Nats' Lannan Gets It

By Thomas Boswell
Monday, May 19, 2008

BALTIMORE John Lannan says he has never thrown hard, not in high school or at Siena College, much less in the major leagues. So, he's always had to hit the mitt, throw it in a teacup, as they say, change speeds and battle. Without poise, he knows he'd be dead. Baseball has never been easy, so he's never learned how to act, or think, like a hot shot.

But something about Lannan makes people get in his corner and get in your face if you dismiss him as a soft tosser, a pitcher that's strictly make-do until somebody better comes along. That "something" is an afternoon like Sunday at Orioles Park when he takes a two-hit shutout into the eighth inning and beats Baltimore's Jeremy Guthrie, 2-1.

For the fifth time in nine starts this season, Lannan was splendid, just superb, allowing one run or none. The list of games that make you ask, "Is he special?" keeps adding up. He's 4-4 with the best ERA (3.40) in the rotation. But it's his best games, his ability to enjoy difficult moments, that catches your eye and makes you dream just a bit.

So far this spring, he's struck out 11 Mets in Shea Stadium on a night when his parents and friends were in the stands and also gone seven scoreless innings in a duel to beat John Smoltz on the night the Brave fanned his 3,000th man. He's beaten the powerful Cubs, 2-0, on a chilly Sunday before a big house in Nationals Park.

And now, after a 2:01 pregame rain delay, he's kept his cool and prevented the Nats from being swept by their parkway rivals. "Lannan was ridiculously good with his control, throwing 70 percent strikes. That's like Greg Maddux at his best," Manager Manny Acta said. "On his fastball, 38 of 52 for strikes. Tremendous. Kept it down, got quick outs. Coming into the series, we thought Guthrie would be our hardest game. We wanted to miss him. It took John to beat him. He just hit the glove all day, stayed on the black."

So, what have you got here, Manny? Part of the Nats' future or a flash-and-gone kid.

"He has command and poise," Acta said. "A pretty solid middle-of-the-rotation guy."

If the Nats actually have a 6-foot-4 lefty, only 23, with no history of major injury and a solid long-term future, that is news. But, with a fastball that barely touches 90 mph, at best, doesn't he have to be so perfect, so precise, so -- well, lucky -- that it's unwise to put too much faith in him when so many other strong arms are in the minors behind him?

If you want to get General Manager Jim Bowden's goat, just make that argument to him about Lannan. "Give me that notepad," said Bowden, annoyed, drawing a rectangle to represent home plate. "Here's a normal distribution of strikes for most pitchers -- dots all over the zone. Now, here's Lannan." And Bowden draws a thin border on the edges of the plate and fills it with dots, leaving only a handful in the center.

"Let me tell you the lefties I've seen in the last 25 years that had patterns like that, but couldn't throw 88 to 91 like Lannan can and didn't have three other good pitches like he does," Bowden said. "John Tudor [117-72], won 20, pitched in [three] World Series, threw 80-82, good slider, nothing much else. Tom Browning [123-90], won 20, pitched in the Series, threw 84-86, change-up, no breaking ball. Jim Deshaies, won double digits [five] times, threw 80-84 and below-average every other pitch.

"Don't tell me Lannan can't win up here," Bowden said. "I've seen it done with a lot less."

Why not just anoint Lannan the next Tom Glavine? What's another 298 wins? Still, except for Shawn Hill, 27, no other Nats starters appear to have the potential to win 100 games, give or take, in a seven-year prime like Tudor and Browning.

So, the Nats study Lannan, wondering if he's a future key, just as he studies the league. "Tons of promise, a competitor, willing to learn," Dmitri Young said. "He's not shy, but he's quiet, knows his place, humble. In a rookie, that's a nice change."

"John's got one of those sneaky fastballs that people miss, one of those 88 mph lefties who can spot it," Ryan Zimmerman said. "He battles and works quick."

In every discussion of Lannan, however, the talk always ends up highlighting his personality more than his pitching arm or his gangly gait. In his first big league start, straight from AA ball, Lannan was ejected after he hit the Phils' Chase Utley and Ryan Howard with pitches in the same game. He's hit only one man in 14 starts since.

After that debut mortification, Lannan faced down Barry Bonds three times when the Giant was going for homer No. 756 in San Francisco. In fact, Lannan loves pitching on the road or in games with some extra significance. Can "Moxie" be a nickname?

"Going home with that win was big for us. I like coming into those situations. When we really need it, that's when I want to step it up," Lannan said. Where'd that come from? "Just ask my dad. I don't know what it is. But it's always been there."

So far Lannan, who gained size and speed during college but was still only an 11th-round pick, has been a quick learner. After a previous game with a rain delay, he had a poor outing. "I was jumpy," he said. This game had a 121-minute delay. "I found a chair and didn't move much," said Lannan, who allowed one run in 7 1/3 innings with 71 strikes in 105 pitches.

The dark side of Lannan is that when hitters foul off too many of his best pitches or his command isn't precise, he can get whacked and have his confidence shaken. Twice he's allowed six runs this season and, in another game, a dozen hits. The contrast to his Orioles showing -- first-pitch strikes to 20 of 27 hitters -- can be stark.

"I have a lot to learn. I have to trust my stuff and be aggressive like I was today. You see so many great fastballs up here. It's hard to believe that -- " said Lannan, then stops.

It's hard, even for him, to believe that command of a decent fastball with late movement, plus the heart to get ahead in the count then change speeds, has always outweighed almost every consideration in pitching. Not in every game, but over a career.

"Something clicked today. This was my best game of the year -- to build on. Last time [when he allowed 12 hits], I got frustrated, not timid, but I didn't repeat the fastball, get ahead then expand the plate like I did this time. I don't have that big power two-seam sinker like Hill. But mine's got just enough sink to get a ground ball.

"I've got to get over the fact that everybody gets hit up here," said the southpaw who's been living on the edges since high school. "It's a hard thing to do."

So far, he seems to be getting the knack of it remarkably well.