August 20, 2007

Grand experiment is working

Ex-infielder Harris thriving as AquaSox's closer

By Nick Patterson
Herald Writer

EVERETT - What is Bryan Harris doing on the mound?

Harris has always been an infielder. He was an infielder in Little League. He was an infielder in high school and college. His total time as a pitcher consisted of a stray inning here and there, more fooling around with the idea than taking it serious.

Yet there's Harris on the hill any time the Everett AquaSox have a lead in the ninth inning.

No, Harris may not have the most experience among Everett's pitchers this season. But his success in the closer role, despite being a virtual newcomer to pitching, makes Harris one of Everett's most intriguing prospects.

"He's got a big-league arm," Everett pitching coach Gary Wheelock said. "He's going to have to work on his offspeed pitches, but his slider's pretty good and he has a big-league fastball."

Harris has been dominating in relief for Everett this season. Going into Sunday's game at Eugene the right-hander from Tustin, Calif., had made 14 relief appearances, allowing just one earned run in 1813 innings, good for a microscopic 0.49 ERA. He gave up just 12 hits and four walks in those 1813 innings, striking out 15 and racking up four saves.

Harris has accomplished that mainly through movement. His fastball, which usually registers in the upper 80s, has an unusual amount of sink because of his sidearm delivery. He also freezes opposing batters with his sharp-breaking slider. Harris recently added a split-finger fastball to his repertoire, and also has a changeup he plans on refining during the offseason.

"I'm pretty much just pitching right now off my God-given talent," Harris said. "I need to develop some things for next year.

"But I'm very comfortable, I really enjoy where I'm at now."

Hard to believe that 18 months ago pitching was just an afterthought to Harris. To that point he was a line drive-hitting third baseman with a funky sidearm throw to first, earning junior college All-American honors at Santa Ana College before transferring first to LSU, then to Cal State Fullerton. As a junior at Fullerton he batted a robust .295 in 40 games.

But that sidearm motion presented intriguing possibilities, and when opportunity presented itself during the 2006 season for Fullerton, Harris seized it.

"I always thought I could (pitch) because I had so much movement on my ball throwing across the diamond," Harris explained.

"My junior year we were a little short on pitching," Harris continued. "Our closer went down with an injury and I said, 'Hey coach, I can do this.'"

Thus began Harris' grand experiment. The transition to the mound was hardly seamless, as his first ever collegiate appearance proved.

"It was against Stanford and it was a mess," Harris recalled with a smirk. "I didn't give up any hits, but I walked the first guy and he ended up on third with two outs. The guy did a fake running down the line and I balked the guy in, lost the game. I was like, 'What's going on here?'"

Harris ended up pitching 10 innings that season (the same season he batted .295), then started out his senior year exclusively a pitcher.

But fate again intervened as Fullerton's third baseman went down with a hand injury, sending Harris back into the field temporarily. He ended up batting .220 in 21 games as a hitter and compiling a 2.65 ERA in 18 games as a pitcher.

His performance on the mound was enough to prompt the Seattle Mariners to take a flyer on Harris in the 22nd round of this year's draft.

"Scouts look for arm strength and quality of pitches, and he's got an average major-league fastball velocity wise and probably above-average sink," Wheelock said. "Then the scouts look for the ability to be an athlete and throw the ball over the plate. He did those things."

Should Harris eventually pitch in the majors, he wouldn't be the first converted position player to do so. In 1999 the AquaSox had a certain Rafael Soriano, who was converting from being an outfielder. And all-time saves leader Trevor Hoffman began his professional career as an infielder.

Harris hopes to join those ranks not that he doesn't occasionally watch from the bullpen and wonder how he'd fare at the plate.

"I'd like to say I'd hit .300, I've done that in the past in the Cape Cod League and stuff like that," Harris said.

But Harris is happy with the decision he made.

"In the game I definitely prefer pitching," Harris said. "The life of a hitter is always pretty fun when you have the bat in your hands and you're swinging it. But when I'm in the game I like to be the center of attention. I feel (the mound) is a comfortable spot for me."

And Harris believes he learned a valuable lesson from making the switch.

"You can't really give up on anything," he said. "I played infield my whole life and now I'm a professional pitcher. So you can't give up on anything. If you say you can do it, you can probably do it."