Under Close Watch Of Tigers, Verlander Takes Another Step Toward Return With Latest Bullpen
By Ashley Dunkak
@AshleyDunkak
DETROIT - In another step toward a return from the disabled list, Detroit Tigers starting pitcher Justin Verlander threw a 25-pitch bullpen Tuesday. Verlander said he will have to see how he feels Wednesday, but his immediate reaction was that the session went well.
"I don't feel like I have to work through anything to do what I want, which today was throw a light bullpen, was able to do that fine," Verlander said. "I don't think it's big news that I got off the mound today. It was light.
"I think a big indicator will be - and I hate to say this because this means you guys will ask me tomorrow - is how my arm responds," Verlander added, "because going through the process before I noticed that I was able to do almost everything that I wanted, throwing-wise, but once I really threw an exaggerated bullpen or the sim game, it was the day after that really I noticed different soreness that shouldn't be there. That's something I'll be cognizant of moving forward."
Verlander said he threw the bullpen at about 80 percent.
"It's like the intensity before the intensity," Verlander said, noting the explanation might be hard to understand. "It's like you're throwing before you're really throwing. That kind of step before the step ... There was some effort level there, but it wasn't lobbing it and it wasn't that last little drive of the legs or that last little kind of like full body into it."
Though eager to return from the disabled list, where he has been since the beginning of the season because of a triceps strain, Verlander is trying not to push too hard. It helps that he has a slew of observers every time he throws. The group watching him Tuesday included manager Brad Ausmus, pitching coach Jeff Jones and fellow starter David Price.
"I had like 10 people out there watching me, David being one of them," Verlander said. "David's kind of gone through something a little similar in his career, too, and so he's kind of been the guy on my shoulder, being like, 'Hey, take it easy, you've just got to give it time to heal,' so he was out there, and I'm sure that if I tried to step on the gas a little bit, he'd have been like, 'Hey Ver, slow it down,' along with the trainers and Jeff and Brad."
For Verlander, slow and steady is not the natural pace. The Tigers understand the pitcher's tendency to push, and they have acted accordingly.
"That's part of the reason I'm here after being in Lakeland and probably throwing more than I should have," Verlander said with a laugh. "They were like, 'Hey, we need to have our eye on you.'"
He did not intentionally overdo anything, Verlander added, but it is his personality to try to go as hard as possible.
"That's just me," Verlander said. "It's not like, 'Hey, they're not watching, let me go steal a cookie out of the cookie jar.' That's just the person that I am, and they know that, which is why they're watching me so closely just because they know my personality.
"I told [head athletic trainer] Kevin [Rand], after I get the green light it's going to be hard to slow me down because I've been chomping at the bit," Verlander added with a grin. "I'm ready to go. So we've kind of got to find a middle ground where he's trying to hold me back and I'm pulling as hard as I can to get out there."
Ausmus also gave a positive review of Verlander's work Tuesday, and he was cautiously optimistic.
"We've been here before, where he felt good off the mound," Ausmus said. "He just couldn't get past that facing hitters phase. He looked good today, he looked free and easy, his action was good, his arm was good, he said he felt good, there was no irritation or pain, so all those point in the right direction, but I want to get over that last hump where we can get him into games and not have any side effects that evening or the next morning."
Verlander noted that being unable to contribute for the team has been difficult, especially given he initially expected to not even miss a start for the triceps strain. The wait has not made him anxious, however, because he has gotten checked so often - three MRIs since leaving a simulated game early - that he can be sure that his situation is no worse than it is believed to be.
"The main thing that helped me not have too much anxiety or get too worried was the fact that I've been having MRI after MRI and there was no structural damage," Verlander said. "Even the muscles that I strained, they weren't pulled off the bone. There were no tendons loose. Everything was secure. It's just people reiterating to me, 'You have to let it heal. That's it.'
"That's made it a little easier for me, I guess," Verlander added. "If there was something a little in the gray area in there, that'd be a different story, but they're like, 'Hey, shoulder looks good. Just got to let that area heal.'"