lot of Korean food and things like that and we always talked about maybe opening a restaurant one day together which would be, I think, a great thing with the family, but that's something maybe in the works."
When I asked Kevin if he could tell me something about himself that most people don't know about him, he actually mentioned something that anyone who follows him on Twitter or Instagram already knows about, his devotion to his Shiba Inu pup, Opie. "I'm a proud dog owner now. I love my new puppy and he's been great. I went home for the All-Star break and got to see him a bit. That's something ... that I love animals, love them to death. I had a horse growing up, two dogs. [I've] always been around them and now this one, he's been the joy in my life."
Going in to the interview, I had one goal. I wanted to get a handle on Comer. I wanted to know him better as a pitcher and and a person. As a person, my impression is that Kevin is quiet and laid back, but well-spoken and really easy to talk with one-on-one. He's smart, has a good sense of humor and doesn't take himself too terribly seriously.
But as a pitcher, I still wasn't sure that I had a good handle on him. When I told him that, he said, "I'm me. That's really all there is. I'm still trying to learn a lot and I'm still a little younger. I guess for the most part, I'm pretty laid back, aggressive at times when I need to be, definitely competitive. I love going out there. It's my career and what I love to do. Every day I'm out there being the best pitcher that I can."
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Thank you for your time, Kevin, and the best of luck as the season progresses.
Good stuff! Thanks for the piece...always had him on the radar but really knew nothing of his offerings.
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