Perserverance Defined - Part One

Written By: Bobby Jones, InsidePitching.com 

There are a few words one could use to describe Kris Regas’ pitching career. Hectic, chaotic, confusing and resilient all come to mind. And with his history of signings and releases, starts and relief appearances, missed college baseball regionals and championship starts, paradoxical is another good one. But perseverance is probably the best adjective with which to tag Regas’ career.

The 27 year old, 6’3" lefthander from the Chicago area has had a wild ride. As alluded to earlier, trouble found him in college, followed him to a couple stints in the Frontier League and a stint with the New York Mets organization before finally letting up for a record-setting year in the independent Northern League. He had high points along the way of course, but for the most part it had to seem to Regas like no good deed – or good stat – could go unpunished.

So how does a guy with a history of releases, injuries, ignored phone calls and general struggles end up setting the Northern League’s single-season appearance record and an all-star appearance? It’s a story with several ups and downs, and one that defines what it takes to persevere through the lumps a pitcher can take over the course of his career.

After a senior season at Bradley-Bourbonnais (Ill.) High School that saw him go 11-3 with a 1.10 ERA and a school record 122 strikeouts, Regas set out for St. Joseph’s College. But it wasn’t the school itself that got his attention. According to Regas, it was pitching coach Joe Fletcher that motivated him to spend his college years – at least the first few – at the small Division Two college in Rensselaer, Ind. Regas had taken lessons from Fletcher, and liked the results.

"I had the opportunity to go to some pretty big Division 1 schools if I wanted to pursue them," said Regas. "I chose St. Joe’s because of a pitching coach…I worked with (Fletcher) quite a bit right before my senior season in high – so I decided I wanted to spend four years with him."

But a semester with Fletcher was all Regas got at St. Joe’s, because the coach took a job at Division One Jacksonville University after the freshman had barely had time to settle into his dorm room. With Fletcher’s departure, Regas was left adjusting to a new pitching instructor during the off-season and turning to Fletcher’s advice during the summer.

Regas remained at St. Joe’s through his sophomore and junior seasons in 1999 and 2000, but when the team’s head coach retired after his junior season, it gave Regas the opportunity he needed to follow Fletcher’s tracks down to Jacksonville for his senior year.

"I only got a semester to work with him before he took the job down at Jacksonville University," said Regas. "When the head coach at St. Joe’s at the time retired about two weeks before school started, it actually gave me the opportunity to get my release…which allowed me to go and pursue other options. So I got that, and gave (Fletcher) a call and he said ‘Yeah, we have a spot for you down here.’"

Regas and Fletcher were reunited, and this time at a Division one school in the college-baseball crazy state of Florida. That was about the only good news Regas would get for a while.

Regas first had to deal with hernia surgery in the fall of 2001. After recovering from that setback, he had earned a spot in the rotation after getting thrown into the fire with the bases loaded, no outs and a 3-0 count as a reliever in his first outing as a Dolphin. But his first season at JU also saw Regas getting injured for the first time in his career when he tweaked his ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) in a game against Louisiana-Monroe.

Considering it was the first time in his pitching experience that he’d been injured, Regas wasn’t entirely sure what to think of the pain at first.

"…I felt a twinge in my elbow after throwing a fastball," said Regas. "I wasn’t sure what it meant because it didn’t hurt when I was just standing there. There were two outs, so I pulled out the catcher, told him what happened and we decided to just keep pitching and see what happens. I looped in a curveball on the next pitch and the guy grounded out, but when I let one go in my warm-ups in the next inning I realized I might be hurt seriously."

The trainers weren’t sure what the diagnosis was, and because it was the first time he had been injured, Regas couldn’t explain the feeling as accurately as they needed. It would actually take a second start with the injury before everyone involved wised up to what the problem really was.

"There’s kind of a process where the trainers want to say just rest and rehab it and you’ll be better in two weeks," said Regas. "I tried that, actually got a start two weeks later and went about three-and-a-third and the same thing happened. After that they decided to get the MRI and found out I had a partial tear. I was lucky in that I didn’t have a full tear so I didn’t need the Tommy John surgery, but I had about eight months of overall rest and rehab."

To literally add insult to injury, Fletcher, the pitching coach who led Regas to transfer to Jacksonville in the first place, decided to accept an offer to serve as pitching coach for Michigan State University after Regas’ first year as a Dolphin.

Regas, slow to become bitter and much more attuned to laughing off adversity, said he found the whole thing kind of "funny."

"Actually I only got about another semester with (Fletcher) again before he took a job at Michigan State," said Regas. "It was kind of like I followed a coach around who I knew would make me better, but in the meantime I’ve always worked him over the summers a lot. So I did get some instruction from him, but not quite what I was looking for. I thought it was kind of funny the way the whole thing worked out."

Now, with his favorite pitching coach gone and his first attempt at a senior season a wash, Regas set to rehabbing his injury. Although he didn’t need Tommy John surgery, performed on full UCL tears, he was prescribed the same rehab program. The process of getting back to full strength was a very slow one, and it left Regas with some frustration.

"The throwing program was probably the most frustrating," said Regas. "I did all the Tommy John throwing rehab without the actual surgery, and anyone familiar with the Tommy John rehab knows how frustrating the throwing program can be. It literally started out with a tennis ball from 25 feet for the first week. As a baseball player, all you want to do is go out and chuck the ball. You don’t want to throw nice and easy from 25 feet. It’s just a slow, slow process."

Regas rehabbed throughout the remainder of his senior year and through part of the summer of 2001, missing out when Jacksonville made it to the NCAA regionals. The actual work of the rehab program wasn’t as hard on him as missing out on the trip to regionals.

"I don’t think it was too hard on me," said Regas. "It was the first time for me. I certainly don’t envy guys who have had multiple injuries and who have gone through multiple times what I had to go through. That would certainly be frustrating. We did make the postseason that year and went to regionals, so that was probably the part that was hardest on me."

However, Regas is the type of guy who seems to always be looking for the silver lining, and he was able to find one in the injury that kept him out of the regionals. The rehab program gave him some techniques to avoid injury in the future.

"It was kind of interesting, and I think I learned a lot from it, and not only mentally," said Regas. "I think it taught me how to prevent injury. I picked up a lot of good exercises for my elbow and my shoulder and that helps keep me strong today. I think that’s one of the reasons why I’m able to go out there as often as I do, and be able to be effective still and not get hurt."

Regas finally took to the mound again in the Northwoods League with the Wisconsin Woodchucks in the summer of 2001. The summer league made up of highly talented collegiate players serves as a kind of buffer league for professional baseball. Similar to the makeup of the Cape Cod League, the pace of the season provides a taste of professional ball. It was Regas’ third year to play in the league.

"It’s a bunch of college players from around the country that have been kind of recruited by these teams," said Regas. "I actually played there for parts of three years, all three of them with Rob (Smith, creator of InsidePitching.com and pitching coach at Creighton University). It’s just awesome. For a lot of guys, the Northwoods League, more so than the Cape Cod League, is preparation for professional baseball. You’re playing 60 games in 66 days, so you kind of get that whole concept of what it’s like to play everyday."

Regas pitched a half season in the starting rotation, and earned the nod to start the championship game. Although he left after five innings and got a no decision, the Woodchucks picked up the win, and a championship.

Regas was still left wondering what could have been if he hadn’t injured himself and missed his first season with Jacksonville, but he was also thankful for his experience to come off the injury and excel in the Northwoods League.

"Would things have been better had I not gotten hurt and gone to the regional and maybe shined there?" said Regas. "But I did get to go back to a very competitive league…Of course, to play in the championship game, anyone wants to do that on any level. The fact that we won makes it even better. It was awesome. That was one of the better baseball experiences of my life. It kind of made it to where the injury was not all bad."

Coming off the success in the Northwoods League, Regas was primed to finally put together a complete season at Jacksonville. Things started off great, but suddenly 2002 saw Regas picking up where he left off the season before.

"I go down there for fall ball, and I threw great coming off the Northwoods League championship season," said Regas. "Then, right in my last start of fall I tweaked something in my shoulder. That ended up being a recurring injury through about the first half of the spring season. I missed maybe my first two starts that year."

The shoulder injury left Regas with decreased velocity, and left him wondering how it happened. He said he may have overworked it during his rehab.

"Tweaking my shoulder was strange," said Regas. "I didn’t know why it happened, and I didn’t really know how to make it better. I thought maybe I overworked in trying to rehab and prevent it. There’s a fine line between making yourself strong and making yourself fatigued. So I wondered if maybe I worked myself too hard on that type of thing and it just couldn’t hold up anymore. At that point, the first half of the season, my velocity was way down. I was having games where I would bottom out with my fastball at 79 (mph) and maybe top out at 84 if I was lucky."

But he did put together a good performance in his first start of the year.

"Then my first start that spring was against Florida State where I ended up losing a 1-0 decision. It was huge," said Regas. "They were actually ranked No. 1 in the nation at that time. It was kind of funny – I lost to them 1-0 that day then the next day we beat them 13-4. So I’m left thinking ‘Where was the run support the day before?’"

PROFESSIONAL BASEBALL: THE GREAT UNKNOWN

Regas went undrafted following his senior year, which wasn’t a surprise after going 3-9 with a 4.73 ERA. He was surprised when he wasn’t picked up as a free agent.

"It was one of those things where I knew I wasn’t going to be a draft pick, but I kind of expected to be signed," said Regas. "That never happened, so now all of a sudden I’m sitting with nothing to do, as far as baseball goes, which never happened to me before."

This left Regas with few options to continue his baseball career. The only thing Regas knew for certain was that he needed to find tryouts, an unforgiving process at first.

"At that point, I wasn’t very familiar with independent baseball," said Regas. "What I decided to do was keep working out and try to get tryouts somewhere…I met a guy named Jared Evers, and he pointed me in the direction of the Shamburg Flyers. He got me a tryout with them. They told me ‘We’re looking to make some changes and we liked what we saw. We’ll give you a call within 24 hours one way or another.’ I still haven’t heard back from them."

His tryout with the Flyers wasn’t a complete loss, however. There he met Pete Caliendo, who Regas described as a "baseball guy involved in just about every part of baseball." It was Caliendo that got him a tryout with the Cook County Cheetahs of the Frontier League. The tryout went well, and for the first time in his life Regas was a professional baseball player.

The adjustment to professional ball wasn’t a tough one for Regas, especially with three seasons of experience under his belt with the Northwoods League.

"It actually went really well for me," said Regas. "The adjustment part was very easy for me because of the Northwoods League. I was ready for that type of season. I think I was still so naïve that I didn’t understand I was going up against better players. So, without that I was able to do well. I think that was a big reason I was able to do well because I didn’t think about it so much that I was in professional ball."

His first year with Cook County went very well after being signed midway through the 2002 season. He began the year out of the bullpen, and when the Cheetahs were looking for a fifth starter, Regas answered the call.

"It came to a situation where they were searching for a fifth starter. They were bringing guys in to pitch one night and then they were gone the next day. So they brought in a guy for just one start and he got beat up real bad so they brought me in. I threw three or four innings and gave up a hit and no runs. The coaches asked if I could do that for another three innings, and I said ‘Yeah, I’ve always been a starter.’ That’s when I returned to starting, and I think I went 3-0 after that point."

But the 2003 season saw a different Kris Regas than the one that posted a 2.90 ERA in ’02. From the start, it was an up-and-down season for the lefty.

"My first two starts were actually really good, but I got beat around pretty bad in my third and they put me in the bullpen," said Regas. "I just kind of sat there for two weeks with no appearances. Then our top starter (James Clelland) got signed by the Red Sox organization, so they just kind of slid me back into the rotation."

Things didn’t turn around much for Regas through the rest of the season. He ended up going 4-7 with a gaudy 6.27 ERA in 15 starts.

"The rest of the season was mediocre at best. I would have a game where I’d throw eight shutout innings, then I’d follow it up with a game where I’d go three innings and give up seven runs," said Regas. "It was just very inconsistent and I never really had that feel of being in control and knowing what I was doing."

Regas got released by Cook County following the 2003 season. Looking back, he realized it was his preparation for the ’02 season that had him headed for disaster. It was his first off-season without someone looking over his shoulder giving him constant training instructions.

"That’s where I had my biggest reality check, because I didn’t understand how to prepare in the off-season without somebody there telling me what to do," said Regas. "I didn’t have fall baseball, I didn’t have the winter workouts, or any of that stuff. I came into that season very unprepared. I started off bad and couldn’t turn it around. It was a bad season. I had a few good games, but overall it was just absolutely terrible."

Assuming he wouldn’t be back based on his performance or because Cook County was under new management, Regas began looking for more tryouts. He found one through friend and former Northwoods League teammate Tim McNabb, a pitcher in the Mets’ farm system.

"McNabb called up one of the coaches he was pretty close to and asked him about any open tryouts that were coming up. I think it was one of those things where he heard 6’3" left-handed pitcher and thought ‘Let’s go ahead and give him a shot. You can’t go wrong seeing the guy.’ The next day they signed me to go to extended spring training."

Regas said he later realized that his time with the Mets’ Brooklyn affiliate in 2002 may have been dead on arrival, regardless of how well he pitched there.

"Actually, I didn’t get that feeling until they released me," said Regas. "From the time I went to extended spring training and then through the first month in the New York Penn League, I think I gave up a total of four runs. It’s the best I’d ever pitched my entire life, high school included. The numbers I put up at those two levels were just stupid numbers, striking out well over a guy an inning and walking a total of maybe five. Everything was going perfectly, so the fact that I got released kind of showed me that they never had intentions of me moving up in that organization."

The release left Regas with a bitter taste in his mouth, and with a familiar problem: seek tryouts and find a team to play with.

"I was upset because I got released and I shouldn’t have," said Regas. "I’m thinking I hate this game and I’m done with it. But at the same time I’m thinking ‘Man, I’m throwing the ball great right now. How can I really give up now knowing that I’ve finally figured it out and I’m finally where I want to be? I just need to find a team.’"

Regas ended up with the Windy City Thunderbolts after about a month of looking. Cook County changed its name to Windy City when new management came.

But after his time with the Mets, Regas was left wondering if maybe he had perhaps evolved beyond the competition the Frontier League could offer.

"It was weird. I don’t know if this sounds cocky, and I don’t mean it that way, but this was the first time in my life that I felt I did not belong," said Regas. "I felt like I was better than the competition. No offense to that league – I think it’s a very solid league, especially for young players – but I felt at that point I didn’t belong there."

But as much as he felt he didn’t belong in Frontier baseball anymore, his numbers told a different story. After sitting cold for nearly a month, it was hard for Regas to get back into form with the Thunderbolts.

"It was very tough to get back into a groove," said Regas. "When you get released in baseball, you really don’t have anything to do as far as training for baseball goes. My regiment consisted of throwing a ball into a net. I had five or six baseballs that I owned, and I’d throw them into a net, then pick them up, then do it all over again. You don’t have the training you get while playing with a team."

Starting again for Windy City was tough. Regas said he only lasted about two innings in his first start before feeling his "tank run empty."

THE TURNING POINT: TRANSITIONING FROM STARTING TO RELIEVING

Regas admits that his numbers with Windy City in 2004 were less than spectacular, but he also points out that it was mainly because of his first couple of starts. Just like with the Mets, he didn’t put up good numbers until he was used out of the pen. "They put me in a relief role at the end of the year, and that’s what I started doing with the Mets for the first time in my life," said Regas. "I think that’s probably been one of the biggest changes for me was going from a starting role into a relief role."

But the transition wasn’t an easy one. The thought of going to the bullpen in the Frontier League – and the feeling that teams wouldn’t notice him there – made the idea far less appealing, regardless of the results. But before long, he succumbed to the idea.

"I was against it at first," said Regas. "I wanted to be a starter because I thought that was what organizations were looking for. I thought if I’m in the bullpen no one is ever going to want me. But when I got to the end of the season and threw out of the bullpen and felt like I was striking everybody out I decided in the off-season that I’m a reliever from now on. I started to love the relief role, and I’ve been content with it since."

After this new-found love for his role as a reliever, Regas looked to make a change in scenery. However, Brett Bower, manager of Windy City at the time, wouldn’t grant him his release, telling him he could be one of the team’s top two starters and convincing Regas that he wanted to start again.

"I went back there with that thought process (of wanting to start) and threw very well through spring training," said Regas. "I threw like I thought I should be throwing. Then he lets me go at the very last day. Now all these other teams were finalizing their rosters and most of them wouldn’t have room for me."

One team did have room. A friend connected Regas to Richmond Roosters manager Chris Mongiardo, who signed the pitcher the day he drove down to meet him.

Regas said his experience after signing with Richmond of the Frontier League was a little strange. He started out of the bullpen and did well, as was the routine. But before long, he was being overused and suddenly he found himself starting again.

It wasn’t long before he found himself on baseball’s unemployment line again.

"What I didn’t expect was to be a starter about a week and a half into the season," said Regas. "It went real well for about four innings, then I got beat up a little bit…Then I’m throwing the next two or three games. Then it got to a game in Evansville where I just had nothing left. I went out there and faced five guys and didn’t get any of them out. I ended up getting released pretty quickly after that."

If it hadn’t resonated well enough before, Regas finally got the point now that starting pitching was not his forte. Tracing his career, it seems like every time he gets put into the starting role his numbers balloon and a release or injury is looming, but when he’s coming out of the bullpen the numbers settle and success follows.

"It’s almost like starting pitching is my kryptonite. When I was coming out of the pen I was fine, but then all of a sudden when I was starting things got away from me," said Regas. "After the start and after the game in Evansville my ERA shot up to around 10. Now I’m thinking ‘I’ve got to find a team and these are the stats I have to show."

Look for part two of Bobby Jones visit with Kris Regas and his story "Perserverance Defined " in January on InsidePitching.com