My first conversation attempt with Walker Buehler this spring was interrupted by a lefty who held “best pitcher on the planet status” for a couple of years.
I had just starting my chat with Buehler, the strong-armed Dodgers pitcher who threw seven shutout innings in his lone World Series start last fall, in front of his locker in early March when future Hall of Famer Clayton Kershaw walked into the Camelback Ranch clubhouse.
“Walk,” he said. “Let’s go.”
Kershaw strode over to the ping-pong table and picked up his paddle. Spring training ping-pong is a big damn deal, especially for the Dodgers. On the wall was a tournament bracket that, just by eyeballing, had to include nearly every player on the expanded spring roster. And Kershaw needed to practice with Buehler, his doubles partner.
“Sorry,” Buehler said with a grin. “The king beckons. Can we do this tomorrow?”
So we picked up the conversation the next day.
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Buehler, a 24-year-old right-hander and intense competitor, is a fascinating figure in the Dodgers’ present and future.
He helped Vanderbilt win the 2014 College World Series title and then led the Commodores back to the final series again in 2015. He had Tommy John surgery shortly after he was drafted by the Dodgers in 2015. Once he came back, though, he shot through the minors, even with the team carefully watching his innings.
He made his big-league debut in September 2017 and established himself as arguably LA’s best starter in 2018. In 24 games (23 starts), Buehler fashioned a 2.62 ERA/3.04 FIP with 9.9 strikeouts and only 6.2 hits per inning.
He started four games in the postseason, most notably throwing seven shutout innings — striking out seven, allowing just two hits and zero walks — in Game 3 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium. That’s the game, you’ll remember, that lasted 7 hours, 20 minutes and didn’t end until Max Muncy’s home run leading off the bottom of the 18th inning.
A guy who doesn’t flinch in World Series pressure? That’s a guy worth waiting a day to chat with, though you can bet I was hoping Kershaw wouldn’t want to play ping-pong again that next day. He didn’t, so here’s my Sporting News Conversation with Buehler.
(Editor’s note: This post has been edited for clarity and length.)
SN: What’s one of your first baseball memories?
BUEHLER: First baseball memory? Holy s—. I don’t know. The first team I ever played for was a coach-pitch, or machine-pitch team and our coach was a really well-known pediatrician around town, so that was kind of a cool introduction to baseball.
SN: What position did you play back then?
BUEHLER: Outfield. My mom tells this story to people. I guess in T-ball, I used to pick the little f—ing clovers and, you know, bring them in to her. I was just so over it. I wasn't into baseball for a long time.
SN: Ha. That’s amazing. So when did you start getting into baseball?
BUEHLER: By the time I was 7 or 8. That other stuff was when I was 5 or 6. By the time we started playing actual baseball in some form is when I kind of got into it, I guess.
SN: And when did you start pitching?
BUEHLER: I was 10. Don’t think I pitched my 9-year-old year.
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SN: Anyone who’s ever watched you pitch sees your intensity out there. Where does that come from?
BUEHLER: I think playing at Vanderbilt and having Coach (Tim) Corbin and those guys, we kind of all embraced that. I was always really competitive, but never really showed it the way I did once I got to college. Our whole team was like that, so I think that brought it out a lot more, to the forefront. But the biggest thing is, I don’t try and manufacture that stuff. It just happens.
SN: You can tell when somebody tries to fake that.
BUEHLER: Absolutely.
SN: So Vandy is where you figured out it was OK to be like that on the mound?
BUEHLER: Yeah. I think when you’re growing up, there’s this perception where you hear enough coaches talk, saying, 'Act like you’ve been there before,' or, ‘Pitchers are supposed to be stable,' and stuff like that. And, yeah, that might be true for 90 percent of the time, but that doesn’t mean that 10 percent of the time you can't let it go. I think that, for the first time being in a really super-competitive environment with our team — we had a lot of good players — and you’re trying to get out there, and when you do, embracing that, I think does nothing but help.
SN: Do you remember the first time you hit 100 mph on the radar gun?
BUEHLER: I’m pretty sure it might have been in my first game back off of surgery. I had a back-field game here. I know I got it in low A, but I think I got it in my first game back off of TJ.
SN: What’s that like? Big deal?
BUEHLER: Yeah, it was, but you know it was a bigger deal for me when, in my first live BP, I was like 96 to 98. I had never thrown that hard before. That was more of a "holy s—" to me than 100. Coming off the rehab process, and you're throwing long enough and hard enough, and I'm hitting 99 and I didn’t feel like I was throwing as hard as I could. So I was more surprised with that first time back than when I hit 100.
SN: Before you got out there, did you have any idea it was going to be different? Did your arm feel different?
BUEHLER: Nuh-uh. It just kind of felt like it had been when I was pitching. But they had gotten mad at me for throwing a little too hard in the bullpen. I think we all thought, "That’s just how it’s going to be in the game. If he’s throwing too hard in the bullpens, it’ll be the same in a game." It was three or four miles per hour harder, and it’s just all kind of gone from there.
SN: What’s your lasting takeaway from last year, your first in the majors?
BUEHLER: You really can’t take anything except confidence from it. We’re really focused on this year, but if you want to take something, I think it’s that we got there. We won a Game 7. We won a Game 163. Personally, I started a World Series game. I started four playoff games. There’s nothing but positives you can take from it, I think.
SN: You started the World Series game that never ended.
BUEHLER: Right? That was a weird one. It’s not often you throw deep into a game and you’re not even in the game half of the time. That’s just a cool experience. Something we can build off, for sure.
SN: I want to talk about that one inning in the playoffs against the Braves. A couple of walks, close calls and then the grand slam (by Ronald Acuna Jr.). But how important, for you, was it to stay in there and retire the next nine guys in a row to finish your day?
BUEHLER: I’ve told Doc (manager Dave Roberts), the best thing anyone did for me last year was to let me go back out for three more after that. I think that’s the only way you progress and move forward from an inning like that. Which, I don’t think I’ve ever really had innings that I kind of just lost it, ever before. You know, I’ve walked a couple guys, but that one was a little different. Obviously, there were some nerves and some anxiety involved in my first playoff start, and it just kind of bubbled over to a place I didn’t want it to be, but going out and throwing three more zeroes up and getting us forward obviously helps.
SN: Growing up in Lexington, Ky., were there any pitchers you watched, maybe tried to learn from their styles?
BUEHLER: I was a big fan of the Reds in the early to mid-2000s, with (Johnny) Cueto and (Edinson) Volquez and (Mat) Latos and (Aaron) Harang and (Bronson) Arroyo. Those guys, and (Zack) Greinke was a big one for me. And then (Justin) Verlander. My grandfather’s from Michigan, so he’s a big Tigers fan. I try to take pieces from as many places as I can.
SN: How do you mentally challenge yourself?
BUEHLER: There’s little routines that you pick up here and there. At Vanderbilt, we worked with the late Ken Ravizza, who was kind of the original mental strength coach for baseball-specific. He passed away, unfortunately. But we had him come in at school and teach us just some little focal points and breathing techniques and stuff like that. It’s the same thing. You pick pieces and parts, and if it works for you, it works for you. I’d talk to David Price a little bit about it when he would come back to school, and implemented some of the stuff he would talk about.
