Paulk Changing It Up

Robert Paulk is a long-time veteran of the Mets organization, slowly but climbing his way up the ranks. After making brief appearances in Triple-A the last two seasons, he opens the year one step from Shea for the first time in his career. Inside Pitch spoke with Paulk to find out what he needs to do to take the final step.

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With four pitches in his pocket, Robert Paulk has the arsenal to someday play a role in the Mets bullpen.

The 5-foot-11, 175 pound right-hander has been in the system since the Mets drafted him in the 24th round of the 2002 MLB draft out of North Florida Junior College.

While he has been relatively old for the levels that he has played in – he was drafted as a 21-year-old, and is spending his first full year in Triple-A New Orleans as a 26-year old – his ability to go deep into games by using an expansive pitch selection makes him an attractive option as a mop-up guy in the majors, or even a sixth or seventh inning pitcher.

Even though Paulk has a sharp, sinking two-seam fastball, scouts rave about his plus-curveball, which is one of the most exciting in the system. It has huge, looping 12-6 movement, which jams righties and tails away from lefties and he considers it his strike-out pitch.

That combination of a sinking fastball and a tailing curveball allows him to abuse the lower half of the zone. That is helpful because he lets a lot of runners on base, and those pitches induce ground balls, giving him more chances to double-up the runners.

In 385 career minor league innings, he’s walked 132 and given up 419 hits. That’s a bothersome 1.43 WHIP – but it doesn’t bother him.

“I give up a lot of singles, and I don’t tend to give up a lot of home runs. That just sets it up for the double play. If that guy gets on, it’s not a big deal. Just hopefully get in there, get a ground ball, get a double play.”

While groundball pitchers do have better success with stranding runners – look at the success of some of Paulk’s favorite pitchers, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine, who played in Paulk’s home state, Georgia – it’s not a habit he’d like to get into.

He’s been successful so far at avoiding big innings and too high of an ERA. He was most successful in 2006 at Binghamton, when he had a 5-2 record and a 2.77 ERA with only a 1.25 WHIP.

The next year, however, wasn’t so kind, despite still playing in Double-A: he finished with an inverse of his 2006 record, 2-5, and his ERA ballooned to 4.12. It could have been worse, though, with his 1.63 WHIP and lackluster 53/28 k/bb ratio in 78.2 innings.

Paulk is looking to improve on last year’s numbers by moving away from just his fastball and curveball. His slider compliments the movement on both pitches very well, and if his changeup develops and lets him mix up his pitch speed, he may have some real potential as a long-relief guy. It’s just a matter of getting a handle of those secondary pitches.

“You kind of tend to rely on it too much,” Paulk said of his curveball. “As a sinkerball pitcher, I can go in there and just throw sinkers to them and maybe get out of that outing, and get away from another pitch. You’ve just got to trust it and throw it as regular as possible on the side and whenever you get a chance to.”

He has been using his slider extensively for years, especially when in the second trip through the lineup after getting through two or three innings. It’s a way for him to sneak up on batters, who may be expecting his curve, which he uses extensively early on as his strikeout pitch.

While in the past he has not established much of a difference between his changeup and fastball, which could be changing after slightly refining his mechanics. He had too much hand movement going on before, and he was getting out of the stretch a little too quickly, he said.

“From previous years, it went from pretty mediocre to a pretty decent changeup,” Paulk said. “I think it’s a really good pitch at times now. And I’m doing the right things with my arm speed, instead of me trying to make it a changeup and just throwing it like a fastball, and letting it do its thing.”

That he has four-pitches in his arsenal, a commanding amount at his level, allows him to give batters enough different looks to not have to worry about that second trip through the lineup.

“I just go inning by inning. If I go two innings, and I do the job I need to do for the day, or if I go five, even better,” Paulk said.

This flexibility allows him to fill in whenever a pitcher either blows up early on or gets injured. In the major league level, he could be a consistent sixth and seventh inning reliever.

But in just his first full-time stint in Triple-A, he’s going to have to prove that he’s capable of handling big league bats.

“I just keep going out there. Work hard, do all the right things. It’s a process. Just keep working hard, doing the things you have to do, I think it’s going to come together. Something is going to click. Hopefully it’ll take off from there.”