Batter's Box Interactive Magazine - A Few Words With Mel Queen

Long time Blue Jay fans know the name Mel Queen. Queen spent time in Toronto as pitching coach and even managed the Jays for five games on an interim basis. Mel Queen gets a lot of the credit for remaking Roy Halladay's delivery. Rumour has it he got on Pat Hentgens case from time to time. Recently Queen returned to the Jays organization as a roving instructor. When I showed up in Lansing last weekend I met Mel Queen for the first time. I didn't think I was going to meet him so I didn't have time to prepare some historical questions so I just took five minutes or so from him and had him answer a few questions.

BB: I am talking to the manager with the best winning percentage in Blue Jay history, isn't that right?

MQ: Well yes, but that was only five games (laughs)

BB: In Toronto your big claim to fame is the work you did with Roy Halladay. When you first got that job did you think it was something you could do, that you had a chance of success?

MQ: Well I knew we could change him, I had no idea he could be what he turned out to be until after I got him changed and I saw what was coming out of his arm. Then I knew he had a chance to be something special.

BB: So every time you see him in the spring does he buy you a big steak?

MQ: You know I don't think I have seen him in person since we did the work in Knoxville.

BB: Have you done the same work with other pitchers like you did with Roy?

MQ: No, you know I have changed guys grips and done stuff like that but to completely re-work a guys complete delivery, his arm angle, the grip on the fastball and all that, no I never have done that.

BB: Again you have the reputation in Toronto of getting tough with some guys when you needed to get tough with them like Pat Hentgen, do some of these guys need a dose of reality as to what's going on?

MQ: Well you have to pick your times and when you feel it needs to be done then you have to do it. You are not doing it to be tough or to be a bad apple, it's for their benefit and if you don't do it then you aren't doing your job as a pitching coach to make them the best they can be. There are times you pat them on the back and there are times when you just have to chew them out and level with them.

BB: There is a lot of emphasis these days on pitch counts, when you were pitching there were no pitch counts, what do you think of it?

MQ: I think at times it gets overdone but with the amount of money they have invested in these people you have to. Years ago when I pitcheded they didn't care how many pitches you threw as long as you could win the game. But on the other hand they didn't have a whole lot of money invested in you and they didn't want to see you get hurt but if you did get hurt they had somebody else to replace you. Now if you have a Halladay or a CC Sabbathia you have a lot of money invested in that particular pitcher you do not want to see him get hurt by fatiguing him and a lot of times that's how you hurt yourself by fatigue. When you ask muscles to do something they are too tired to do you get hurt so I can see them being cautious with the pitchers.

BB: I understand that in your role as a roving pitching instructor you have spent some time recently in Las Vegas. What about a guy like David Purcey who has lots of talent but hasn't developed good control. Did you see anything in his delivery to help him?

MQ: I was talking with Dane about Purcey the other day and I explained what I saw. Dane said he hadn't seen it before but it was with his right foot, his landing foot for a lefty, he has a tendency to open it a little bit before he lands and that opens his whole body up but I only saw him on the side I missed seeing him in a game. But I saw him play catch for four days and I saw him throw a side session in the bullpen and if he is doing that in a game that needs to be corrected or it will be very hard for him to command the strike zone with his fastball.

BB: Most of the time he seems to miss up and away or down and in.

MQ: The reason he misses down and in is that he feels he is open so he cuts his arm off to try and get it in the strike zone and he cuts it off. If he went rhough with a normal delivery it would be up and away.

BB: Did you see Cecil or Mills pitch in Vegas?

MQ: Yes I did, I saw Mills pitch twice. The first game he struggled a little bit and he is just a young kid, there was a strong wind blowing straight out to centre field and he was throwing into about a twenty mile an hour wind with that big curveball of his and anytime you are throwing into a wind with your curveball it makes it break even more and he couldn't get it to home plate, it was bouncing in front of the plate. He hadn't pitched in a windy situation like that to know he has to elevate it a little more. The next start he was much better, there was no wind and he commanded his curveball, commanded his fastball to both sides of the plate and pitched much better.

BB: Here last night I liked the live arm shown by Dustin Antolin, do you see much potential in him?

MQ: Well you always look at the upside of a kid, you never say well I don't think he is going to make it you always find something positive. Say if he is a two pitch pitcher you try and give him a third pitch to make him a major league pitcher. You find something to help him make it. Now they all don't but if you don't have that approach then you are not going to do your job. If you don't think a guy is going to make it then you have a tendency not to work as hard as you should with him. In my mind I always think this kid has a chance if I can help him to do something better than he is doing. So I did think (Antolin) threw the ball real well and so did the starter Beck.

BB: So as you start around the minor leagues is there any pitcher who caught your eye that you liked?

MQ: Well I liked Ray in Las Vegas, he only had the one start and I was hoping he could get another start before they called him up, but they needed somebody and he went up and pitched very well before he came up with a sore arm. But I like him, he has very good stuff, nasty slider, good sinking fastball, a lot of movement. And I liked Cecil, I saw him pitch two games in Vegas. He is going to be a very good pitcher, he is still very young, he just needs to command his fastball a little bit better.

BB: Have you seen tonight's starter Henderson Alvarez?

MQ: Yes I saw him in spring training and once previously this year, he has a chance to be pretty good.

BB: So to finish up here, going back to your major league Blue Jay days what is your fondest memory of your time with the big club?

MQ: I would think it was probably Pat Hentgen winning the Cy Young simply because I had him in the minor leagues when he was 17 and he was warming up to pitch a game in St Catherines and I'm standing behind him and I am saying to myself this kid is going to get crushed, the ball looked as big as a softball going to home plate. Then I went down to home plate and stood there and I saw the ball real good but in the last ten feet the ball kind of jumped on you, so he had that late sneaky movement. And so for a kid that was 17, to see him mature and to become the pitcher he was and to win the Cy Young that was very rewarding.

Batters Box thanks Mel Queen for his time.

Posted by Gerry on Tuesday, June 02 2009 @ 10:29 PM EDT.

A Few Words With Mel Queen | 12 comments | Create New Account

The following comments are owned by whomever posted them. This site is not responsible for what they say.

rtcaino - Wednesday, June 03 2009 @ 01:14 AM EDT (#200805) #

Am I reading that wrong? Did Mel say that he has not seen Doc in person since knoxville? -- That is surprising if it's the case.
Also, that was a nice long winded non-answer with regards to Antolin's potential.

It would be nice if Purcey's control problems could be so easily diagnosed. Perhaps sending him down to A and letting Queen go at him would not be the worst course of action.

I'm somewhat surprised that major adjustment projects are not undertaken more often. There are just so many moving parts in deliveries, and everything influences other things - I suppose by the time someone is in the high minors and fairly old they would be somewhat adverse to signing up for such endeavors. -- though on the other hand, many pitchers with solid stuff fizzle without putting it all together. -- though on my third martian hand, I suppose they are making constant adjustments their entire careers.

Great work Gerry! Fruitful trip I'd say!

China fan - Wednesday, June 03 2009 @ 04:01 AM EDT (#200806) #

Thanks, Gerry! Fascinating interview!

Mike Green - Wednesday, June 03 2009 @ 09:32 AM EDT (#200810) #

Excellent, Gerry. The mechanical side of pitching has always been a mystery to me, and interviews like this one help provide a few clues to someone who just doesn't get it.

joeblow - Wednesday, June 03 2009 @ 01:51 PM EDT (#200819) #

I love these detailed conversations with coaches, and his comments on Purcey seem to be bang on. Makes you really understand how guys can quickly become better (or worse) with some adjustments.

Flex - Wednesday, June 03 2009 @ 01:57 PM EDT (#200821) #

Great interview. Thanks! Fascinating insights into Purcey's mechanics.

And that's some pretty faint praise for Dustin Antolin. You don't need to read too far between the lines to hear what Mel's saying.

TamRa - Wednesday, June 03 2009 @ 02:33 PM EDT (#200826) #

the thing that struck me was the comments about Mills pitching into the wind. That is an illustration of how frustrating it can be as a long distance fan to try to make sense of minor league statistics and why, for instance, this normally solid guy has an abberational bad start (like last night).

Pistol - Wednesday, June 03 2009 @ 04:18 PM EDT (#200830) #

the thing that struck me was the comments about Mills pitching into the wind

Yeah, I thought the same thing. I never really would have considered that, at least for a pitcher.

The Purcey comment also reminds you there's a fine line between (potentially) having success or not.

Mike Green - Wednesday, June 03 2009 @ 04:28 PM EDT (#200832) #

Elevating a big curveball when you've got a wind in your face makes complete sense when you think about it, but it probably does take a while for a pitcher to get used to elevating a curveball depending on the conditions after years of being warned not to throw a hanger.

raptorsaddict - Wednesday, June 03 2009 @ 04:59 PM EDT (#200838) #

it probably does take a while for a pitcher to get used to elevating a curveball depending on the conditions after years of being warned not to throw a hanger.

That would seem to make perfect sense to me. As would the prior comment about the difficulty, nay, futility, of "scouting" the farm using box scores and local paper stories. On the other hand, isn't that armchair speculation exactly why we come to Da'Box?

Great story all around, keep up the good work.

Mylegacy - Wednesday, June 03 2009 @ 09:51 PM EDT (#200846) #

A word about Mel Queen...

I've never met the man. Only seen him interviewed on TV a few times - and that was 20 odd years ago when the Jays were gods. BUT - this man is a big part of the heart and soul of the Jays. Halladay is NOT his only claim to fame. The man has been a 20 odd year mover and shaker who has contributed more to our team than almost anyone else. Guys like Mel are what baseball - the GAME of baseball - is all about.

Mel - I love ya! Many thanks for your career of contributions to OUR Toronto Blue jays.

TamRa - Thursday, June 04 2009 @ 03:48 AM EDT (#200859) #

I've never been to the RC, sadly i probably never will. but I think it would be great if somewhere there, or at the Jays headquarters (wherever that is) or by the locker room or something...there was a nice larg wall with a place for Bronze plaques erected in honor of the "behind the scenes" people that made the Jays great - scouts like Eppy Gurrero, coaches like Mel Queen, and etc. Plaques with some details and profiles of why that particular man was honored.

The common fan might never see it or maybe he would, but there ought to be at least some honor paid to the men who seldom get it.

Dewey - Thursday, June 04 2009 @ 10:58 AM EDT (#200863) #

Mel Queen was one of the first ballplayers ever to give me his autograph. It was 1947, and he pitched for the Pirates. The Cubs, Pirates, and Reds were the worst teams in the NL, so tickets were cheap and a school-friend and I often took the El in from Evanston to Wrigley. After one game we noticed a bus parked on the sidewalk outside the ballpark, and players slowly walking toward it. We scuttled over for autographs. The Pirates had won that day, were in a good mood and not in any hurry. So it was a bonanza: Hank Greenberg, Ralph Kiner, Rip Sewell, Preacher Roe, and Kirby Higbe, Danny Murtaugh, Wally Westlake. Wow. And who could forget Clyde Kluttz? The last people to approach the bus were the coaches. We seldom bothered with them, didn't know who they were. One man seemed pretty old, even for a coach. (Of course, when you're a grade-schooler, everybody looks old). He was quite stocky, big-boned, and seemed to walk a bit stiff-legged. Not a clue; so we let him walk right past us. Later on, looking at a team picture of the 1947 Pirates, we found out that the old guy was somebody named Honus Wagner! And somewhere in our tiny grade-school brains a tiny bell went off.

Looking at the old autographs reminds one that when these players went to school penmanship was still taught. Nice, easy-to-read signatures, some approaching elegance. Including Queen's and Kiner's.

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