LSU pitcher Clay Dirks knows that talent can only take a baseball player so far. That is why he pushes himself to be the best baseball player he can possibly be through hard work and dedication on and off the field.
On the field, Dirks’ dedication and hard work is obvious with his 8-0 record and 2.41 ERA in 67 1/3 innings. Off the field, Dirks feels he can always do more to prepare himself as a player.
“I always think to myself when I’m working out, somewhere there’s another redshirt freshman left-handed pitcher right now that’s working out 10 minutes or 15 minutes longer than I am,” said Dirks, a redshirt freshman. “I can’t let that happen. That’s one of the things I thought about all summer and Christmas.”
Before this season in which he has taken the LSU and the Southeastern Conference by storm as a weekend starting pitcher, Dirks had plenty of time to sit and think.
Dirks came to LSU in the fall of 2002 as a freshman from Hernando, Miss., but missed the entire 2003 season while recovering from Tommy John surgery to his pitching arm and received a medical redshirt.
But rather than sit back and feel sorry for himself about not playing with the Tigers in his first season, Dirks used that time to prepare himself mentally and physically to be ready for this season.
“I took last year to get as much experience as I could even though I wasn’t playing,” Dirks said. “Even though I wasn’t dressing out, I couldn’t put last year to rest. I needed to take that year to get better and get accustomed to college baseball.
Dirks got in the weight room and prepared himself physically as well as mentally through last season and into the summer. But when he got to fall baseball practice, he still was not ready mentally, he said.
“I went home over Christmas break, and I knew there were some things I needed to change about myself personally so I can help the team get back to Omaha and do my part,” Dirks said. “I needed to mature. I realized I needed to dedicate myself. There’s somebody out there working just as hard as you who wants to pitch in Omaha just like I want to pitch in Omaha.
“It’s not high school. You can’t show up to the field or jump off the bus, loosen up and throw. There’s more that you have to put into it and I knew that coming in.”
Making adjustments
College baseball was a step up for Dirks, who dominated as a pitcher at Hernando High School — posting a 0.92 ERA his senior season with 140 strikeouts in 62 innings.
“Coming out of high school, Clay was really unbelievable,” said LSU pitching coach Brady Wiederhold. “I saw him pitch in a summer league game in Memphis and he was lights out. You’re talking about a guy who was left-handed, threw real hard, had a great curveball and really competed on the mound.”
Dirks was named the 2002 Gatorade Mississippi Player of the Year and racked up 594 strikeouts for his career.
He signed with LSU after his junior year in high school before the recruiting process even started, but LSU coach Smoke Laval had his doubts that Dirks would even come to LSU. Laval thought Dirks might be too good for the Tigers and be drafted high in the Major League Baseball draft.
“In all honesty, when we first signed him, I didn’t think he was going to come here,” Laval said. “He was much better than what you see.”
Dirks pitched through pain his senior season instead of having a surgery to repair his injured arm, although there were times when he said he could not make a fist with his hand or use his arm for days at a time because of the pain.
As a result, it may have hurt his draft stock and he ended up being selected by the Philadelphia Phillies in the 42nd round of the 2002 MLB draft. Dirks decided to be a Tiger.
It turns out that coming to LSU was the best thing for Dirks all along, he said.
“I pitched through pain my senior year because I didn’t want to give up my senior year,” Dirks said. “Which is probably a good thing because this is where I needed to be. I just pitched through it. I knew I was hurt.”
Before the surgery, Dirks said he could hit between 89, 90 and 91 mph with his fastball on the radar guns. He also threw his curveball hard to get a sharp bite and drop on the pitch.
Dirks, who now tops out in the mid-80s, said he would like to get his velocity up to where it was before Tommy John surgery, but that it takes about two years to be 100 percent after surgery.
Velocity is not everything.
Dirks said he watched pitchers last season who threw 95 mph have their pitches hit for 450-foot home runs while pitchers who threw 85 mph dominated the game.
“It’s a plus to be able to throw that hard, but I’ve learned that you don’t have to throw 91 or 92 to win in the SEC,” he said. “Right now I’m learning to pitch. I’m learning to locate three pitches. You’ve got to know how to pitch. It took me a while to learn to keep the ball down and spot.”
Dirks’ specialty has always been his curveball, which starts at a hitter’s head and breaks into the strike zone over the plate.
“That’s my best pitch,” he said. “My curveball isn’t even as fast as it was. It’s still tight and it still breaks a lot. All the guys in fall intrasquads told me to just throw curveballs 95 percent of the time and I wouldn’t have to worry about anything else. My fastball is good enough to win.”
Making a name for himself
Dirks started the Tigers’ third game of the season against Central Florida and received a no-decision in 5 2/3 innings of work. It was against Tulane nearly two weeks later when he really made a name for himself.
In a matchup of two top-10 teams on March 2 before 10,916 fans at Zephyr Field in Metairie, Dirks blanked the Green Wave for nine innings with seven strikeouts and only allowed four hits in a complete-game shutout.
“Coming out against Tulane, I didn’t know what to expect,” he said. “Early in the season I didn’t have the confidence in myself that I needed to have. If you would have told me I was going to throw a four-hit shutout, go all nine innings, I would have laughed.
“We got the win. It was a fun game. I learned a lot from it and got a lot of confidence in myself. After that game, the light really came on and I realized I can do some big things with my team.”
Dirks remained a midweek pitcher and weekend reliever until LSU’s SEC series against Mississippi State.
In his first SEC start, he went eight innings with only two runs allowed and replaced left-hander Lane Mestepey as the Saturday starting pitcher.
Ironically, it is Mestepey who also has had the biggest influence on his career at LSU.
When Dirks came to LSU on a recruiting visit during 2001, Mestepey was his host and he got to know the pitcher who went on to win the 2001 Collegiate National Freshman of the Year award.
But like Dirks, Mestepey sat out last season after recovering from surgery. Dirks said he watched how Mestepey handled having to sit out and applied it to his own situation.
“It was hard, but I watched him take it just like anybody has to take a year off,” he said. “I got to see the type of guy and player he is. He’s more than just a pitcher. He’s more than a guy on the staff. He’s the team leader and he knows the game.
“Some people said when I came into the Saturday position, ‘Well, how’s Mestepey taking it?’ Mestepey’s a team player. It was tough for me, because I put myself in Mestepey’s wing last year. Even though I was coming in hurt, I watched him work and go about his day-to-day business on and off the field. He’s just a great team player and if he doesn’t make it in baseball, he’s going to be a hell of a coach.”
Mestepey had nothing but praise for the pitching of Dirks.
“He’s having a great year right now,” Mestepey said. “He should keep it up. I look for good things for him in the future. He’s got a good fastball. His curveball is right there, and he’s really working on his change-up. If you’ve got three pitches and you’re a lefty, you can win.”
Expecting to win
Every time Dirks takes the mound, he expects to win. He said a pitcher has to go out there with the mentality that he is going to throw a no-hitter and if the other team gets a hit, then he is throwing a shutout.
“You have to go out there with that mentality,” Dirks said. “You’ve got to go out there with the mentality that today is my day and I’m going to win, no matter if my stuff is great or if it’s just average. I’ve got eight other guys behind me that are going to play their butts off.”
Dirks said that has been the key to his success this season.
“That’s been the secret,” he said. “Just being able to trust my stuff and the guys behind me.”
Laval said the secret has been Dirks’ control of his pitches.
“He fills the strike zone up with three different pitches and doesn’t walk people,” he said. “What you get off of him you earn. That’s his whole forte.”
Wiederhold said the Tigers are thrilled about what Dirks has given them this year.
“He’s been our workhorse out on the mound and been our most consistent guy so far,” Wiederhold said. “He’s really worked hard to get to the point he is now. Is he back to where he wants to be and where we want him to be? No, not yet, and that’s something we’re striving to get to. He works his tail off. Most people don’t see all the work he does in the middle of the week between starts and how much he pushes himself.”
As for his undefeated streak, Dirks could care less if he gets another win all season. All that matters to him is whether the Tigers get the win.
“As long as we win, that’s all that matters,” he said. “It would be awesome to go 12-0. That would be great, but as long as we’re winning that’s all that matters. My time will come.”