MANCHESTER, N.H. -- Zach Stewart learned a lot from pitching coach Mark Allen in junior college with the North Central Texas Lions.
The New Hampshire Fisher Cats learned strikeouts were bad for his pitch count.
The right-hander also learned to respect the game — one of the themes in the minor-league movie Bull Durham.
When Domonic Brown of the Reading Phillies hit a three-run homer, the Philadelphia Phillies prospect stood and watched it Sunday.
Stewart had seen enough.
“Their first base coach is yelling: ‘Run! run!’ ” said New Hampshire manager Luis Rivera. “He hit the ball over the 306-foot sign down the right-field line.”
When Brown reached third on his home-run trot, Stewart walked over for a chat.
“I told him I didn’t mind him hitting it, but run,” Stewart said Tuesday before a game against the New Britain Rock Cats in the double-A Eastern League.
“I said a lot of unprintable things,” said Stewart, as memories of Paul Spoljaric chasing Lee Delfino around the bases at Christie Pits danced through my head.
“Basically, it’s a respect thing. I don’t stand there and punch my fist after an out.”
Stewart grew up in Holliday, Tex., a town of 1,600, without a stop light (“We do have one blinking light”).
Take that Dustin McGowan, who grew up in Ludowici, Ga., a one-light town.
“My favourite growing up was Nolan Ryan, the most intimidating pitcher in the game,” Stewart said. “Brown is a heck of a hitter, but Ryan wouldn’t have put up with that.”
Brown’s fifth-inning homer evened the score 5-5, but New Hampshire scored seven in the bottom half and Stewart gained the victory in a 16-5 win, as ex-Jay Ty Taubenheim took the loss.
“He goes after hitters, pitches quickly,” Rivera said. “He’s not a guy who goes for a walk around the mound after each 2-0 count. He’s aggressive with his two-seamer and has a good slider. He has two-plus pitches.”
Stewart was at triple-A with Louisville in July when he heard talk he could be dealt.
“My name came up but there were lots of names,” said Stewart, who the Jays acquired with third baseman Edwin Encarnacion and reliever Josh Roenicke for Scott Rolen on July 31.
“J.P. Ricciardi told me I’d go to triple-A Las Vegas and be in relief to keep my innings down,” Stewart said. The Reds had taken the same approach.
Stewart worked 33 innings at class-A Dayton and class-A Sarasota as a reliever in 2008. He pitched 105 innings as a starter at Sarasota and class-A Carolina, then worked in relief at Louisville and Vegas.
At North Central he learned to pitch with a goal of retiring each hitter within three pitches.
“Some guys can strike out 12,” Stewart said. “I’d rather be in the game, look up and it’s the eighth.”
He transferred to the Texas Tech Red Raiders, where former Jays scouting director Chris Buckley of the Reds selected him in the third round of the 2008 draft, giving him a $450,000 US signing bonus.
After spending half of 2009 at triple-A, what’s he doing at double-A?
“The Jays were very good,” Stewart said. “A week in they called me in. Cito Gaston and Bruce Walton said I was going to start here. I’d gotten guys out at triple-A, but I hadn’t started there.”
Stewart donned a Delta Dental mascot costume before Monday’s game. With toothbrush in hand, he pretended to clean the teeth of roomie Kyle Drabek and take grounders at second (“That didn’t work well.”) Stewart was unsure if it was “Mickey the Molar, or Tommy the Tooth.”
Stewart had been anointed the No. 1 prospect in the Jays system by Baseball America in October. Drabek took the title in December when acquired in the Roy Halladay deal with Philadelphia.
Did Stewart pass the No. 1 baton to Drabek?
“The kid did a pretty job of taking it,” Stewart said.
Kid?
Stewart is 23.
Drabek is 22.
bob.elliott@sunmedia.ca
