NEW YORK -- Since late last season, Andrew Bailey has been able to accomplish each successive goal he has set.Except talking to Mariano Rivera about the cut fastball.
The "cutter" has been the key to Bailey's fast and improbable rise from Double-A starter to All-Star closer for the Athletics.
It's the same pitch that has made Rivera the greatest closer of all time.
"He has his pitch," Bailey, 25, said. "I'm not trying to imitate it."
In fact, Bailey didn't have it at all until about 13 months ago.
It was late June 2008, and Bailey was 1-8 with a 6.18 ERA as a starter at Double-A Midland (Texas) -- and despondent. The A's were debating taking him out of the rotation. And during a bullpen session, Oakland roving pitching instructor Gil Patterson stood behind Bailey and watched.
"We were trying to get him to throw a sinker and it wouldn't sink," said Patterson, who spent 2005-07 working in the Yankees organization. "Everything cuts.
"I'm watching him throw, standing behind him, and I'm thinking, 'He's almost like a poor man's Rivera. What are we doing?'"I said, 'Show me just a regular fastball.' It cut a little bit, at about 92-93 (mph). I said, 'Let's do this.' And it cut more at about 88."
Using what he knew of Rivera's grip, Patterson had Bailey move his fingers off-center a little more.
"Honestly, he kind of has his own grip," Patterson said. "We just tweaked it a little bit."
With a new weapon, Bailey was given a new role. He went to the bullpen and over the rest of the season had a 0.92 ERA, .207 average allowed and 41 strikeouts in 39 innings.
"I just got back to challenging hitters with the fastball and working on the cutter," he said.
Bailey wanted to pitch well enough to earn a spot in the Arizona Fall League. He did. He wanted to pitch well enough in Arizona to get an invitation to big-league spring training. He did. All he wanted to do in spring training was "open some eyes."
He did more than that.
Bailey made the team. And by late May had earned the closer's job.
"A year ago he's on suicide watch. Now he's in the All-Star Game."
-- A's pitching instructor Gil Patterson Chosen as the mandatory Oakland All-Star, Bailey figured he could compare notes with Rivera in the American League bullpen. But he decided not to.
"I just kind of sat there and was listening to his conversation with the other guys," said Bailey, who grew up in New Jersey but as a Phillies fan because he is from the southern part of the state. "I didn't want to bother him.
"I didn't get a chance to pick his brain. But hopefully there will be a chance down the road. ... We were there to have a good time and experience that."
But Rivera -- who is valued almost as much by the Yankees for his mentoring of teammates as he is for his saves -- said he would have been glad to talk to Bailey about their pitch.
"I was throwing with him a little bit," Rivera said. "He didn't ask me about the cutter.
"Definitely, I would have helped him."
Bailey doesn't need a lot of help right now. He is 4-3 with a 2.06 ERA, a .173 average allowed, 66 strikeouts in 56 2/3 innings and 10 saves in 14 chances.
"A year ago he's on suicide watch," Patterson said. "Now he's in the All-Star Game."
