Giants expect him to bring plenty of heat
Andrew Baggarly - Mercury News
Brian Wilson has dreamt about striking out the final batter to clinch a World Series, and while the details are fluid, one important element never changes.
Wilson always throws an overpowering fastball.
"I don't want to end the World Series on a slider in the dirt, like I've seen," the Giants' brash yet sober right-hander said. "Even if the hitter knows an inside fastball is coming, I want to paint it, have him swing through it and have him know he's been overtaken.
"It's that competitive edge. It's saying, 'I'm going to throw this by you and your bat is going to feel like it weighs seven pounds.' Not, 'Oh, I tricked you, I fooled you.'
"So what if it's bad to think that way? The entire game is built on challenges, failures and successes. That's why people tune in, why they come to the games - to see that challenge."
Does this sound like someone bold enough to handle the pressure of being a major league closer? Does it sound like Wilson could be the answer to the Giants' ninth-inning woes, which have dogged them since Robb Nen sacrificed his career to help push them to the 2002 World Series?
The Giants sure think so. Manager Bruce Bochy awarded the closer job to Wilson before the edgy 25-year-old threw his first pitch of the spring.
"We're not going to go back and forth on this," Bochy said. "We want Brian to be relaxed."
Wilson doesn't talk like someone glancing over his shoulder. He wants to be the gladiator in the ring, vanquishing foes with fastballs.
Make no mistake, Wilson also has a biting slider reminiscent of Nen's signature out pitch. But Wilson doesn't plan to throw many of them. He wants to stay with his hardest stuff: a four-seam fastball and a cut fastball that he began to throw in 2006.
"It can drop, go sideways, tilt up . . . " Wilson said. "It's devastating on the inside corner to a righty because it's coming right at them, then at the last second it hovers back in the strike zone. Or it looks like a fat fastball down the middle, then it moves off the plate and breaks a bat. It's just an awesome weapon."
Wilson's fascination with the cutter began years earlier while growing up in Connecticut and watching Mariano Rivera on New York Yankees telecasts. One day, the broadcasters showed the way Rivera grips his famous cutter.
"I always kept it in the back of my mind," Wilson said.
It came rushing back when the Giants traded for Mike Stanton, who pitched with Rivera in New York. Wilson asked Stanton to demonstrate the cutter, and a few days later, he called catcher Eliezer Alfonzo to the mound.
"Hey, we're going to throw cutters today," Wilson told Alfonzo. "I know I don't have one, but let's make today the day."'
Wilson's first attempt made the right-handed batter raise his arms, thinking it was inside. Then the pitch zipped across the plate for a strike. It was a watershed moment, but don't bother asking Wilson who was at the plate.
"I can't recall any hitters I face," he said. "I don't want to hear, 'Stay away from the outside corner with this guy.' I'm that arrogant on the mound. I feel if I throw a fastball down the middle, he's not going to hit it."
Wilson believes he can take a page from Rivera and throw nearly all cutters - even if it takes out the guesswork for hitters. Giants catcher Bengie Molina smiled when told of the plan.
"That's great," Molina said. "But he should think about throwing that 99 mph fastball, too."
Molina loves Wilson's competitive streak. It reminds him of Troy Percival, whom he caught with the Los Angeles Angels.
"No fear of a one-run lead, no fear of the ninth inning and no fear of the hitter at the plate," Molina said. "That's Percy, and I see the same thing with Brian. He showed last year he's ready for that job."
As Giants fans painfully recall, Percival threw the final pitch of the 2002 World Series. He didn't strike out Kenny Lofton, but with the tying runs on base, he induced the clinching fly-out to center field.
He threw a fastball, of course.
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