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EL1 Reading Fightin Phils

Minix, promoted to AAA, could "stick" in the bigs

August 3, 2005 - Eastern League (EL1)
Reading Fightin Phils News Release


It was June 17, a Friday night at FirstEnergy Stadium, and Travis Minix, who earned a promotion to Scranton on July 31, had just pitched out of a sixth-inning jam in relief of Mike Smith.

When he came out for the seventh inning, Harrisburg Senators manager Keith Bodie had approached Chris Conroy, the home-plate umpire.

The next thing you knew, the umps were examining Minix's hat as though it had just fallen from the sky. They decided there was enough (illegal) pine tar in there to warrant an ejection, and subsequently, a three-day suspension.

Until now, nobody has heard Minix's side of the story: "It's not really a touchy situation; a lot of guys do it. If you watch the big league pitchers on TV, they have it somewhere. My hat was an old hat. It's the hat I had from Day 1 and it was grungy. But a lot of it wasn't pine tar. It was mostly resin and sweat and dirt.

"There's a similar smell between resin and pine tar, and that's what they went by. It was sticky, too, but resin's sticky.

"Do I think I should have been suspended? Yeah. The rules are the rules. The guys on our team gave me crap about it, but I told them I'm trying to even the count. Guys don't put pine tar in their hat to make the ball move, to sink or slide or ride or whatever. They're just trying to get a grip. The hitters put pine tar on their bats to get a grip."

Hey, the way Minix has pitched the last couple of months, and especially since serving his suspension, if it were up to me I wouldn't care if he had shrimp scampi in his hat. Actually, he could have a pot roast simmering in there, and the way he has been going it wouldn't matter.

Minix - he'll turn 28 on Aug. 8 - was 1-1 with a sizzling 1.74 ERA in 38 games when he was sent to the Red Barons with 53 strikeouts and 14 walks. He had a 1.21 ERA since April 30 and hadn't allowed a run since the pine-tar incident: 13 appearances, 19.1 innings. Right-handers were barely hitting .200 against him.

So how did Tampa Bay allow the right-hander to get away? Actually the Devil Rays released him on March 29, and the next day he was a Phillie.

"It was a shock," he said about the Rays' decision. He had put up solid numbers with the organization in his six years there, and last year had finished at Triple-A Durham. And he had put together an impressive spring training, with nine scoreless innings to his credit.

"They just said they didn't have room for me anymore," he said. "It's the same old story you hear all the time: Every player they had they wished would be like me, but at the same time they were letting me go. But that's baseball and there's nothing you can do about it. I've been following the scoreboard, and Durham's not really doing too hot right now."

Minix - he features a fastball, slider, changeup - attributes his recent success to just making better pitches and staying ahead in the count. There was no drastic makeover, no wild mechanical change. It's just been better pitches, better results.

"He's organized, he's ready to go, and he's on time," said Phillies pitching coach Tom Filer. "All those things have come into fruition where he sees it starting to come together. There's a time and a place in a career when it all starts to come together. I think for Travis it's starting to come right now."

The thing is, nobody saw this coming back in April, Filer included.

"Oh, no, not at all," he said. "In the beginning of the season he just looked like one of the guys out of the bullpen. He's earned the right to be where he is, and the consistency of his pitches has gotten so much better, especially his fastball command on the outside portion of the plate."

Is Minix a gamer? Well, the night after Bodie created the fuss, Minix was back on the mound. What did he do? He drilled Edgar Gonzalez, the leadoff hitter in the ninth.

"That was a purpose pitch," he said. "But, no, I haven't used that (pine-tar) incident as motivation. I'm just getting the ball when I get it and going out and doing my job. I hope with the performance I'm having it just keeps opening doors for me.

"I feel I'm ready (to play in the big leagues). Every coach I've had has told me I can pitch in the big leagues. I'm just waiting for the right opportunity and the right break."

Filer would second the notion.

"You look at his stuff; he's 88, 89 and he keeps everybody honest with the location of his fastball," he said. "And you look at his slider; it's probably one of the best in the league"

And if it takes putting a Cob salad in Minix's hat on gameday, hey, why not? Just hold the vinegar and oil.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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