‘More patient’ Fryman learned along with team

By Tom Williams

The Scrappers manager is ready to begin his second season at Mahoning Valley.

NILES — With time ticking down to the start of his second season as Scrappers manager, Travis Fryman agreed that assembling his 2009 team is a bit like studying the unassembled pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. With one exception.

“When you put a puzzle together, you kind of know what the end picture is supposed to look like,” the former Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers third baseman said on Wednesday at Eastwood Field. “We don’t really know what our end picture will be.”

With Friday’s New York-Penn League home opener game against the Jamestown Jammers approaching, players are arriving sporadically.

“We’ll have guys trickle in all summer long,” Fryman said. “That’s comes with this level of play. You’ve got some guys who are in the College World Series, you’ve got some guys who will hold out over the summer.

“Flexibility is a pretty important quality for a coaching staff at this level,” said Fryman, who was on his way to meet the players who had arrived just before media day activities began at Eastwood Field.

“We felt like we had a good draft,” Fryman said. “It was certainly dominated by good pitchers this year, at least our selections were.”

Fryman hopes the Scrappers — the short season Class A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians — can improve on last year’s 31-44 record that placed them fifth in the Pickney Division.

“I learned a lot,” said Fryman who in 2007 was the Indians special guest instructor for infielders. “Certainly, this was a new experience. There was a little anxiety coming into the season just because of the unknown.”

Fryman knows patience is a virtue.

“I’m not known for being a patient guy,” said Fryman whose major-league career spanned 1990-2002 and included five All-Star Game appearances. “I’m a pretty structured person. Most people who know me were concerned whether I had the patience to work out here at the lower levels.

“But I’ve matured a little over the years, I’m not the same man I once was,” Fryman said. “Patience is something that I will continue to improve in, I hope.”

As the 2008 season progressed, Fryman felt he learned much from a different style of baseball.

“I felt that I was fairly patient last year,” Fryman said. “Several players commented that they didn’t know I was being so patient as I was as poorly as we were playing.

“I learned a lot about these college guys,” Fryman said. “That’s a tough transition, especially for our pitchers. I don’t think it’s as difficult for our position players.”

Aluminum bats are the reason.

“The aluminum bat may have more of a negative effect on pitchers than it does on position players,” Fryman said. “They tend to pitch away from contact in college ball.

Most of the time, they pitch off-speed pitches whereas in professional ball we are going to pitch to contact.”

Getting players to try his methods was a challenge.

“That mentality proved to be difficult for some of our pitchers last year and I think that was more the norm than the exception,” Fryman said. “I’ll have more realistic expectations this year. I feel like I understand that a little bit more.”

Fryman said he and pitching coach Ken Rowe continue to piece together their five-man rotation. Friday’s starter has not been announced.

“I think we know who it’s going to be but we’ll have a conference call [today] to shore that up,” Fryman said. “We don’t know what our rotation is yet.

“We’ve got three guys here who are in the rotation, but we don’t know yet who the other two will be.

“A lot of that is based on how quickly we’re getting guys signed and when’s the last time they played,” Fryman said. “Some of these guys haven’t thrown in three weeks so we’re not going to put them out there and risk their careers.”

Wednesday’s rain caused Fryman to adapt his workout plans. He was hoping the tarp would come off so the players could work on rundowns and pickoffs. Hitters worked in the batting cages behind right field. The bullpens were available for pitchers to loosen their arms.

“As long as we are able to get our throwing program in for our pitchers, we’re going to be fine,” Fryman said.

williams@vindy.com