Dave Albee-Marin Independent Journal
SAN FRANCISCO - The batter standing in the batting cage underneath the stands at the Giants ballpark was caught looking.
"Whoa," said Tyler Walker, bat in hand, gazing at a knee-high fastball. "Nice pitch."
The pitcher who delivered it did not respond. He turned and prepared to throw his next pitch, appreciating Walker's comment but knowing full well that what really counts is how well that pitch will play some day up the steps and out on the mound in the middle of a Major League Baseball diamond. That's where Jesse Foppert longs to be and it seems a greater distance to cover than a hop, skip and jump from the batting cage in the middle of winter.
"I just need to get back in the swing of things," said Foppert, the one-time Giants rookie pitching phenom from San Rafael trying to make a comeback five years later at the age of 27. "I need to re-establish myself."
Foppert picked the right place. In 2003, the 6-foot-6 right-hander, a former high second-round draft pick, was in the starting rotation and won eight games on a team that won 100 games and the NL West. It was the last time the Giants made the playoffs and the beginning of Foppert's struggles. He had elbow ligament replacement surgery, aka Tommy John surgery, with the Giants late that year and had another elbow surgery through the same incision in 2006 after the Giants traded him to the Seattle Mariners. He has pitched in only four big-league games and won none since his rookie season, but he's back with the Giants and working out again at AT&T Park with Walker, the Giants relief pitcher who grew up in Ross.
"It's just our winter crew," Walker said from the Giants dugout in the empty stadium. "We've been like the only ones here for the last five years. It's really a blessing for us to come in here."
"It's like we have the place to ourselves," Foppert said.
Their typical weekday morning routine is to pitch in the bullpen then run on the field. But because of a recent motocross event at the park, there are mounds of dirt spread out from foul line to foul line.
"Walking out there is like a scene out of (the video game) Atari Pitfall. Jumping on logs in a river," Walker joked.
"With this mess, we try to improvise," Foppert said.
The Giants pitchers might sprint on the concourse between foul-line poles or run stadium steps in the upper deck or, as they did last week, run up the ramp on the left-field side of the ballpark from field level to the top then take the fifth-floor elevator to the bottom and wince and repeat.
"Breathing the (car) exhaust from (King Street) all the time," Foppert quipped.
Finally, Foppert and Walker retreat to the team's training room where they lift weights to music behind a door that leads to the team's empty clubhouse. On that door, someone scribbled in chalk "BELIEVE! NEVER QUIT!"
There is motivation and weight machines and music everywhere you look.
"It's nice being on the hometown team," Foppert said.
It hasn't been easy for Foppert to stay on it. The last time the Giants saw him, in spring training in Arizona, he was a Mariners minor-league pitcher. He walked the bases loaded on 12 pitches.
"That's the way my bullpens were going before that," Foppert said. "I guess it made it a little more disappointing doing it against the hometown team."
The Mariners released him in spring training, the Giants picked him up and sent him to Triple-A Fresno. But Foppert still had control problems and he was assigned to the Arizona Fall League.
"I was hoping to spend (only) a couple weeks (at Fresno) and I spent the whole summer," Foppert said. "It's not where you want to be in the middle of summer."
Nevertheless, Foppert started making progress when his delivery dropped down from over-the-top to three-quarters. He hasn't had much of a chance to test it in live action. Foppert pitched only 10 innings for the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers in 2006 and just one inning in the Arizona league, yielding five runs and four walks.
"The strength is back. I need to get the consistency back. I feel probably the best I've felt in a couple of years," he said. "It's been frustrating just because I know it's there. There are days when I feel my arm is back to where it was before (surgeries) but doing that day to day has been tough. I go out some days and I feel like I just had surgery 10 days prior."
Foppert and the Giants will get a gauge when he reports to the Giants' minor league camp later this month. Ideally, he'd like to pitch well enough this spring to start the regular season at Triple-A Fresno. The dream is to return to AT&T Park when the ballpark is full.
"I made it to the big leagues so quick. It's almost like I didn't have time to enjoy it," Foppert said. "It's like I'm doing it all over again. I've got a little bit different outlook. I'm enjoying every day I can put on a uniform."
For now, Foppert is wearing workout gear. He goes to the ballpark every weekday morning and puts in the time that he hopes will propel him back to the big leagues.
"He looks great. He always works hard. He's always in great shape," said the 31-year-old Walker, who has rebounded successfully from Tommy John surgery. "He's ready to go. I expect to see him (in San Francisco) this year."
What do the Giants have to lose? They're trying to rebuild their team in the post Barry Bonds Era and they're looking for any players to step up and make a difference.
"It's a good place to be right now," Foppert said. "Everyone's got a chance."
Foppert has another chance.
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