Baseball Beginnings

By John Klima
May 20, 2009

(courtesy of UA)

Jason Stoffel is working on a red ZZ-Top goatee and finding more consistency with his breaking ball. He knows that a big league closer cannot survive on a fastball alone, and though he can probably hide that until he gets to where the game gets really fast, he’d prefer to reach the big leagues with two workable pitches in the ninth inning.

Scouts use fancy words like “profile” for what a player will become as a pro, but it didn’t take Stoffel very long to look in the mirror as a freshman at Arizona and realize that his own baseball beginnings were actually going to be at the end of games.

He’s the last link to Arizona’s first-round bullpen of 2008. Ryan Perry and Danny Schlereth each rose from the ranks of the non-drafted to the first round. Stoffel will join them off in never-never land very soon. 

Ever prepared, Baseball Beginnings showed the current Arizona closer Perry’s color mug shot and bio in the 2009 Detroit Tigers media guide. Stoffel got a laugh from it. If you happen to be Perry reading this, you’d have to ask Stoffel what he said. It was funny. It was harmless. It was unprintable.

And when he’s on, Stoffel is unhittable, at least for the college kids of the world. We caught him throwing eight pitches at UCLA this spring, sitting at 94.  Stoffel has the fastball and the frame to be a closer, but he knows there’s work to do.

We found him at an off-day workout at Cal State Fullerton.

Baseball Beginnings: Now that you’ve seen Perry in living color, it brings me to the statement that you are probably going to be fast tracked the second you sign. So the question becomes how close do you think you are?
Stoffel: I have no idea. Perry and Schlereth were both pretty high draft picks. Both had comparable stuff and comparable seasons. I’d like to get up there as soon as possible. I think it’s a shorter path to the majors as a closer than as a starter, for sure.

Baseball Beginnings: Do you want to stay a closer? A lot of guys want nothing to do with the bullpen.
Stoffel: I love the bullpen. I switched over my freshman year and haven’t really wanted to go back.

Baseball Beginnings: Did you fight it at first?
Stoffel: I had never thrown out of the bullpen before, so it was a new experience. It took me a couple of weeks to get used to it. Once I got going with it and started having some success, it wasn’t a matter of fighting it at all.

Baseball Beginnings: You found it was a good fit for both stuff and personality?
Stoffel: It felt natural right away.

Baseball Beginnings: How then would you describe yourself as a closer? Do you have that edgy closer mentality?
Stoffel: (Slight chuckle) Somewhat.

Baseball Beginnings: That’s sounds like  a Yes. Did becoming a closer speed up your development?
Stoffel: I feel so. If I remained a starter, who knows what would have happened. The way I took off as a closer and the success I had is going to help me get there.

Baseball Beginnings: Once you started closing did you recognize it was your ticket?
Stoffel: Yeah, fair to say.

Baseball Beginnings: All I saw you throw was eight fastballs at UCLA, which is your job, to come out and blow gas. I get that. But describe yourself as a complete pitcher.
Stoffel: For me, it’s just fastball and breaking ball. No change-up and go right at guys. It’s a hard breaking ball, 80-81 mph.

Baseball Beginnings: How is that coming along?
Stoffel: I’m struggling with it right now. It’s not as sharp as I’d like it to be. It’s more of an out pitch. My plan has pretty much been to get ahead with the fastball then to the hard slider in the dirt, off the plate.

Baseball Beginnings: Are you concerned at all?
Stoffel: If I’m only going to have two pitches, they better be pretty damn good.

Baseball Beginnings: How would you describe your growth as a college pitcher?
Stoffel: It’s been about finding and keeping that same intensity level for me.

Baseball Beginning: What did you get out of being in that bullpen with Perry and Schlereth?
Stoffel:  We had a lot of fun together. We screwed around a fair amount. But we all had a switch in us that when it came time to prepare for the innings we were about to throw, we could switch it on. We all drew together as a pen, I would say, and everyone was adjusted to their roles.

Baseball Beginnings: What kind of things did you get from Perry?
Stoffel: He’s a tough guy. He’s got a lot of, I don’t know, a lot of asshole I guess. You can see it when he throws on the mound. Just his presence is pretty remarkable.

Baseball Beginnings: Like you, he had been a starter.
Stoffel: He struggled some as a starter. He just fit into the bullpen on his own accord. I had one start and it didn’t go well. I got moved to the bullpen and when Schlereth went down with something, the closer role opened up. Andy [Lopez] asked if I could close.

Baseball Beginnings: Did you think you would be seeing Perry in a big league uniform six months later?
Stoffel: I wasn’t surprised. He had a big league fastball and good secondary stuff.

Baseball Beginnings: Was his secondary stuff in college better than your secondary stuff?
Stoffel: It was different stuff. He throws more of a slider, more of a 12-6 slider.

Read Jason Stoffel Scouting report
Watch Jason Stoffel Scouting video
San Francisco Giants Draft Jason Stoffel

Categories: '09 Meet the Player
Tags: Danny Schlereth, Jason Stoffel, Ryan Perry, University of Arizona