Grove’s First Pro Baseball Season in the Books
Former Park pitcher showing improvement
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There's a cliche that says, 'as you get older, the faster time goes.'
Plus, it's always helpful when a person is doing something they love.
Michael Grove subscribes to both theories. The now 22-year-old just wrapped up his first full season of professional baseball and returned to the mound for the first time since undergoing Tommy John Surgery, which ended his collegiate career at West Virginia University in 2017.
"It's kind of crazy that (the season) is over," Grove said during a recent phone interview. "It was honestly like nothing I had experienced before."
That feeling occurs when you're no longer simply playing the game you love for fun and it becomes your profession.
"I think we played 144 games in 155 days, so it was definitely a grind and a lot of work," Grove said.
Grove spent the entire season with the Los Angeles Dodgers High Class A team in Rancho Cucamonga, which is just 40 minutes from L.A.
As he continued his road back from surgery, the Dodgers organization had Grove on a strict innings limit for the season. He made 25 starts, but he worked just over 51 innings.
"I wasn't concerned about my record or stats," Grove said. "Those are nice to look at, but I wasn't allowed to pitch long enough to get a win, so I knew what I was getting into there. I just wanted to get back to competing well and do the best I could."
Grove finished with an 0-6 record, but never worked deep enough into a game to get the five innings required to qualify for a win. His earned run average was 6.10, but he did fashion an impressive 12.7 strikeouts per nine innings ratio.
"It was a growing process because I felt like I was re-learning a lot of things," Grove said. "It was a waiting game and I had to keep telling myself not to try to force things because during the spring, my velocity and stuff just were not there. During the first half of the season, I was out there with a fastball basically because my offspeed pitch hadn't gotten back in the zone yet."
Grove continued to re-gain his control, velocity and confidence as the season moved along. He opened the season consistently throwing between 90 and 93 miles per hour, but as he regained his form, it climbed to between 93 and 96, which was where he was during much of his career with the Mountaineers.
"It was probably about the middle of the season when I got the feel back for my offspeed pitches," Grove said. "My velocity went back up, and I really felt like I was back to where I was. I really finished strong and was happy with the progress I made. Continually getting better was honestly all I was looking for."
Velocity -- when he's healthy -- has never been a real issue for Grove. His continued development of his off speed pitches is where he's most excited.
"I could sense my confidence growing as the season went along and I was throwing a 12-to-6 curve ball that was really effective for me," Grove said. "I really started to feel like I did before the injury later in the year. Early on, I felt like I was pitching and trying to get soft contact, whereas I was able to attack more hitters and try to control the game later in the season."
Grove wasn't the only one excited about the strides he made during the course of the season, which saw Rancho Cucamonga qualify for the playoffs, but get upset in the first round.
"The organization was happy with the progress," Grove said. "The biggest thing was I stayed healthy and things are starting to come back to me. Plus, I didn't walk a lot of guys and I struck a lot of guys out. Ending the year stronger than I started it was great, too."
Grove threw pain free for the season, but he also learned about "backing off a little bit" as the season went on.
"In high school or college, it's go go go, but when you're at this level and playing basically every day, but only pitching every fifth day, you have some time to back off and catch your breath a little bit," Grove said. "The process of taking care of your body is an important part of this."
With plans to amp back up his off-season throwing program in the coming weeks, Grove is already thinking about the 2020 season and what could lie ahead.
While he's not totally sure where he will be in terms of the Dodgers' organization, he does know he will not have any restrictions.
"I will not be on any sort of game-to-game limits," Grove said. "I am free to go in that regard, but I might be on an accumulative innings limit, but (the Dodgers) will ultimately decide that."
As for where he might be playing, that will be determined down the road, too. He will report in Februrary for spring training and see where the parent club opts to send him.
"I could be back in Rancho for a little bit, but I hope when I am able to begin a normal pitching career, I can hopefully move up a little bit faster (through the ranks)," Grove said. "I'd like to break into AA next year."
For the next few weeks, Grove will be in Wheeling, but the remainder of his offseason will be spent "bouncing around."
"I am going to be in Arizona for a portion of November, L.A. for part of December and I am undecided about January," Grove said. "It's really going to depend on when (the Dodgers) want me to report for spring training."