Monday, June 03, 2002
Dessens best pitcher you never heard
The Reds aren't going to trade for a prime-time starting pitcher. They won't buy one, either, not unless fans storm the crumbling ballyard in overwhelming numbers. Ask not what you can do for your fans. Ask what your fans can do for you.
When it comes to the starting rotation, Cincinnati has what it has. The best it has is Elmer.
Elmer Dessens Jusaino. The best pitcher you've never heard about. He's only been here three years.
“He's a pretty quiet guy,” said Danny Graves.
Quiet? Abe Lincoln, sitting in his monument, talks a better game than Elmer does. Elmer speaks little English, not very often. “Every now and then, he'll crack a joke. Very every now and then,” said Graves.
Elmer shut out the Atlanta Braves for seven innings Sunday, the same Braves that whacked Reds pitching for 14 runs the previous two games. Proving that just because your name is Elmer doesn't mean you don't have game.
"Maybe we should pump him up,” Graves suggested. “Pass out Elmer posters or something.”
After a touchy first inning, Elmer kept his fastball low and dancing. He threw first-pitch strikes. He worked quickly. He changed speeds.
This is what he does most of the time. Since Opening Day, Dessens has had exactly two bad starts. Since 2000, he has been Cincinnati's most consistent starter. If the Reds are going to stay interesting all summer, Elmer will have to be large.
This is what we learned talking to him Sunday:
Elmer is the second-biggest star from Hermosillo, Mexico, a city three hours south of Tucson. Erubiel Durazo, the Arizona first baseman, is more famous. Elmer's mother Maria watched her son pitch Sunday, along with his four brothers and two sisters. She has DirecTV in Hermosillo. “Everyone has DirecTV in Hermosillo,” Elmer says.
Elmer says his stuff hasn't improved in his three seasons here, but his confidence has. “Gully and Bob (Boone) give me confidence,” he says. “I always knew I could pitch. I didn't always believe it.”
We have expected the starting pitching to fail. It has been like living under Mt. Vesuvius 2,000 years ago. Every time we see some ash, we wait for The End.
But it hasn't come. Maybe it won't. Fifty-six games isn't a streak; it's a trend. Defense lawyers would say the Reds starters have offered reasonable doubt.
It's a group held together with bubble gum, rubber bands and Don Gullett. If Dr. Pitching doesn't go to Steinbrenner's Yankees, as rumored, the Reds ought to lock him up for life, just like Griffey. If you take away Chris Reitsma -- 1.84 ERA in his last five starts -- the only constant has been Dessens.
“He's just a very solid pitcher,” says catcher Jason LaRue, “with maybe the best two-seam fastball in the league.” (Whatever a two-seam fastball is, Elmer's got a good one. One guesses it's better than a one-seam fastball.)
Someone asked Elmer if he thought he was the Reds' “ace.”
“I don't know,” he said. “We are a team.”
Best answer of the season. In any language.
E-mail: pdaugherty@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/daugherty.
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