August 25, 2011
Cishek makes journey from Falmouth to Florida
by Kevin Henkin/
Steve Cishek (Falmouth, Mass.) has been a steady contributor out of the bullpen, thanks in part to his deceptive delivery. (photo: Getty Images)
Before he made his major-league debut with the Florida Marlins last September, Steve Cishek was better known as the best player from the Cape who never got a chance to play in the Cape Cod Baseball League.
This season, Cishek appears to be cemented as part of the Marlins’ bullpen, but he still keeps close ties to home.
Growing up in Falmouth, Mass., Cishek was a regular at Cape League games. Most of the time, he watched the games at Guv Fuller Field, the same field on which he would eventually play for Falmouth High School.
“The Cape League is the best of the best in college, and as I got older, I started to realize that,” Cishek said. “I thought it was pretty cool that we had the best baseball players come to the Cape, and watching them definitely motivated me to become a better player myself.”
During high school, Cishek was nicknamed “Bambi” while playing American Legion ball for the Sandwich Post 188 team. Bob Corradi, now the baseball coach and athletic director at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, was Cishek’s American Legion coach at the time.
“When Steve came to our team as a 16-year-old,” Corradi said, “I looked at his legs and I said, ‘Oh, my, they look like deer legs,’ so I nicknamed him ‘Bambi.’ That stuck with him for the rest of his high school days and through his legion days with us.”
For Falmouth High, Cishek was a standout player but failed to draw the attention of Division 1 schools. With fewer options than expected, Cishek took his talents to the Div. 2 program at Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City, Tenn. It was there under the watchful eye of coach Tom Griffin that Cishek developed into a major-league prospect.
“I thought pretty early on that Steve might become a prospect because aerodynamically, he was built for it,” Griffin said. “He was 6-foot-5 with long arms. He’s built to throw the ball hard, and he’s a pretty athletic kid.”
By his junior year in 2007, Cishek had added 10 mph of velocity on his fastball, by then reaching into the upper 80s with a strong upside of more to come. He was drafted in the fifth round of the MLB draft by the Marlins that June and spent the summer with the Jamestown Jammers in the New York-Penn League. Cishek pitched well that summer, finishing with a 1.95 ERA in 25 relief appearances.
He expected similar results when he was promoted to the Marlins’ Single-A team in Greensboro, N.C., the next season. Instead, he experienced his first serious struggles on the mound. Looking back on his ugly season in Greensboro, Cishek has become thankful for the experience.
“I’d never been beat up like that before,” he said. “It was probably the best thing that could happen to me. I learned how to pitch that year and learned a lot about myself mentally. Ever since then, I know that anytime you get hit, you’ve got to get right back up on the mound and keep competing. When I was in Greensboro, I wasn’t really doing that.”
The next year, in 2009, Cishek was promoted to the high-A level in Jupiter, Fla. Also promoted to Jupiter was John Duffy, the pitching coach from Greensboro the prior season. Duffy worked closely with Cishek to incorporate a breaking ball into his arsenal of pitches and to improve his command of the strike zone.
“Steve went through a lot of trials and tribulations and a lot of delivery work,” Duffy said. “To his credit, he worked his butt off every day. It wasn’t easy. There were times where he got beat up, but he never varied from his work ethic.”
The next season, Cishek and Duffy were promoted together again, this time to the Jacksonville Suns, the Marlins’ Double-A affiliate. Cishek submitted a strong season, playing a big role in helping the team win the Southern League Championship. Even so, he never anticipated receiving the phone call from the Marlins notifying him that he’d been promoted to the big club as a September call-up.
“It was definitely surreal,” Cishek said. “I had a good streak going in Double-A, but I didn’t think it was good enough to get the call.”
Cishek made the most of his opportunity, giving up no runs and only one hit in three appearances and 4 1/3 innings of work.
This past spring, Cishek pitched well in spring training but began the season at Triple-A New Orleans until he was called up again May 24.
Once again, Cishek justified his presence on the major-league roster by continuing his streak of scoreless innings. By June 14, 11 appearances deep into his major-league career, Cishek had set the Marlins’ record with 15 2/3 scoreless innings pitched to being his career, breaking the previous record of 11 2/3 innings set by Matt Turner in 1993.
Since then, Cishek has remained a steady and stable contributor in the Marlins’ bullpen.
Reflecting on the strong start to his major-league career, Cishek said, “Obviously the hitters here are a lot better than they are in the minor leagues, but at the same time, I was just going out there with the same mentality. I was just trying to keep the score the same every time I was in the ball game so nothing changed from there.”
This year, Cishek has relied heavily on a one-two punch of his slider and fastball.
“I try to get hitters leaning by starting with a slider and then throwing them a two-seamer in on their hands,” he said.
Duffy credits much of Cishek’s effectiveness to his deceptive delivery.
“You don’t see very many guys throw from the slot that he does,” Duffy said. “It’s kind of unique, especially for a big guy. The ball looks like it comes right out of his shoulder, and it’s on you before you can make an adjustment. And at 94, 95 mph with movement, it’s even that much tougher to hit.
“I’m so happy for that guy. He’s one of those good guys that you like to see succeed because he’s worked so hard to get where he is today.”
This article originally appeared in the August 2011 issue of New England Baseball Journal.
Kevin Henkin can be reached at feedback@baseballjournal.com
