Baseball Beginnings

By John Klima
July 1, 2009

(photo: UA)

Preston Guilmet will never be the guy who blows you away. He’s long understood that he’ll have to exceed expectations at every stop. Guilmet achieved that in the draft, upping his stock from a 22nd rounder as a junior in 2008 to a 9th rounder in 2009.

Guys like this sometimes surprise people in the baseball industry. They get outs, they eat innings, they grind, they never miss a start and next thing you know, they have 15 wins.

Guys who do that tend to move up, even if it’s slower, and even if they’re never going to be anyone’s radar gun darling. It never worked that way for the tall and lean right-hander at the University of Arizona, where he was a workhorse for four seasons.

It won’t work that way in pro ball, where he will have to dispel a whole new set of expectations. But you never know – there are guys like this who end up in the big leagues after being told they have no business there at all. You just never know which kid is going to make it.

Guilmet knows this is what he’s in for as a professional, but as he explained to Baseball Beginnings a month before the Cleveland Indians drafted him, that’s nothing new. He’s got the right name for what he pitches with – guile. Sometimes guile resonates longer than stuff. A pitcher geared for a marathon instead of a sprint, he discussed what it is like to be a marksman in a machine gunner’s game.

Baseball Beginnings: How do you think you got better from high school through college?
Guilmet: I would say by knowing the game so much better. The stuff, or whatever you want to call it, the physical aspects and the location of it I think comes with age. The more you know, the better you’re going to have to be with it. The biggest thing that I’ve learned here is performing in big situations, in front of big crowds against some of the best hitters and teams in the country. I don’t ever remember having to compete the way I did in college to the way I did in high school.

Baseball Beginnings: What do you throw now?
Guilmet: Same stuff. Fastball, slider, change-up, split. I never threw a change-up in high school. Had it and never threw it. In college, I started throwing it more, mainly this year. I had been a two or three pitch guy in college. This year, I started trying to work in all four of them. Slider and splits for outs, change-ups for outs. They’re all out pitches, for me at least. Really try to throw a lot of strikes.

Baseball Beginnings: Did you contemplate not coming back this year?
Guilmet: Over the summer, we tried to work something out with the A’s. The 22^nd round, I felt I could do better than that as a player. I had no problem coming back to school for another year and getting a degree out of it and another college season.

Baseball Beginnings: When do you think you’ve been your best as a college pitcher?
Guilmet: Physically, I felt real good my sophomore year and this year I feel pretty good, too. My junior year was a horrible year. A lot correlated to not feeling real well all year. I went through a dead arm period. Who knows what to call it? My velocity wasn’t down, but I just didn’t feel good. I wasn’t hurt. There was no physical problems, no surgeries, no structural damage, but it just didn’t feel good.

Baseball Beginnings: Did you pitch last summer or take it off?
Guilmet: I took it off. I’ve taken off every summer in college just because of the innings I’ve accumulated over the seasons. It’s always been the best decision. Last summer I went home and got a lot of work in working out off the field because I didn’t want a repeat of last year.

Baseball Beginnings: How would you describe yourself as a pitcher?
Guilmet: I’m a guy that is going to go out and throw a lot of strikes. I know who I am and I’ll go out and make a lot of adjustments. I don’t really think there will be anything, at least right away, that will stop me or hold me back. Everything I’ve ever faced as a pitcher, I feel like I’ve adjusted and succeeded.

Baseball Beginnings: Do you feel that because you’re a right-hander who won’t light up a gun that you are easily marginalized?
Guilmet: Definitely, hands down. I’ve had to fight and earn for every step I’ve taken and everything I’ve got. Even coming to college, I got passed over a lot because I throw 87-88. People don’t like that, I guess. Personally, I don’t think it’s a factor if you can locate and change speeds to get outs. But I’ve been down that road, been there and done that.

Baseball Beginnings: Well, there have been right-handers who are not overpowering but have been successful through location, movement and changing speeds.
Guilmet: I believe you. I know who they are and what they do. That’s what I’ve always had to be.

Categories: '09 Meet the Player
Tags: Arizona, Cleveland Indians, Preston Guilmet