Nationals' minor league report: Ditching the curve straightened VanAllen's path

BY RICH CAMPBELL

Date published: 5/17/2008

BY RICH CAMPBELL

Cory VanAllen was running in the outfield on one of the fields at the Nationals' sprawling spring training complex in Viera, Fla., in March when minor league pitching coordinator Spin Williams caught up with him and asked a question that, two months later, seems to have changed VanAllen's career.

"How do you feel about just bagging [the curve ball] and throwing the slider?" Williams asked.

VanAllen's response was exactly what you'd expect from a 23-year-old looking to move up from Single-A in his third professional season: "I'm willing to do whatever."

So began VanAllen's stunning rise among the Nationals' plentiful pool of pitching prospects. After a failed experiment with adding a curve to his repertoire, VanAllen has successfully developed a slider that, as his stats indicate, makes him exponentially more dangerous to hitters.

He will pitch tonight for Double-A Harrisburg with a 5-0 record and a microscopic 0.68 ERA, the lowest of any minor league pitcher with enough innings to qualify.

"It's been exciting," VanAllen said by phone this week. "I really felt like once I just had something that I could throw out there for another look, it would help my fastball and changeup. I feel like my fastball and changeup are good enough to where they can get the job done. Throwing the slider in there just makes it that much better."

VanAllen's fastball and changeup have always been good. The left-hander was drafted by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the third round of the 2003 draft, but he didn't sign and went to Baylor University instead. Washington drafted him in the fifth round of 2006 with hopes that he could develop an effective breaking ball.

He tried to develop a curve over the last year, but he simply wasn't comfortable throwing it. When he threw it well, he would struggle to duplicate it. There were also problems with his arm slot. That contributed to his 5-14 record and 4.41 ERA in his first two minor league seasons.

"I think [the slider] goes along better with me because I like to work off my fastball and I can throw my slider hard," VanAllen said. "Whereas I felt with the curve ball that I had to kind of let up a little bit, and that mentally didn't work out for me."

Date published: 5/17/2008