May 10, 2017 – Pitching prodigies are rare in big-league baseball, with good reason. Given the rigors of the game at that level, even the most promising prospects usually require a few years of apprenticeship in the minors. This is especially true for pitchers, who tend to mature more slowly than position players. Rick Porcello was an exception to the rule.

After being acclaimed High School Player of the Year by USA Today, Porcello was selected by the Tigers in the first round of the 2007 draft. The following year he pitched well enough for the Tigers High A affiliate in Lakeland, FL, to be invited to spring training camp in 2009. Then, with only 24 professional games under his belt, the 22-year-old right-hander was chosen by manager Jim Leyland to be part of the Tigers starting rotation. After posting a 14-9 record, he was selected to start in a one-game playoff for the AL Central Division championship and finished third in the AL Rookie of the Year vote.

By his own admission, the next three years were a struggle as he faced adversity for the first time and worked to figure out who he was as a pitcher. Nevertheless, in his six seasons with Detroit, he compiled a record of 76-63, with a then-career-high of 15 wins in 2014. Traded to the Red Sox in 2015, he led the staff in strikeouts but struggled to a 9-15 record in his debut season. He then rebounded in spectacular fashion in 2016, winning the Cy Young Award with a league-leading 22 wins against 4 losses and a 3.15 ERA, as well as the AL Comeback Player of the Year Award. What did he learn from the ups and downs of life in the big leagues? “You’re never a finished product.”

Porcello’s maternal grandfather was Sam Dente, an infielder who was signed by the Red Sox in 1941 and logged nine years in the major leagues with five teams between 1946 and 1955. A slogan that caught on when he was with the Washington Senators went, “We’ll win plenty with Dente.” As was usually the case with the Senators, they didn’t.

Transcript

Interviewer: Larry Baldassaro

Date: May 10, 2017

Larry Baldassaro: You could just start by saying a little bit about your Italian background, your family heritage.

Rick Porcello: Yeah. You know, both my parents are Italian. You know, we grew up kind of practicing a lot of the, you know, traditional Italian, I guess, cultural habits that, you know, you practice in the United States. You know, we’d cook fish and, you know, Christmas Eve so fishes and all that sort of stuff. And my mother’s got a ton of recipes from her grandmother. I mean, she was always cooking meals, you know, pretty much every night she was making dinner. And then on the weekends, she’d make, you know, big-time meals. And that was the part of New Jersey that I was from, that was kind of traditional for Italian families to do on Sundays. And, you know, we definitely practiced that. And yeah, I mean, we’re just you know, we’re proud of our Italian heritage and then from an area of the country where there are a lot of Italian Americans. So, you know, I don’t know, I just kind of grew up around it, so it was never… You know, it’s funny now playing baseball and not a lot of guys in other parts of the country are really around a lot of Italians. So it’s funny to see their reaction with some of the stuff.

Larry Baldassaro: Do you know where your family came from in Italy?

Rick Porcello: Yeah, my dad’s family is from Avellino and-

Larry Baldassaro: Really?

Rick Porcello: Yeah. And my-

Larry Baldassaro: Your dad’s family’s from Avellino?

Rick Porcello: Yeah. And my mother’s family is in, like, two towns over, which I don’t know the name of the town that they’re from, so-

Larry Baldassaro: Still in the province of Avellino?

Rick Porcello: Mm-hmm. Yeah.

Larry Baldassaro: On both sides then, mother and-

Rick Porcello: Yeah.

Larry Baldassaro: Did you know your grandfather well, [name inaudible]?

Rick Porcello: I did not. I didn’t have really a relation- strong relationship with either one of my grandfathers. Really the only grandparent that I had spent any kind of time around as a child was my grandmother on my father’s side. So, you know, didn’t get an opportunity to really, you know, kind of share, I guess, your childhood with them, but, you know, so-

Larry Baldassaro: Did she speak Italian, when you were around?

Rick Porcello: My great-grandparents did. So they came over from Italy and they spoke fluent Italian. And then my grandparents, kind of, you know, they could understand it and speak it a little bit. And then I guess, you know, my parents, they don’t really speak it. They, you know, they… My mother knows a little bit, but that’s kind of more just ’cause she’s smart and well-read, you know. But yeah, it’s… I wish I knew Italian. I don’t know why in high school I was taking Spanish classes all these years. I should have been taking-

Larry Baldassaro: Hey, you were in New Jersey. They’re supposed to-

Rick Porcello: Yeah.

Larry Baldassaro: They’re supposed to teach Italian in Jersey.

Rick Porcello: Yeah. Oh, yeah. I know. I just, I don’t know why I took Spanish, but I did.

Larry Baldassaro: Anyway. Well, talk to me a little bit about when you got started in baseball, how old you were.

Rick Porcello: Yeah. You know, I was, I guess, five, six years old, whatever that age is when you start playing T-ball. And I, you know, started out like every other kid, I guess. I had an older brother and a younger brother. We all played, you know, baseball, basketball, football when we were kids growing up. And we were just… That was the kind of family we were in. We were in a sports family. We all loved baseball, especially because of, you know, the lineage that we had and it was kind of in our blood a little bit with my grandfather playing. And yeah, it just kind of grew from there, you know. My parents were great parents and extremely supportive of all the things that myself and my brothers wanted to do, but especially athletics. And they made all that possible for us as children. And it’s really the only reason why I’m able to live out my dream today is because of their sacrifices, taking me to practices, games, all sorts of stuff. So you know, that’s… I got them to thank for everything really and having the opportunity I have today to play in the big leagues.

Larry Baldassaro: So I assume you played high school ball, maybe Legion ball or-

Rick Porcello: Yeah. Played in high school. Yeah. Played on some travel teams. Honestly, I was playing as much baseball as I could possibly play. You know, I pitched obviously and played shortstop. And it really didn’t matter what position I was playing, I just loved playing. So yeah, I played Legion, played for my high school team, Seton Hall Prep. And then, you know, I guess my junior and senior year did some more kind of travel stuff and made some trips along the East Coast and played a couple tournaments in Florida and North Carolina and stuff. But yeah, for the most part, just a lot of baseball and playing in the New Jersey tri-state area.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah. What was your favorite team?

Rick Porcello: My high school team. My senior year, our high school team was… It was just a blast. I mean, it was kind of a, you know, for high school seniors, kind of a dream come true. Won the state championship. We were ranked, you know, number one nationally. I mean, it was just a, an awesome season for us. And that was definitely my favorite childhood or team I played on when I was, you know, younger.

Larry Baldassaro: What about major league team? You said you got drafted to the Royals. What did you root for?

Rick Porcello: I was a Mets fan. I don’t know how or why. But, you know, I just… I guess right around 2000 was when I kind of really started paying attention. I was around 12, 13 years old, and they made that run to the World Series. And I had been cheering for them years prior to that, but that was kinda what solidified me as a Mets fan. And yeah. So, struggled through that.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah. When did you start thinking that you might end this as a profession?

Rick Porcello: Yeah, I never… I never thought that it would be my decision. And I don’t know if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but I always kind of was just, you know, “I’m gonna play. I’m gonna love playing. I’m gonna work hard at it and see where it takes me.” And that’s really as far as I let myself go when I was a kid, and even now. Obviously, I always had dreams of playing at the major league level, but, you know, you can’t deny the fact that it’s really hard to get here. And statistically, it’s pretty rare for kids anywhere to make it to this level and then be here. So, I guess I was always realistic with myself in understanding that, you know, you might be good at the sport, but it takes more than just being good to make it to this level. And, you know, you never know what’s gonna happen and where life’s gonna take you. So, I just enjoyed playing, and that kinda allowed me to be really passionate about it. And it gave me the will to work harder at it and put a lot of focus into it. I think if, you know, I had put pressure on myself to, you know, get a college scholarship or make it to the truck- you know, big league level as a kid, I might have, you know, maybe burned out playing or whatever, you know, whatever happens, during those years. You could just get sick of training for it. And then that never really happened for me. I just, I loved everything about it.

Larry Baldassaro: When did the scouts start, following, you know?

Rick Porcello: Yeah, you know, in high school, I guess, you know, when I was 16, 15, 16, 17 years old, they’d kinda see a couple scouts here and there. And then obviously, my junior and senior year were when a lot of them started showing up. And, you know, pretty much every game I pitched, they were at, so…

Larry Baldassaro: But you must have been exceptional because you played Double-A ball one year, the next year you’re 20 years old and you’re in the starting rotation for the Detroit Tigers. I mean, talk about that.

Rick Porcello: Well, I actually never even played in Double-A. I played, full season in High-A, Single-A in the Florida State League. And then yeah, I think it was just a culmination of, you know, I was fortunate to be in the right spot at the right time. You know, there was an opening in the rotation that spring training. Some of the other guys that were lined up for that spot, were battling different things and not performing. And, you know, I was lucky enough to have a manager in Jim Leyland that was willing to take risks and willing to stick his neck out for a 20-year-old kid and give him the opportunity to, you know, play at the big league level. And that was just… You know, I just happened to be in that situation. And I think if I was in any other organization, you know, they wouldn’t even consider that a possibility for a 20-year-old kid coming out of high school to make the big league team, you know? It’s one of those things where even if you look ready, you usually get sent down for a little bit more seasoning and just… You know, it’s important to build that foundation at the minor league level. But I got lucky and was able to start my big league career off at a young age and start learning quickly.

Larry Baldassaro: So, Jim Leyland was an old school kind of crusty manager. I mean, he was not one I wouldn’t think to say, “Oh, let’s give this kid a chance.” He must have seen something in you that-

Rick Porcello: Well, his… He did. And, you know, I performed well in spring that I made the big league club when I was 20. And the one thing that he said to myself and the entire team that I’ll never forget was that, you know, at the end of spring training, when he looks at 25 guys in the room, when he looks into their eyes, he wants them to know that he took the best 25 guys and that there wasn’t, you know, any contractual or political things going on, that he was putting the best club out there. And, you know, I loved that and I respected that so much. And that was really… That was why I was able to make the team, is he… That was the philosophy that he went by, and he felt that I was one of the best 25 guys, so…

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah, obviously. So, did it dawn on you at some point, and maybe even in your first game, that here you are, 20 years old, you’re playing with and against the greatest ballplayers in the world? I mean, how did that feel?

Rick Porcello: It dawned on me. I can’t say I was able to really process all of that at age 20. I didn’t… You know, I definitely had wide eyes and was doing the best I could to take everything in, but, you know, I’m still 20 years old. Didn’t realize, you know, all the thing… And I had made it there very quickly to the big leagues, so, you know, I didn’t take the hard, long road that a lot of other guys had taken. And I’m not gonna say I took it for granted. I was very, very grateful for the opportunity. But at the same time, when, you know, you’re not experiencing anything else and you find yourself in the big leagues it’s kinda- You know, it’s hard to really, to understand the magnitude of all of it at, you know, at that, kind of that sport. So, yeah. I mean, I don’t know. I just kind of just was playing and that was it. I was just watching the veteran guys and learning how they did things and trying to establish myself and didn’t really let anything else kind of come into my head, which it’s a good thing and a bad thing because, you know, sometimes you have blinders on and you can kinda lose sight of some of the things that, you know, made you good and why you got to that spot in the first place. So, it’s a great spot and it’s a great opportunity to be in as a 20-year-old, but it also presents some challenges that you gotta be ready to handle.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah. Do you remember your first game? What stands out?

Rick Porcello: Oh, yeah. Yeah. I remember first pitch. I remember the first hit, first home run, first strikeout. What stands out to me was getting a couple outs and realizing that this is the same game that I’ve been playing my whole life. And then it… In that same game, realizing that it’s the same game with the best players in the world because I was… I had a really good ball game going and then I gave up. I threw a curveball to Adam Lind. He swung and missed, and I thought, “Okay, well, I’m just gonna throw him another one.” And I threw another one and I threw it about four or five inches higher than I threw the other, the first curveball, and he hit it out to dead center for a two-run homer and I was out of the game. And I went from having a five and… Five-plus inning outing with one run to five-plus innings and four runs. And it was, you know, it was just it was kind of all those things that, you know, you’re wondering before you get to perform in that type of a spot, they all came out in one game.

Larry Baldassaro: Was that like a dose of reality? Did it make you wonder then, uh-

Rick Porcello: Yeah, it was a dose of… It was a dose of reality in both aspects. It was a reality check that I am good enough, that my stuff plays at this level because I was able to get through five innings with, you know, pretty solid, you know, pitching. And then also understanding that, you know, the more the guys, the more those hitters see you and the more your stuff’s exposed to them, the tougher it is. And, you know, mistakes are very fine lines at this level. And it went from being a great outing to, you know, an outing that we lost the game and it was just, you know, you’re in control of everything one second and then the next second it’s, you know, you get knocked back down, so.

Larry Baldassaro: Well, everybody that plays at this level is gonna face some thrill adversity. Do you remember what that was for you when you were really struggling at some point?

Rick Porcello: Yeah. I really started to struggle bad my second year in 2010. You know, I just didn’t have a complete repertoire. I was a sinker… I had a… Developed a really good sinker in the minor leagues and I had a good changeup, but didn’t have much of a breaking ball and really didn’t have a whole lot of feel for pitching. You know, I just… I knew how to throw strikes. I knew the simple objectives, but as far as controlling a game and managing a game and, you know, all the things that make good starting pitchers at this level, I had no idea. And you know, that all kind of came, caught up with me in my second year. Got sent down to Triple-A for a month, started revamping things. And really, you know, the first four years of my career were, I would say… I don’t wanna say rocky, but definitely was difficult. After having a lot of success my rookie year, the next three years I was, you know, started to try and search on who I was as a pitcher again and kind of lost my way a little bit and trying to figure out, you know, how am I gonna be successful at this level for an extended period of time? Because what I was doing was only working for short periods of time. One time through a lineup or, you know, after one full season, all of a sudden now the league’s caught up to me and all the things that were working the first year are not working. Guys are on top of it now. You know, I just went through that whole process that guys go through at the minor league level and polishing their pitches and kind of their mental game. I was going through it at the big league level and you know, I don’t know if it took me longer at the big league level than maybe it would’ve taken me at the minor league level, but it certainly was difficult because you have the pressure of, you know, I was on a winning team and we’re trying to make the playoffs and win World Series, but I’m also trying to figure out how the hell to get guys out on a consistent basis. So, you know, it was good though. I think it really, it gave me a strong head as far as how to handle, you know, some of those struggles and the adversity that, you know, you face on the field at the major league level.

Larry Baldassaro: All the adjustments that everybody has to make.

Rick Porcello: Yeah. Exactly. And it’s never… You’re never a finished product. And, you know, I didn’t realize that I was working towards something that I’m always gonna be working towards instead of, you know, I was under the mindset that I’m gonna work towards something and I’m gonna be this guy forever, and it’s not like that. You gotta find yourself every day at this level and it doesn’t carry over from day to day. You gotta put the time in and, you know, that’s… That was something, you know, I just learned through experience and realizing what it took to be a consistent performer.

Larry Baldassaro: So you were six years in Detroit, then you came to the Sox.

Rick Porcello: Yeah.

Larry Baldassaro: Could you talk about that transition a little bit?

Rick Porcello: Yeah. You know, I had finally, in Detroit, my last couple of years, started to get back on track. I was making some really good progress and developing and heading in the right direction. Felt really good about what I was doing. And, you know, I leaned on the pitching coach from Detroit, Jeff Jones, a lot throughout those couple of years that I was kinda developing. And, you know, he helped me stay on track when maybe mechanically or mentally I’d kinda waver a little bit or start to drift. And I got to Boston, and all the things that I had started to get under control and do well in Detroit, I kinda, you know, I lost the feel for that. And, you know, resulted in a really, really difficult first season for me in Boston. And, again, you know, got knocked back down, kinda almost went through the same thing I went through my first couple of years and got back into, like, this identity crisis a little bit because my sinker wasn’t sinking as well as it had been in Detroit. I was throwing more four-seamers, and I had… And the four-seamer was a good pitch, but I wasn’t… I didn’t really know how to use it, and that was something that I was just introducing kinda into my game plans. You know, it just… I got off track and, had to fight hard to get back on track and kinda re-identify myself and reestablish, you know, how I was gonna pitch and how I was gonna attack hitters and what weapons I was gonna use at what times and, you know, manage games like a good major league pitcher does. And, you know, went through those struggles in 2015 in Boston. Put a lot of pressure on myself too, which, you know, didn’t help. Ended up going on the DL for the first time in my career. And then, you know, whatever happened when I was on the DL, it wasn’t anything in particular. I just kinda settled down and just had this big sigh of like, “All right. It’s… Stop putting pressure on yourself and just play the game and enjoy playing the game and enjoy the whole process of, you know, what I gotta go through to get back to where I wanna get back to and being successful.” And, you know, as I came back from the DL, I started throwing the ball like myself again, and it was kinda just, you know, took off from there, so.

Larry Baldassaro: Scott, is that how you would explain what happened last year?

Rick Porcello: Yeah, I think so. I think, you know, it really started that first year, my… When I came back from the DL. You know, I think just having a little bit of a clearer mind and then, you know, getting back to just basic strike one, working down in the zone, timely elevated pitches, mixing my breaking balls in. You know, all that stuff that just sounds really simple when you talk about it now, but when you’re on the mound and the game’s going a thousand miles an hour, you lose sight of it very quickly, especially when you’re in a new environment. So, you know, getting back to all that, I just kinda came in with that mindset in, into last year into spring training, was just, you know, work on my fastball command. That’s what’s gonna get me through ball games. That’s gonna get… That’s what’s gonna get me through the season. So I worked hard on executing my sinkers down in the zone and my four-seamer up in the zone. And really, I got my ass kicked in spring training in, into last year. I didn’t have very good results, but I stuck with the plan and didn’t jump ship on it. And it ended up paying out, paying dividends for me and just built momentum as the season went on and, you know, was able to put up the numbers that I did.

Larry Baldassaro: So, I mean, it was a remarkable season, one of the best in Red Sox history, really, 22 and 4. I mean, as the season went along, did you get more confident or were you wondering, “Can this continue?”

Rick Porcello: No, I got more confident. I started to… You know, I was making adjustments very quickly in games from pitch to pitch, basically. I was able to identify, you know, what I was doing wrong and then get right back on track and execute the next pitch. You know, the ability to do that allowed me to slow everything down, and, that was the key. Just the game was moving at a much slower pace for me. Although I was still working quickly, you know, I could just… It was just clearer in my head on what I wanted to do to hitters, how I was gonna do it. And, you know, I just was able to get into a zone where I could focus on that and, you know, it ended up getting better as the season went on. And, you know, I can’t really explain it other than I just got in that groove, and I was able to maintain it.

Larry Baldassaro: But Boston base… I probably should have said earlier, I’m a lifelong Sox fan. I’m a Massachusetts native. Boston baseball is different from any place else. You know that.

Rick Porcello: Yeah.

Larry Baldassaro: It’s a lot of pressure, especially when you come with a different team.

Rick Porcello: Yeah.

Larry Baldassaro: Did you feel comfortable from the get-go or, I don’t know, the first year?

Rick Porcello: Yeah.

Larry Baldassaro: No, I mean, just with the Boston atmosphere, the media, the fans.

Rick Porcello: Yeah, I felt comfortable performing in that type of an environment. What I wasn’t comfortable with was the pressure that I was putting on myself. And, you know, I don’t know that really what comes first there, but I do know that, you know, all of us as humans, we kinda have the final say on what we’re gonna make our own expectations and how we’re gonna, you know, see things. And I was, you know… Demanding a lot of myself and it was… It became toxic. It was something that I couldn’t perform with because I was just suffocating myself with every bad pitch I threw, every bad outing, inning I had, every bad outing I had. It was just all kind of snowballing on me and, yeah, I wasn’t able to shake that stuff off, because I was in a new place and I wanted to put my best foot forward and I wanted to come in here and, you know, show everybody I was gonna be, you know, a quality pitcher for this organization and help us win and, you know, I just didn’t go about it the right way.

Larry Baldassaro: Well, you’re not the first player to come to Boston and struggle in this job, you know? It’s a, it’s high-pressure situation, but, I mean, the way you turned it around last year was just phenomenal. I get… This is a stupid question, but is that your biggest thrill so far or something else that stand out even more?

Rick Porcello: I think it was probably… Had a couple, I guess, in my big league career. You know, first was being told by Jim Leyland that I made the big league team at age 20. I mean, that was one of my biggest thrills and the start of my journey at this level. Our ball club making it to World Series in 2012, was another huge thrill for me. And then, you know, last year, winning the Cy Young and being able to share that with my family and my teammates and bringing that trophy back to this organization was, you know, just about my biggest accomplishment at this level. So, you know, I’d probably go with that one for sure. You know, although I see a couple of them as special moments for me that, you know, I don’t know how to order them.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah, well, you wanna talk about, a little bit about your passion for fly fishing?

Rick Porcello: Sure, yeah. I just, you know, I don’t… Kinda when I was a kid, my mother got myself and my brothers a couple fly rods for Christmas and during the summertime when we were out of school, she’d drop my younger brother and I off at… There’s like a little pond in the middle of our town and we’d go over there and we’d, you know, fly fish for bass and bluegill and just kinda started like that. My dad used to take us over to… They stocked trout in this one local stream by our house in New Jersey and we’d go over there and catch trout and it just kinda grew from there and turned into something that, you know, we always found ourself on Saturday or Sunday asking our dad if he could take us fishing and kinda became a thing for our family and, you know, it just grew from there and now it’s like, you know, I’d say fly fishing and golf are my two biggest hobbies and I’d take fly fishing any day. I just, I love doing it.

Larry Baldassaro: Well, sure started out fly fishing. I mean, usually people suppress that.

Rick Porcello: Yeah, I, you know, I did both. You know, if I wasn’t… I was stubborn. If I wasn’t catching anything with the fly rod, I’d go back to the spinning rod and try.

Larry Baldassaro: That makes me feel better.

Rick Porcello: Yeah. But, you know, I guess now it’s… I’m pretty much, that’s all I do is fly fish, so…

Larry Baldassaro: Haven’t you compared fly fishing to pitching in some way?

Rick Porcello: Yeah, I think, you know, there’s a lot of things that you can compare. You know, there’s a little bit of a chess match that goes on as far as, you know, you’re trying to match a hatch in fly fishing and in baseball, you’re finding that right pitch selection and that right sequence of pitches that’s gonna, you know, hopefully induce weak contact or get the hitter to get himself out or whatever it is. But, you know, you never really know what the answer is until you do it. And then I think the patience and kinda that relaxed intensity that at least I need to have when I’m on the mound to perform well is similar to fly fishing. Obviously, I’m not as intense when I’m on a river, but, you know, you still gotta be focused and see what’s going on around you and you gotta be patient with it ’cause it’s… Fish don’t come on every cast and sometimes results on the mound don’t come with every pitch, but you gotta be patient with it and trust what you’re doing and, you know, with all… Anybody who’s thrown a pitch has thrown pitches that they thought were pretty good and they’ve, you know, given up bloopers or even hard hits and you still gotta have trust that’s the right pitch and be patient with the results that are coming your way.

Larry Baldassaro: Have you ever read, Ted Williams’ book on fishing?

Rick Porcello: I haven’t read his-

Larry Baldassaro: You know, Ted Williams was quite a fisherman.

Rick Porcello: Only guy to be in three Hall of Fames.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah. Did you… Have you ever fished in Massachusetts in Western-

Rick Porcello: Yeah, I fished-

Larry Baldassaro: Deerfield River or the-

Rick Porcello: I fished the Deerfield all the time, actually. We have… My family has a… We have a lake house about… It’s very close to Deerfield, so we fish it.

Larry Baldassaro: Nice.

Rick Porcello: Yeah. Yeah, we fish Fife Brook all the way down. I mean, we fished it basically from the… Where it feeds off the back of Mount Snow and Haystack all the way down to where it feeds into the Connecticut. I mean, we fished pretty much the entire system.

Larry Baldassaro: That’s where I grew up.

Rick Porcello: Yeah. So we… I mean, our place is probably half an hour, 45 minutes, I guess it would be northwest of Greenfield. Half an hour west of Brattleboro. So, yeah, we’re in southern Vermont. Yeah.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah. Oh, beautiful.

Rick Porcello: Close to Mount Snow.

Larry Baldassaro: That’s the one thing I miss about New England is the autumn.

Rick Porcello: Yeah. Oh, yeah, that’s my favorite time. Yeah, my family got me a, For winning the Cy Young, they got me a bamboo fly rod for… As, like, a gift, and I can’t wait for the fall to go fish for brookies and stuff. Yeah, to try it out, yeah.

Larry Baldassaro: So after, eight years of pitching in the major leagues, what’s left to learn for you?

Rick Porcello: Everything. There’s… You never learn it all in this game. There’s always… Because it’s always evolving, you know? It’s what’s great about it. I mean, you know, I hear people talking about it a lot right now, about how hitters are changing their swings, guys are hitting with more of an uppercut, and they’re hitting a low ball better. So, you know, I went from being, my first five, six years of my career, being this pitcher that was just… My only focus was to pound the bottom of the strike zone, right? Now, that, you know, that’s getting hit a lot more now, so now there’s an adjustment to make in combating that and finding other holes in their swings. So it’s… You know, you never learn it all, and you never have every answer, but the quicker you can make the adjustments, and really, I think more importantly, the quicker you can be aware of what’s going on around you and make those adjustments. You know, when the game’s moving too fast for you don’t see anything. You’re all caught up in yourself. But when you’re under control and you can step back, take a deep breath in between every pitch and see what’s going on, see, you know, that guy just… He was late on your fastball. He was beat by it. So, you know, that’s probably a good option to go with. Just, like, find a good spot to throw that fastball, ’cause you throw an off-speed pitch, they’ll probably be right on time. I mean, those things, you know, when you’re under control, you see those sort of stuff. And then when you’re not, you’re kinda just out there throwing blindly.

Larry Baldassaro: Do you see the general trends in how hitters are changing? I mean, I seem to see more guys hitting low balls out of the ballpark, and especially with a tan.

Rick Porcello: Yeah. Yeah, I do. I think, you know, just there’s a lot of guys with the ability to hit the ball out of the ballpark to all parts now. You know, guys can hit the ball out to… A left-handed hitter can hit the ball out to left center. He can hit the ball out to right center. So, you know, you don’t see as many left-handed hitters coming up that are just dead pull happy where, you know, when a hitter’s only trying to hit the ball to one side of the field, it creates holes that are, I don’t wanna say easily exploitable, but they’re there. You know, they’re obvious to you that they’re there. And, you know, if you execute the pitches in those general zones, you’re gonna be successful. And a lot of times with a dead pull left-handed hitter, for me, that would be a sinker down and away. Well, that, you know, that can still work, but you might have to go about it a little bit differently. You might have to show off some off-speed stuff. You might have to elevate the ball first and then go down there, change his eye level, because guys are really good in today’s game at teeing up the pitches down and, you know, hitting the ball hard to all parts of the field. So, you know, it doesn’t leave a lot of holes down at the bottom of the zone. But, you know, hitting’s really hard, and as a pitcher, you gotta understand that if they’re covering down there, they can’t cover up here, and vice versa. And there’s gonna be… You know, they can establish with their swing and what they’re gonna try and do where, what part of the plate or what part of the strike zone they’re gonna cover, and I’m gonna establish what part of the strike zone I’m gonna cover. The beautiful part about being a pitcher is you’re the one who’s throwing the ball, so you have a say in what’s going on there….

Larry Baldassaro: When you pitch, except for interleague play, you pitch exclusively in the American League. Have there been certain hitters that have been tougher for you than others?

Rick Porcello: Oh, yeah, definitely. I mean, you know, it’s kinda changed as my career’s gone on, and some guys that I’ve had little success against in the past, I’m starting to find some more success against now, and then, you know, vice versa. And I think that’s just a result of some of the adjustments that I’ve made with how I’m throwing the ball and how I’m attacking guys. And, you know, guys… You pitch a couple of years in this league, guys start to get 30, 40, 50, 60 at-bats off you. There’s really, there’s no secrets at that point. It’s just literally about executing the pitches and exploiting those holes. And, you know, that makes it challenging, because when you do make those mistakes, they’re all over it, ’cause they know. They’ve seen you before. They know where you miss. They know-

Larry Baldassaro: At this level

Rick Porcello: They know your tendencies, so…

Larry Baldassaro: You wanna name anybody in particular?

Rick Porcello: Yeah. There’s actually a lot of guys that have really good numbers with me. Yeah, I think, Ellsbury was a guy that I really struggled against in my first five, six years of my career. Having a, finding a little bit more success against him lately, but he was a really, really tough out for me early on. So, you know, it’s just funny how it works. I really struggled against him, but I did well against guys like Jeter and Alex Rodriguez and those guys. So it’s like, why? You know, those guys… Jeter’s got Hall of Famer. He’s got 3,000 hits. Why did I have success against him? I mean, not to, you know, bash Jacoby Ellsbury. He’s a phenomenal player, but it’s just, can never really explain it. You know, just get up and down, and you can tell the guys that see you a little bit better than the other guys.

Larry Baldassaro: Yeah, that’s… I used to pitch as a kid, high school, one year of semi-pro. There was always some hitters that they just looked like they covered the whole plate and you didn’t know where to pitch them.

Rick Porcello: Yeah. You… Especially lefties. Yeah. Lefties are always tough for righty, for me. You can tell the way they take pitches, the way they swing at them, the guys that see real good, and the guys that are a little hesitant and don’t.

Larry Baldassaro: You talked about… When you started off, you were talking about how you played as a kid and passion. Do you still feel that? You have that same-

Rick Porcello: Yeah, absolutely. I, if I didn’t have that same passion, I wouldn’t be playing, you know, because it’s… You have to have that passion to play at this level. I mean, obviously, there’s some great, great perks of being a Major League Baseball player. You know, stay in nice hotels. Financially, it’s extremely rewarding. But, you know, there’s a lot of sacrifices that you make too. You don’t see your family at all. I mean, once the season gets rolling, you’re geared. You’re at the ballpark every day. So you better love doing what you do, because there’s… You don’t have an option of doing anything else. And I mean, this is what I’ve wanted to do my whole life, playing at the highest level, and I’m playing a game and getting paid to do it. I have absolutely no complaints ever. This is… I’m, you know, I’m lucky I hit the lottery to have this opportunity.