BSN Exclusive: Rockies newest pitcher revels in pitching big games

DENVER – When left-handed pitcher Sam Howard was first drafted, by the Chicago Cubs, he was more than a bit surprised and a little unprepared.

“I wasn’t even expected to be drafted out of high school,” he told BSN Denver. “I didn’t have an agent or anything. I didn’t know much about it. My dad made the call for me. He talked to a few scouts before the draft. They said I need to go college. Get bigger, get stronger because I was real, real skinny coming out of high school. So really, it was my dad’s call and that’s what he thought was best for me and it worked out.”

He opted to attend Southern Georgia University to help hone his craft. “I had some offers from other places,” he recalls. “But when I went to Georgia Southern, with coach BJ Green, the pitching coach, it just felt like home. I just fit in there. I didn’t hesitate and picked to go there.”

Three years after his initial draft experience, Howard was ready for the call this time. That call came in the third round of the 2014 draft and it came from the Colorado Rockies.

As almost all pitchers do, he got knocked around in Grand Junction a bit, in the stadium the locals call “Coors Light” Field. It actually plays even more toward the offense than its big-league counterpart due to hotter, drier conditions and no humidor.

After putting up a 5.40 ERA over 53.1 innings in his first taste of professional ball, the Rockies still thought they saw enough in his approach and progress to move him swiftly through the organization.

It paid off, with Howard pitching to a 3.43 the following year at the A- level then a 2.47 in 2016 at A+ ball. He earned a promotion to Double-A in the middle of that season and held mostly steady until settling into that level in 2017 for a 2.33 ERA that earned him yet another mid-season promotion to Triple-A where he pitched well enough to demand that the Rockies add him to the 40-man roster.

“That was huge,” he says. “That was my goal all of last year. It was to make a push for the big leagues and to get added on the roster. That was very exciting for me and my family when I got the call. I’m just trying to get rolling this year and do some big things.”

Well, on June 9, it was announced that Sam Howard would be added to an MLB roster for the first time. However it may go, that is a big thing.

In addition to the marked improvements he has shown throughout his career, Colorado has been especially pleased with Howard’s durability and potential versatility as a lefty with the ability to go multiple innings as a starter or reliever.

He has pitched at least 120 innings in each of the past three seasons. “The biggest thing is getting a polished routine for my five day rotation,” he says of his penchant to stay on the field and near his peak. “It’s just getting a routine of knowing what I need to do each day for my arm to bounce back and feel ready to go every five days.”

And while he has typically been perceived as a prospect just out the outside of the Rockies Top 10, he has also shown an affinity to show up well in the big games he has had a chance to pitch in his career.

When the Albuquerque Isotopes packed the house for the Green Chile Cheeseburger game (isn’t minor league baseball just the best?) Howard took the mound and soaked in every moment. He tells us that he still has the promotional hat from the game at home on a shelf.

“It was fun,” he says. “I think it may have been one of my first three starts in Triple-A when I got called up here last year. I just happened to get that start. It was a lot of fun. I think there was close to 17,000 people. It was a lot of fun. Hopefully, I get lucky and get that start again this year.”

Or, you just may get to start in front of 30,000 or more at the confines of Coors Field.

Howard also got a chance to pitch a highly-attended (15,000) July 4 game against San Francisco’s Sacremento affiliate and reflected on enjoying that moment as well: “I like the bigger games, the more intense atmospheres. So, 4th of July, sold out, I was just locked in. I don’t think it was (anything) specific. Just locked in. Throwing all my pitches for strikes so the hitters have to respect them all. I like the big games. That’s what I’m trying to make every game like (that).”

Now, every game is like that.