Thursday, March 28, 2024

MSU pitcher off to sizzling start

April 6, 2007
Senior Craig Brooks pitches during Tuesday night's exhibition game against the Lansing Lugnuts at Oldsmobile Park. Brooks struck out two batters in his one inning of pitching during MSU's 4-3 loss to the Lugnuts. —

Craig Brookes' statistical profile is the kind of thing that keeps opposing hitters awake at night.

He leads the Big Ten with a paper-thin 1.29 ERA. In 35 innings pitched, he has more strikeouts (31) than hits and walks combined (29).

The only blemish on his record is a complete-game loss at Indiana last weekend, in which he retired 17 batters in a row but lost in the ninth inning, 2-1.

Said MSU head coach David Grewe: "What more do you want from him?"

Realistically, not much. Brookes, a senior right-hander, is off to one of the hottest starts in the country and has established himself as the anchor of MSU's rotation heading into this weekend's home series against Purdue.

"He's special," Grewe said. "Craig Brookes is one of the toughest competitors in the Big Ten. He's our toughest competitor on the mound. Every time he steps on that rubber, he is competing.

"His confidence is at a point where it's unmatched."

It's been a remarkable but not completely out-of-the-blue emergence for Brookes.

A Naperville, Ill., native, he earned a spot in MSU's starting rotation as a freshman and compiled an 11-5 record in his first two seasons.

But he won just two games in 14 appearances last season, then went 2-10 while playing for the Wisconsin Woodchucks, a summer-league team.

Those records were largely the product of poor run support — Brookes had a respectable 4.56 ERA for MSU last season and an even better 3.87 mark with the Woodchucks. But they were frustrating enough for him to rededicate himself in the weight room this offseason.

"Being your senior season, it's one of those, you want to get into it, you want to start playing, but you hate to see it go by," Brookes said.

"So I cherished every practice, everything in the wintertime. It was a lot more of a focused effort because I wanted to make sure I was 100 percent prepared for the season."

That has helped him harness his potential. Brookes always has owned an expansive array of secondary pitches — he throws a curveball, changeup and cutter to go along with two-seam and four-seam fastballs.

But before this season, he lacked complete confidence in everything but his fastball, which made him predictable when he fell behind in the count.

"For a guy like me, I can't just throw it," Brookes said. "I don't have an overpowering fastball by any means — mid-to-high 80s. I don't have the ability to throw it by guys when they know it's coming. So I need to use my off-speed to slow down their bats."

Pitching coach Mike Steele worked with Brookes on his mechanics, adding about 3 mph to his fastball and helping him gain control of his entire arsenal. That's made him one of very few college pitchers who can command four good pitches.

"It's really unusual," Steele said. "Usually what you'll get is kids that do one or two things exceptionally well — either they have a very good arm, or they're a very good competitor, or they have three pitches they can throw for a strike.

"He's going to be a tough guy to handle for anybody."

Now, armed with the confidence to throw any pitch in any count, Brookes' cerebral approach is allowing him to turn every at-bat into a chess match in which he holds all the big pieces.

"To Craig's credit, he's just done a tremendous job of really going out and being a bulldog and staying to exactly what he's been taught," Steele said. "He's a guy who adapts within the game and makes a change before the other team. And when he gets them in his sights, he makes his pitch."

The question is, can he keep doing it? Law of averages suggests it will be hard to stay at this Cy Young pace all season. But if Brookes can be even half as good as he has been thus far, he'll still be one of the best pitchers in the Big Ten — and the Spartans would take that in a heartbeat.

"I'm really just hoping to keep doing what I've been doing," Brookes said. "I know my process is right. I know my preparation is right.

"I'm just going to continue what I'm doing and hopefully see the same success."

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