TheChestbump.com

Since the news times only leaves their articles up for a certain period of time before they get archived I copied the article here for your extended reading pleasure.  The original article is over at the danbury news times website.

Tarsi adjusts on the mound
Former Danbury High ace chases big league dream
By John Saward
CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Article Last Updated: 08/22/2008 02:28:45 AM EDT

As Michael Tarsi’s first full minor league season nears an end in desolate Beloit, Wisconsin, the former Danbury High ace finds himself humbled by inconsistencies which have been mostly foreign to him until now.

Pitching for the Beloit Snappers, a Minnesota Twins affiliate, Tarsi’s ERA is 5.31, he’s learning to throw a changeup while fighting the notion that he’s simply a two-pitch pitcher, he’s been moved to the bullpen temporarily, and he just turned 22 years-old on Aug. 11.

Almost halfway across the country, Tarsi is a long way from the land where he once led his high school team to a state championship.

But he remains philosophical and motivated, if frustrated and a little impatient.There’s something to be learned, and a better player to hopefully become because of it.

As a player in the Fall Instructional League last year, Tarsi was instructed to throw a complete nine innings without using his slider at all. Without the slider — as much his trademark as his lanky 6-11 frame — Tarsi struggled.

“I’m thinking ‘Wow, my arm is killing me, I can’t throw a fastball by anyone,’” said Tarsi. “And it killed me because I couldn’t throw a fastball faster than 86, 87. And I couldn’t throw the changeup for strikes. I didn’t have an out pitch, I was just hoping they’d miss my changeup or hit the fastball in play and get an out.”

Tarsi points to a game against the Clinton LumberKings on July 3 as a microcosm of this season’s struggles. Tarsi
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pitched superbly despite the no-decision, striking out 11 over seven innings, allowing one run on eight hits and a walk. But Tarsi was overly reliant on his slider, pitching for immediate results rather than honing his changeup.

“I ended up striking out 11 guys, but I threw 45 percent of my pitches for sliders,” he said. “I wasn’t able to move my arm for three days after that. I realized the importance of learning a third pitch, keeping hitters off balance. I’m not going to be a strikeout pitcher in the long run.”

“What’s frustrating to me is, my slider is my out pitch, I’ll be up there on the mound, I have this guy 1-1. I could throw a slider — I could throw a slider at any count and get results, get an out or get him to swing and miss. But you’re on the mound and if the catcher puts down the changeup, I’ve got to get to the point where I can throw it with conviction. But I can’t do that yet because it’s a new pitch. It’s frustrating because I know that I could get the outs with the slider. In the minors it’s not so much result oriented, but it’s kind of a buzz kill, trying to compete and trying to get better in the long run.”

Tarsi, who said he put on about 30 pounds in the offseason as a result of an improved diet, has thrown 125 innings this year for Beloit, the second most on the team. He was primarily a starter, but has been pitching out of the bullpen since late July.

“Last year in rookie ball, they really kept you to a pitch count, didn’t let you go past the sixth inning,” Tarsi said. “I’m really trying to get used to everything, pitching every fifth day. It’s not like in college; you don’t have seven days in between.”

So far, Tarsi has found a mentor in pitching coach Gary Lucas, and at times finds refuge in a tight group of friends and fellow pitchers on the team. Lucas finished his career with an ERA of 3.01 and a 1.26 WHIP, pitching for the Padres, Expos, and Angels over eight seasons.

“He’s really understanding,” Tarsi said of Lucas. “He was the same style pitcher I hope to be — a fastball changeup guy — and he taught me a lot. When to throw (the changeup), where to throw it. I’ve been up and down with it this year, but I’m hoping it gets better.”

Since moving to the bullpen, Tarsi has a 2.51 ERA over 14? 1/3 innings, striking out 10 and walking four. Still young and still a prospect, he sees the benefit to all of this.

“It has been a huge learning experience,” he said. “I’ve learned more about baseball this season than I have in my entire career. What I really want to do is go out and shut guys down for the rest of the season, get my confidence back up. Especially with my change up. That’s what I really want to do going into the off-season.”

Mike tossed 7 innings on the 3rd but had to settle for another no decision…  Tarsi gave up 8 hits in those 7 innings only allowing 2 earned runs and striking out a season high 11.  Tarsi also walked 1 making his total for the season 83 strikeouts to only 23 walks.

The snappers ended up losing the game to Clinton by the score of 7-2.  The Snappers have begun playing much better ball than the beginning of the season.  They were as far back as 11 from Clinton and have moved to within 1.5 games of first place.

Mike threw again last night for the first time since the all star break for the Beloit Snappers.  He had a rough first inning with a couple bleeder hits.  The Snappers ended up winning the game 8 to 5.

Tim found a link to a great writeup on Tarsi, which can be read here.

Mike Tarsi started last night for the Beloit snappers and threw 6 innings giving up 3 earned runs and allowing only 6 hits.  He walked 3 but none of the walks scored.  After walking 2 with 1 out, he came back to strike out back to back hitters.  Tars struck out another 7 as his change up was nasty, for a total of 50 on the season.

Tarsi came out in the sixth in a tie ball game.  The snappers gave up 2 more in the top of the 7th but came back scoring 3 in the bottom half to end the scoring and take the win at 6-5.  Their record improves to 34-30.
Mike’s era has dropped to 3.43 in his last 10 games.  He is continuing to bring down his overall era, currently at 5.53.

Seeing that (a) we’re baseball lovers here, and (b) we just went to a major league game and witnessed ALL of the following, I thought I’d post Maxim’s 10 dumb things baseball fans get excited about. Check. It. Out. I laughed aloud on a couple of them.

http://www.maxim.com/Dumbthingsbaseballfansgetexcitedabout/articles/1/6756.aspx

Mike Tarsi has been lights out in back to back starts now.  Taking on first place Clinton, Tarsi threw 6 innings giving up only one earned run and 6 hits while striking out 7 and walking only 1.  This ends the snappers three game skid including a loss in the first game of the double header.  Tarsi’s E.R.A is all the way down to 5.6 now, which is very impressive.  Over the past two games Tarsi has thrown 12 innings and given up 1 run, 8 hits, 12 strikeouts and 1 walk.  Very impressive streak.  Way to shove Tars!

Saturday the Beloit Snappers swept a double header against the Burlington Bees. Mike got the the start in the first game and has continued to throw well. He threw 6 innings out of a 7 inning game facing only 1 batter over the minimum. Tarsi’s change up was the best it’s been all season and his 8 strikeouts are the most so far this year. He only gave up 2 hits, picked one of those guys off and issued no walks. He lowered his E.R.A to 6.09 which is a very deceiving mark for this lefty.

Link Roundup:

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Mike finally got his first win as a Beloit Snapper yesterday in an 11-3 win. The game started out rough for Mike, giving up 3 runs in the first, but he slammed the door shut after a lead off double in the second. Tarsi pitched 6 innings giving up 9 hits, 5 of which were in the first inning. Mike finished the game walking 3 and striking out 7. It’s so great to finally get that first win under his belt.

Since the first three games of the season mike has posted a much more tarsi like era of 3.38 over the last 5 games.

Link Round Up:

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Mike had another tough outing last night giving up five earned runs… which sound like they shouldn’t have been earned. Listening to the games on the web casts is very tough and somewhat decieving. I read all the time on different blogs about the Beloit Snappers and it seems that there is a clear trend. Poor defense.

At more than one point last night I heard the announcer for the Bees describe a ground ball going “under the glove” of Snapper infielders, plays that just should be made. The third inning of last night’s game was a rough one for Mike, allowing a couple singles and a walk, which didn’t help, but when you give a team extra outs, that is always going to hurt. A botched double play would have ended the inning only and stopped the Bee’s scoring at 2. It’s tough without watching any of the talent, but I am going to have to agree with Travis from Travis Twins Talk when he grades the defense as a F. Travis also graded the offense as a D+. Pitching can only do so much when they cannot rely on their defense to make plays. Bloop hits are one thing, but allowing fly balls to drop beside you, mis-playing a flyball, allowing a grounder under your glove, blowing perfect double play opportunities, it’s no wonder Travis also gives the Snappers starting pitching a D-.

Hopefully the Snappers can turn it around and get some of their players back to 100% health.

Mike Tarsi is taking the hill tonight against the Burlington Bees.  He is looking to extend his streak of great outings for the Beloit Snappers.  You can tune into the game by visiting the Minor League Baseball gameday audio site and finding today’s game in the list.  You will be asked to register for the site, but it’s very simple and straight forward and FREE!  Check back for the game’s results.

Mike Tarsi seemed to be back on top of his game tonight as he pitched 8 innings against the whitecaps allowing only 2 unearned runs. Tarsi had been in a funk his first couple starts and with this game should drop his astronomical 16 era down to around 8. Great job tars.

Tonight happened to be a rehab game for Detroit Tigers star center fielder Curtis Granderson. Granderson led off the bottom of the first with a strikeout. I can’t tell you how proud that makes me as an older brother to see my little brother strike out an accomplished major league player still in his prime twice. The only runs of the game came in the 3rd inning on a strange set of plays. There was a single and an error at second when the runner slid into the shortstop causing him to drop the ball. Granderson who wouldn’t have gotten to bat with a runner in scoring position hit a triple past the first basemen. The next batter hit a sac fly to center to score granderson to make it a 2-0 game.

Granderson wound up 1 for 4 with a triple and 2 strike outs.

Mike Tarsi finished up the game from that point on retiring 17 out of the next 19 batters. Tarsi’s velocity was on point tonight. While his fastball topped out around 90, he was spot on with his offspeed stuff. At one point he threw a 63mph changeup… that is a difference of 27mph! I want to be the first to congratulate him on an excellent pitching effort.

Sometimes even the flight of an angel hits turbulence. ~Astrid Alauda

MJT

The 2008 MLB season has started and with that comes MiLB. The Beloit Snappers are starting their season tonight against the Kane County Cougars. No word yet on when Mike is pitching(maybe he can help me out) but good luck to Beloit this year none the less. We miss you out here Tars, but best of luck out there.

If you haven’t seen, Taylor’s Twins Talk has done a roster preview of the SNappers in which Mike is mentioned as a starting pitcher.

Just as a round up, Mike is up against his stats of a 2.22 ERA in 52.2 innings with a 59-13 K-BB ratio. Very excited to see how his hard work has paid off. After living with him over the off-season I can really appreciate his work ethic that I was never able to fully see while he was at UCONN.

Make sure to check out the Beloit Snappers website.

So after getting to hang and share a room with my brother again for the first time in 8 years (after moving this fall) he is back playing ball.  Everyone here at home misses you tons Tars, and we would all like to wish you good luck in the upcoming season.

For anyone out there that is looking for updates on Mike’s where abouts and it seems like a great deal of traffic here is googling “mike tarsi”, check back often, I will try and keep you up to date as much as possible.  Looks like it will be Ft. Myers for a few weeks.

Another nice post…

Tarsi is another college draft pick from 2007, joining the Twins organization out of the University of Connecticut. Unlike McCardell, Tarsi started off in Elizabethton immediately; like McCardell, he thrived there. Tarsi posted a 2.22 ERA and 1.18 WHIP in 52.2 innings along with a 59-13 K-BB ratio. As with McCardell, there’s a need to consider that Tarsi entered Elizabethton having pitched in major college action, and was therefore relatively advanced. However, his numbers are too good to ignore, and it will be interesting to watch him play with a full season team in 2008.

You can find the whole list at Taylor’s Twins Talk.  Mike was ranked the #20  starting pitcher in the twins organization by Taylor.  Keep in mind that his list he created includes current MLB starting pitchers.  #1 obviously being Francisco Liriano.  I’m not sure who Taylor is, but I like his style.

After putting on a lot of weight this off season and some speed on his fb, i’m anxious to see how well he does with Beloit.

Whether you frequently read here or know me personally, you know that we are following the career of Mike Tarsi very closely.  It’s extremely satisfying for me as his brother and for all of our family and friends to see things like this written about him.  We are all excited to see how far Mike wants to take this.

SLEEPER ALERT. Tarsi was drafted in the 12th round last year, from the University of Connecticut. His pro debut in the Appy League was very successful, and I think he’s a major sleeper. Tarsi’s velocity can be erratic, at times in the lower 90s but more often in the 85-88 range last year. But he sinks the ball and picks up plenty of grounders, and his curveball and changeup are promising. He’s deadly on left-handed hitters, holding them to a .130 mark for Elizabethton. If he keeps that up he’s got LOOGY potential certainly, but if his command is sharp enough he could start at higher levels. We need to see more, but keep an eye out. Grade C but highly intriguing. - John Sickels

This was taken from a message board.  You can find the original text here.