Ever wonder what life would be like pitching in the major leagues?
According to Milwaukee Brewers starting pitcher Chris Capuano, who graduated from Duke in 2000, it does not require much imagination.
“My life really hasn’t changed a whole lot since college,” Capuano said. “This is kind of like being in a fraternity. For a seven o’clock game I come to the park around two and I’m here until about 11, so you spend a lot of time with these guys—and you get to sleep-in most of the time. It’s a great way to make a living.”
This season has been a breakout one for the southpaw with a degree in economics. Capuano is 14-9 with a 3.61 ERA, but lost his last outing Sunday night against the Atlanta Braves, surrendering four earned runs in seven innings of work.
In his best stretch of the season, from April 28th through June 3rd, Capuano went eight consecutive starts allowing three runs or fewer—quite a feat for a starter with eight career victories entering this year.
Capuano is currently ranked in the top 20 in wins, strikeouts and innings pitched for 2005, while also placing 28th among pitchers in ERA.
For Capuano, being in the zone is all about simplicity.
“When you’re pitching good, not much is going through your head,” Capuano said. “It seems really easy. You can’t imagine why you’d have any difficulties out there. It’s when you have a couple of bad games that you start thinking and the game gets a lot more complicated.”
For Capuano, the key to making the jump from successful collegiate hurler to solid big league pitcher was expanding his repertoire. Coming out of college with an above-average fastball and slider, Capuano added a changeup while playing in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ farm system. During the time he spent with the Single A club in South Bend, Ind., pitching coach Royal Clayton worked closely with Capuano.
“He showed me the grip on how to throw the changeup, and we would play these games while I was pitching where I would call the pitches for an inning and then the next inning he’d call all the pitches,” Capuano said. “He’d call like three or four changeups in a row, and I’d be down 2-1 or 3-1 in the count, and he’s making me throw that changeup. He got me used to throwing it in any count and having confidence in it.”
Capuano’s newfound success is even more impressive considering he is only three seasons removed from ligament replacement surgery in his left elbow, a procedure more commonly known as Tommy John surgery. The lefty spent 2003 going back and forth between Triple A and the big leagues while with the Diamondbacks organization and was traded to Milwaukee in the subsequent off-season. Given the chance to start regularly for the small-market Brewers in 2004, Capuano pulled a quad muscle early in the season and never regained his form, finishing the year 6-8 in 17 starts.
Over each of his three seasons in the majors, and even during this year’s successful campaign, Capuano has found that certain hitters have always given him more trouble than the rest.
“Well I did face Barry Bonds a few times,” Capuano said of one nemesis. “With him you try to make perfect pitches right on the corners, and if you walk him you don’t really care. It seems like every time you miss in the strike zone he hits a home run really hard somewhere.
“And then the other guy I’d say is kind of random—you know every pitcher seems to have one guy who kind of gives him trouble. [That guy] is Mark Loretta of the Padres. He’s always hit the ball real well off of me for some reason.”
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