Erik Bedard: quiet ace speaks volumes with his arm: Mariners' acquisition of the hard-throwing left-hander gives club another quality starter in rotation and a boost for a post-season berth

Baseball Digest, June, 2008 by Larry Stone

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ERIK BEDARD WAS DRAFTED IN THE sixth round by the Orioles in 1999. In 2007, he was 13-5 with a 3.16 ERA and 221 strikeouts in 182 innings. He had Tommy John elbow surgery in 2002.

The raves come fast and furious, unreserved testimony that the Mariners have acquired, in Erik Bedard, an elite talent.

"The Mariners got one of the most dominant pitchers in baseball," said Hall of Famer Jim Palmer last February. "We're talking about a guy who can be as good as Johan Santana."

And just as quickly, in any conversation about Bedard, comes the ancillary warning: Don't expect a warm and fuzzy fellow.

It's not that he's a bad guy, they hasten to add. Just intensely private, and occasionally stubborn. His own man, for better or worse--and he doesn't suffer fools. Or the media.

"He comes off as aloof, and I don't think he is at all," said Orioles broadcaster Buck Martinez, a former major league manager and player in Toronto.

"He's a very genuine person, but he keeps things to himself. He gives you everything he has on a particular day, and when he's done, he doesn't want to give you much more.

"He doesn't like BS, doesn't like adulation. He likes meat and potatoes. It took a couple of years before he trusted me, and we had the natural tie of Canada."

Sam Perlozzo, the Mariners' third-base coach, had an even more natural tie the past three seasons: Bedard's manager, until he was fired by the Orioles in June 2007.

"He doesn't come off as real sociable early on, but he's much better than you think," Perlozzo said. "He has to learn to trust you. I personally think the last couple of years he's come around tremendously.

"As manager, it was easy to talk to him. You could kid with him. I saw him talking to teammates much more than he ever has. Socially and physically, he's made big strides the last two years."

Bedard, 29, hails from the Canadian province of Ontario. He's the most famous product of Navan, population 1,450, a rural village east of Ottawa.

His rags-to-riches tale is the stuff of a made-for-television movie. No high-school ball, cut twice from his 17- and 18-year-old select team, walked on to a junior college in Norwalk, Connecticut, where his fastball suddenly blossomed. Drafted in the sixth round by the Orioles in 1999, survived Tommy John elbow surgery in 2002 and other injuries (left knee, right oblique) to become a star.

Did we mention that he still lives in his parents' basement in Navan, or that he honed his pitching skills throwing to his brother, Mark, in a barn at his cousin's poultry farm? Or that he grew up speaking French?

At his introductory news conference last February, Bedard said he didn't sweat the swirling rumors of his on-again, off-again trade to Seattle.

"I didn't follow it," he said. "I'm in Ottawa, so there's not that much news on baseball. I mostly heard from family anti friends. I was just waiting for my agent to call me and say, 'You're going to Seattle.'"

And now Seattle believes it has a No. 1-caliber pitcher. Bedard broke out in 2006 (15-11, 3.76 earned-run average) and continued his ascension in the 2007 season.

Bedard, who thrived on Orioles teams that lost 92 and 93 games the past two seasons, is at the precipice of superstardom, in the opinion of many baseball people.

One of those is Leo Mazzone, who spent the past two seasons as the Orioles' pitching coach, after a long and fruitful career tutoring the great Atlanta staffs of John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux.

"Probably the best compliment I could give Erik is that he would fit on those great Braves staffs I had the privilege of coaching," Mazzone said.

Like every pitching coach before him, Mazzone had to earn Bedard's trust. It has been reported that they had friction, but others close to the situation disagree. Bedard credited Mazzone with hastening his development.

"We had long conversations, just the mental part," Bedard said.. "He helped me a lot."

Former Orioles general manager Jim Beattie called Bedard "a guy who studies his craft; he's not just a yo-yo out there."

But Beattie added, "He's got his own ideas of how to pitch, his own mind-set. He knows what he wants to try to do, and sometimes that's better than having no idea and leaning on the pitching coach too much."

For his part, Mazzone is 100 percent positive in his assessment of Bedard--right down to his reluctance to open up to the media.

"He's a guy that doesn't want a lot of accolades, a guy that always gives credit to his teammates," Mazzone said. "He reminds me of someone else I coached. Ever hear Greg Maddux talk about himself?

"I think Erik just wants to go out and do his job, and then leave him alone. I don't see anything wrong with that. He's his own man, and that's what makes great pitchers."

Palmer has a different comparison for Bedard's pitch-well-and-recede style.

"Steve Carlton was that way, and he's in the Hall of Fame with 329 wins," Palmer pointed out.

Bedard acknowledges that he finds dealing with the media--as he did, amiably, at his news conference last winter--"a little uncomfortable, but it's getting better. Hopefully, it will get better and better."