New York Times

From Closer to Convert By MURRAY CHASS HOENIX, March 3 ?Sixteen months ago, Byung Hyun Kim suffered a double-barreled blow from which some pitchers would never recover. In startling succession, in Games 4 and 5 of the 2001 World Series against the Yankees, Kim, the Arizona Diamondbacks' closer, squandered ninth-inning leads by throwing balls that wound up flying over fences for two-out, game-tying home runs. Kim also gave up a second home run, in extra innings, that lost Game 4. The Diamondbacks, of course, survived those stunning losses and won the World Series. Kim survived those pitches and gained 36 saves and 8 victories last season as the Diamondbacks repeated as National League West champions. Having demonstrated that those losses did not devastate him, Kim is now the central character in the Diamondbacks' intriguing spring training experiment. He is competing for a spot in the team's starting rotation, the one that features Randy Johnson, winner of the Cy Young award each of the four seasons he has pitched for Arizona, and Curt Schilling. Kim, a 24-year-old South Korean with a submarine-style pitching delivery, declined to discuss his attempt to convert from closer to starter. "I don't want to say a wrong answer," he said shyly, concerned that his limited mastery of English would betray him. But even his presence at Phoenix Municipal Stadium today was interesting. He had pitched Sunday and was not scheduled to pitch in the exhibition game against the Oakland Athletics, but he opted to take the two-hour bus ride and do his daily work here instead of staying in Tucson and doing it there. In wanting to return to starting, which he did in South Korea, Kim is trying to make a transition that is unusual in the major leagues. Boston's Derek Lowe went from being a closer with mixed success to a 21-game winner last year as a starter, but no pitcher has ever made 20 or more starts the year after gaining 30 saves as a closer. Manager Bob Brenly spoke about Kim's attempt to start and was straightforward about it. It developed, he said, from Kim's desire to start and the return to good health of Matt Mantei. "It was all predicated on the fact that we thought Matt Mantei was back and 100 percent healthy and could resume his role as a closer," Brenly said. "If we didn't have Mantei to close, we wouldn't be proceeding with this experiment. "But because he's back, we feel if we're ever going to give B. K. a chance to start, this would be the time to do it." Brenly was aware of Kim's desire to start again. "We try to put pitchers in a comfort zone where they can go out and feel like they're doing what they want to do to the best of their ability," Brenly said. Kim, he added, brought some attributes to his conversion that should benefit him. "Even as a closer, this is a guy who threw 100 or 200 pitches every day in the bullpen," Brenly said. "He's very resilient, he has a tremendous arm that can bounce back quickly, and he's got a huge arsenal of pitches at his disposal: a couple different fastballs, a couple different sliders and a straight changeup." But the right-handed Kim will not make the transition effortlessly. He has to master certain other elements to persuade Brenly to put him in the rotation: his pitching delivery, his pitch count and his ability to get the ball to the plate quickly with runners on base. "In the past, he's fooled around with a lot of different motions and leg kicks and arm pumps," Brenly said. "Sometimes from hitter to hitter and pitch to pitch. But we asked him to find something that was comfortable for him and stay with it, and he's been able to do that." Part of the consistency Brenly wanted from Kim was his windup, or no windup, delivery. "As a reliever," Brenly said, "sometimes he used a windup, sometimes he didn't. He may start a hitter pitching out of a windup, throw ball one, go into the stretch for the next two pitches and then go back to the windup. We never knew what he was going to do. We needed to eliminate that to eliminate all the possible mistakes that come from that. He's been able to make the transformation to a delivery he likes." Kim demonstrated his new delivery in his two-inning outing Sunday against the Chicago White Sox. "It's close to normal," Brenly said. "He's got a couple near pauses as he goes into his windup, but it's not a Hideo Nomo-type delivery or anything like that." Kim encountered his pitch-count problem in the first inning Sunday, throwing 25 pitches. He was more economical in the second inning, using 15. "Stamina and ability to throw lots of pitches has never been a problem for B. K.," Brenly said. "He can throw all day long if you want him to. But we don't want to have to run him out there for 175 pitches to get a decision. We'd like to keep him in a normal range of pitch counts." The Diamondbacks also want Kim to quicken his delivery with a runner at first base. And, Brenly said, they expect the Kim experiment to run the course of spring training. "At this point I think so," he said. "We need to see some extended outings, see him get some innings under his belt and see how it progresses. If Kim shows he can be a No. 5 starter, that means Miguel Batista would go back to the bullpen, a role he filled tremendously for us in 2001." Brenly will give Kim every chance to become the fifth starter because he wants to improve the bottom end of the rotation. "Derek Lowe is one of the best pitchers in the game," Brenly said. "He was able to make that transformation and do it very successfully. We know it's somewhat of a gamble with Kim, but we think the possible rewards are well worth the risk."