California League interview w/David Chavarria (August 2010)
Bakersfield isn’t real and neither am I
For background and context into what this is, read the previous entry https://medium.com/@steelydanrather/what-was-steely-dan-rather-a-journey-through-minor-league-baseball-memories-ba13bea45fd5
originally published August 11, 2010
The Bakersfield Blaze has the best second-half record in the league at 27–16. The pitching has had a humongous role in that success.
Success usually comes from stability. The Blaze has employed 12 different starting pitchers in 2010 and gone through two closers, and still kept a formidable lead in the North Division race. The rotation features three young arms up from Class-A Hickory, and an untested closer gets the call in the ninth inning.
Pitching coach David Chavarria is on the front lines of the battle for the Cal League and he has been there for every pitching development in Bakersfield for five seasons, most recently 2008–2010.
Chavarria credits the Bakersfield team for surviving the turnover this year. “We’ve had some guys move up, and we’ve had some guys come in and pick up the slack,” he said. “They’ve come in and made the adjustments jumping up to a new league.”
The rotation is young, even for a minor league club. Danny Guiterrez, Robert Ross, and Joe Wieland came from Hickory. Wilfredo Boscan and Kennil Gomez anchor the rotation. Despite the inexperience and youth of the quintet, Chavarria likes Wieland, Ross, Gomez, and Boscan as his go-to guys for the postseason.
“We haven’t got to that point yet,” he stressed, “but it’s most likely them. They come in, they’re aggressive, and they attack hitters.”
The team lost another starter, Carlos Pimentel, to Double-A Frisco this week. They must also do without their dominant closer, Mark Hamburger. Hamburger collected 18 saves this season, a career high. He tossed 45 2/3 innings and logged a 1.77 ERA before the RoughRiders recalled him July 30.
Hamburger bounced around the lower levels of the Twins organization before coming to Texas in exchange for Eddie Guardado. The Rangers liked Hamburger’s stuff, but his track record didn’t add up.
“Coming out of spring training he was a guy who showed promise,” Chavarria said. “He had really good velocity.”
The coach went to work and made adjustments in his delivery. Small things, Chavarria says, like arm angle, and getting Hamburger’s head on line, not down towards the target in his delivery.
These tweaks were added to Hamburger’s routine during warm-ups and side work. “He turned the corner,” Chavarria said. “I saw his confidence go up. He did an outstanding job maturing and becoming a pitcher, not a thrower.”
Right-hander Fabio Castillo is now the closer. He tossed 2 2/3 scoreless innings with four strikeouts over three appearances last week with two saves, and he has an 0.73 ERA over his last 12 1/3 innings.
Castillo throws in the mid 90s with a sharp slider and a good changeup. Chavarria says the young hurler mixes pitches well, and like Hamburger, his improvement is rooted in confidence. “His stuff got better, and he’s more mature now too,” he said.
Chavarria has had to work through personnel changes all year, especially in July. Texas shipped away seven pitchers — all from Double-A — in four separate trades before the Trade Deadline July 31. The deals netted the Rangers key members for their playoff run. Texas’ deep farm system allowed the big club to wheel and deal and still keeps their minor league teams afloat.
“Frisco got hit pretty hard,” Chavarria said. “We had some guys here in Bakersfield who were ready to go up there. We were able to get guys from Class-A Hickory like Wieland and Ross, also anxious to prove themselves at the higher level.”
Chavarria coached all the lost pitchers, and guided several others in his previous tenure in the Rangers system. He was on the Gulf Coast League Rangers staff in 2001 and 2002, and graduated several excellent young arms to the majors, like C.J. Wilson, Edinson Volquez, and Armando Galarraga.
“It’s exciting on a professional level, working with these guys,” he said. “For me, it’s about the person, that all the guys you’ve invested in are good character guys’’
He was amused to see two of his former pupils in a game in Chicago June 22. John Danks and Jesse Chavez matched up when the White Sox hosted the Atlanta Braves in an interleague tilt. Danks was the winner of the contest.
Chavarria is challenged every day as a coach, communicating with his young arms in a variety of languages. With guys on the roster from Latin America and even South Korea, everyone relies on the universal language of baseball.
“A lot of these guys speak English,” Chavarria said. “I try to communicate as much as I can in my Spanish.”
He uses hand gestures and moves body parts to get his point across: “If we’re talking about staying back on the lower half, I make sure to touch the hip to make sure they understand.”
Pitcher Yoon-Hee Nam hails from Seoul and is a multi-talented left-hander, starting and relieving this season. He also speaks multiple languages, one of them self-taught Spanish. “It’s fun to watch the Latin guys communicate with Nam and watch him communicate with them,” Chavarria said. “We have some good times and good laughs about it.”
Where are they now?
Chavarria moved around the minors as a pitching coach for about a decade after his role in Bakersfield, sticking with the Rangers organization to coach in short-season rookie team Spokane in 2011. For the following seven years, Chavarria coached in the Milwaukee Brewers org: Class-A Wisconsin in 2012–2013, Advanced-A Brevard County in 2014–2016, Advanced-A Carolina Mudcats in 2017, and Double-A Biloxi Shuckers in 2018. He was named as the pitching coach of the Double-A Mississippi Braves in 2020 before the season was canceled due to the pandemic.
As of 2022, I don’t see him listed on any affiliated league’s coaching staff. According to LinkedIn, Chavarria is the rehab pitching coordinator for the Braves. LinkedIn isn’t always the most accurate source of information, as it’s typical for people to not update their pages regularly and even list a role as current on your profile after leaving said role to make yourself look good while you’re not working. I did for six weeks after I got fired from a job where they constantly misgendered me and cockblocked everything I tried to write, and nobody was the wiser.
I digress. We’re here to talk about baseball, not transphobic employers who have the gall to misgender their employees and then roll out a poorly designed rainbow logo on June 1.
Given what I know about minor league coaching and these org structures, it’s likely that Chavarria stuck in the Braves org even if he didn’t get to keep the M-Braves job. The org will often move guys around to different cities or roles as it suits them; you can see that reflected in how he coached in different stops over almost 10 years with the Brewers.
Check the upcoming In the Margins post for more on why I chose the Bakersfield Blaze pitching coach and a little more on David Chavarria’s background.
No stupid jokes this week, sorry. I can offer you an awesome baseball name in Davis Stoneburner, who hit 16 home runs for the Blaze in 2010. Stoneburner is now the VP of Operations for a Canada-based mining company. You never know what you’ll find in these old stories.
Next week: Royalty, but not the Kansas City kind as those Royals never played in the Cal League (I think?)
Previous entries in this series:
Wande Olabisi: From MiLB to MBA
Paul Goldschmidt: Good at baseball https://medium.com/@steelydanrather/california-league-interview-w-paul-goldschmidt-august-2010-f7f9e11ea83c (not sure why Medium sucks tonight, but it won’t let me hyperlink within the text)
