Former pitching prospect tries again with Rockies in outfield
By Jack Etkin 
| July 24, 2009 | 7:07 PM
In an earlier baseball life, Scott Beerer loved being on the mound in the ninth inning. He savored the spotlight that shines on the closer and relished the adrenaline rush that came with putting away hitters to end a game.
Those pleasures are gone, replaced by something new. A pitcher in his first four seasons in the Colorado Rockies organization, Beerer took two years off and is now attempting a comeback as a position player. A fundamentally sound at-bat, solid contact, a running catch, a hard slide — these are the pleasures now inherent in the game for Beerer, who turned 27 on July 4.
“This is a much greater joy for me,” Beerer said, “in a sense, knowing how hard I’ve worked and how much I’ve put into this comeback, the fact that I’m out there doing it. And to look where I’ve come from and say, ‘I didn’t even know if I could do this five months ago, six months ago, and now I’m batting third and fourth for a high A club.’ ”
That would be high Class-A Modesto, where Beerer pitched at the tail end of 2005 and 2006 and has settled in, after launching his comeback this season with output reminiscent of Roy Hobbs in The Natural during a brief stay at short-season Class A Tri-City.
In 11 games at Tri-City, Beerer, a right-handed hitter, batted .558 (24-for-43) with five doubles, one homer, 14 RBI and just two strikeouts. He made his 2009 Modesto debut July 10 and in 13 games has hit .250 (12-for-48) with one double, one triple, two homers — both at San Jose on July 17 — and five RBI. Again, Beerer, whose best position is left field, has shown the ability to put the ball in play with just five strikeouts.
“He’s got a swing that planes out with the pitch extremely well,” Modesto manager Jerry Weinstein said, “so he’s not going to be in and out of the strike zone real fast with his bat. He’s got a chance to make pretty consistently solid contact.”
Save for those two home runs at San Jose, Beerer hasn’t shown much power in games.
“We just haven’t seen enough at-bats, but he’s certainly got enough raw power, and we see that in (batting practice) every day,” Weinstein said.
When Beerer was last in Modesto three years ago, he went 3-1 in 28 games with 11 saves, a 3.81 ERA and many misgivings. Shoulder troubles put him on the disabled list. They were occurring annually and causing control problems. It was during that 2006 season when Beerer, whom the Rockies had drafted in the second round in 2003 out of Texas A&M, called player development director Marc Gustafson.
“I just was not having fun,” Beerer said. “I was really tired of the injuries to the shoulder. I kind of stood back and looked at the overall picture and kind of evaluated my prospect status and the reality of me making it to the big leagues as a pitcher.
“In my own heart, I just felt I didn’t have what I used to have as a pitcher and maybe my best shot would be as a position player.”
Beerer stuck out that 2006 season and went to spring training in 2007. He said he pitched “fairly well” but was still dealing with the arm and control issues. When teams were set near the end of spring training, the Rockies decided to send Beerer back to Modesto. He went to see Gustafson, said he didn’t want to return there and would like the opportunity to become a position player.
The Rockies didn’t grant Beerer that request, so he left spring training and returned home to the Newport Beach area in Orange County in southern California. Beerer said there were no hard feelings or arguments and that he parted amiably with Gustafson.
The Rockies put Beerer on the restricted list, which precluded him from playing for another organization and made Beerer realize, “Hey, this might be it. I might have to join the real world.”
He began taking emergency medical technician classes at UCLA and was looking to become a firefighter in the Los Angeles area. Beerer was working at night as a bartender in Hermosa Beach, Calif.
“I’d say about a year went by, and baseball was on my mind the whole time,” Beerer said.
John Altobelli, who coached Beerer at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa, Calif., encouraged Beerer to come there, take batting practice and “see if you still got it.” Beerer was also fortunate to run into former Baltimore outfielder Brady Anderson at a Foo Fighters concert. Beerer had met Anderson through mutual friends in 2005, and when he saw Anderson last year at the concert, Beerer told Anderson he hoped to resume his baseball career as a position player.
“He looked at me like I was crazy,” Beerer said. “ ‘You’re 26 years old, and you want to hit. I don’t think it’s going to happen.’ ”
Beerer said since Anderson knew him, he invited Beerer to come to his house in Glendale, Calif., where some baseball fields were nearby. Beerer showed up the day after the Foo Fighters concert. He hit off a tee. Anderson made some adjustments. And Beerer said, “before the end of that (session), I was hitting balls out of the field off a tee from home plate.”
Beerer continued to work out with Anderson for several months, waiting until about this time last year before calling Gustafson just to be sure “it wasn’t a fluke that I was hitting and that I could be consistent doing this.” Gustafson said he also spoke with Anderson, and ultimately the Rockies sent their scout Dave Snow, a former longtime college coach in southern California whom Beerer had known, to watch him work out in November.
After watching Beerer take batting practice, catch fly balls, throw and run, Snow called Gustafson with his opinion.
“He said, ‘There’s something there,’ ” Gustafson said. “ ‘The ball has life to it (when Beerer hits it) and carries. He threw well. He ran very well.’ He said, ‘It’s interesting.’
“Interesting enough to where I asked, ‘Do I bring him to spring training?’ He said, ‘Yes.’ ”
One thing the Rockies had no concern about was Beerer’s makeup. They knew that he was a very good teammate, worked extremely hard and that whatever proving he would have to do centered on what he showed as a position player on the field and not anything off it.
Early in spring training, Gustafson told Beerer he wasn’t going to break with a full-season team and extended spring training in Tucson would occupy his April, May and early June.
“In a way, that took some pressure off me,” Beerer said. “It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, I got to make a team.’ And I didn’t even know I was going to make it to extended (spring training). They had to see some potential.”
Extended spring training is not where any Rockies minor leaguer really wants to be. For some, there is a feeling of being left behind because the full-season leagues have started and they couldn’t make the low Class A Asheville club. For others, rehabilitation is the daily regimen, as it was for Beerer at extended spring training in 2004 following shoulder surgery in September 2003.
“The first time I did extended in 2004 when I was hurt, it was pretty brutal,” Beerer said. “Just the monotony of it all and being there every day. This time it was just thankfulness that I was there.
“I had been on the other side now. I had seen the real world and known that I want to do anything I can to keep the jersey on. I was a much more humbled guy. I was thankful that, one, I still was on a team, I still had a job. And, two, I was getting these at-bats that I needed to try to catch up, in a sense.”
Beerer could bat as many as six or seven times in extended spring training games, where rules are bent to conform to specific situations.
Extended spring training now seems distant, considering the climb Beerer has made. The tear he went on at Tri-City, which quickly vaulted him to Modesto, was, obviously, the best-case scenario for Beerer and the Rockies. But for the latter, another definitive answer could have resulted at Tri-City.
“You probably want to see performance one way or the other,” assistant general manager Bill Geivett said, “either a lack of performance or great performance. Anything in the middle ground causes you some issues.”
Gustafson said by mid-August, when Beerer has accumulated a decent volume of at-bats at Modesto and can be fully evaluated there, “We’ll have an idea if it’s going to work. But so far, so good.”
Defensively, Beerer is adequate and can be depended upon to make the average play. In addition to left field, he has played one game in right field for Modesto and regularly takes ground balls at third base. Like most players, Beerer’s bat will dictate his journey, one that started anew as he approached his 27th birthday.
“I don’t feel like I’m in a race against the clock like some people kind of say,” Beerer said. “I dream of making it to the big leagues. It’s been my dream since day one. Now I’m following my dream as a hitter. I’m loving every second out there on the field that I get to run around and dive and slide and make throws from the outfield.”
brady anderson, colorado rockies, marc gustafson, modesto, scott beerer, tri-city
