Rick Scuteri-USA TODAY Sports
SACRAMENTO — Sam Selman’s breakthrough came on the verge of quitting.
He was a late-20s career minor leaguer who had just declared free agency, his time with the Royals having run out at Triple-A. In October, he enlisted in a data-driven baseball program in Washington, Driveline, as a last-ditch attempt at salvaging a career.
Internally, he set the hourglass to end at spring training; if he hadn’t heard from a team by then, his life as a pitcher would be over. Though, he wasn’t going to wait to find his next line of work.
“I had three interviews for jobs outside of baseball,” Selman told KNBR from Raley Field last week. “I had a commercial real-estate interview that I was going to go do, I had some buddies that were doing commercial real estate in Santa Monica and Nashville. They connected me with some people – I was on the way out. I was thinking it was over. It was after seven years – you’re 27, going to be 28. It’s tough.”
Selman had heard of Driveline through a Royals pitcher friend, Kyle Zimmer, who had surgery for Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, came back a lesser pitcher, and then emerged from Driveline “healed,” Selman said. So he gave it a try and worked at Driveline for months, a pitcher with lights-out stuff that was never harnessed seeking a route to greater control.
In his final season with Kansas City’s Triple-A squad, he walked 30 in 40 2/3 innings — while striking out 58. The swing-and-miss ability was always there, but placing the ball where it needed to go was a bigger challenge.
He needed to adjust something in his windup that would allow him the control that comes with consistency. Selman compared it to trying to relearn how to ride a bike; he had pitched the same way just about his entire life. At Driveline, they analyzed his delivery and determined he was shifting his weight to the front of his body too soon.
Let the southpaw explain his new method:
“I’m kind of sinking into the back leg,” said Selman, a second-round pick out of Vanderbilt, where he played with Mike Yastrzemski, in 2012. “Normally I would just lift and my weight would already be going toward home plate. And now it’s kind of more of a pause, sinking into the back, loading up the back hamstring, and then throw everything at once and just wait for the arm to catch up with the rest of the body.”
The program’s Pro Day, with dozens of pitchers seeking jobs, was Jan. 14. Selman unveiled his tweaked delivery, and the Giants — with Matt Daniels, the Giants’ new coordinator of pitching analysis being a former Driveline employee — were the first and only to call.
Six months later, Selman is the face of the bullpen reinforcements who gave the Giants the confidence to trade Sam Dyson, Mark Melancon, Drew Pomeranz and Ray Black. His numbers at Triple-A Sacramento with the new approach have been stunning, especially in light of the home run flood Triple-A wide, and Pacific Coast League specific. He’s struck out 65 in 40 innings, putting up a 1.35 ERA. Perhaps most impressively for Selman, he’s walked 13 in the span.
“I think he’d be ready to go to the major league bullpen at any time,” Kyle Haines, the Giants’ director of player development, said by phone Tuesday. “He’s been as impressive as any left-handed reliever in minor league baseball this year. The stuff’s never been in question, it was whether it was going to be in the strike zone enough for it to play.
“He’s done it not in April or May, which some guys will do for small stretches, he’s done it every single outing this year, including spring training. He seems to be a new guy.”
Selman feels different, if not new. His power stuff, a low-to-mid 90s fastball and slider, is still there. But last season he walked 6.04 per nine innings at Triple-A. This year with Sacramento, the number is down to 2.93.
When Selman officially arrives on the Giants roster and provides another setup man for Bruce Bochy is only a matter of time as the deadline smoke clears. He said Farhan Zaidi has reached out to him to let him know he’s on the radar. Selman has a list of contacts in his phone he’s ready to call when it happens.
“You go from being a prospect and then kind of slowly dwindling on the other side of things and just kind of sync up at the right time,” said Selman, who’s from Austin. “… You got to understand that tough things go on along the way.”