Giants monitor Nen with eyes open, breath held - MLB

Miller's camping trip

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- "Here's what I saw," said San Francisco reliever Matt Herges, and with that, you moved in a little closer.

It was story time here with the Giants on Friday, but nobody was reading aloud. There was no need. The small contingent that hadn't traveled to Tucson for a Cactus League game a day earlier, that small but buzzing band of brothers who stayed back for their own workouts and got the added bonus of watching another step of closer Robb Nen's comeback, had committed everything to memory.


Giants trainer Stan Conte monitors Robb Nen prior to a spring training game.(AP)

"I was in the cage bunting, something like 320 feet away, and every time I came out, I tried to look down to watch," Herges continued. "Hearing guys talk, they said the ball was coming out of his hand clean."

Clean? Yeah, that's one way to look at Nen's third simulated game of the spring.

Sizzling is another. Hot as the 90-degree Arizona heat.

"The last time I saw him throw was in 2002," Giants reliever Chad Zerbe said. "When I saw him throw yesterday, he looked exactly the same. And that's what I told him.

"I told him, 'You looked good throwing. The ball looked firm coming out of your hand. Your velocity was there.' It was true. That's how he looked. Really good."

All winter long, the Giants told themselves to stay calm. Nen, having had two major surgeries within five months, missed the entire 2003 season. So how much, realistically, could he contribute in 2004?

They'd get him on the mound this spring, loosen him up, sort through their bullpen options and see what developed.

Well, what's developing so far is the familiar old Nen.

And if that continues, well....

Yes, the Giants won 100 games last season with Tim Worrell pinch-hitting for their closer.

But Worrell is gone. So, too, are Sidney Ponson, Rich Aurilia, Benito Santiago, Jose Cruz Jr. and Joe Nathan.

Yeah, Brian Sabean, the general manager with a knack for finding gold in non-descript streams, traded for A.J. Pierzynski, acquired outfielders Dustan Mohr and Michael Tucker and added pitcher Brett Tomko.

But it isn't much of a stretch to say that, in a weakened NL West, a healthy Nen might be the key to unlocking the Giants' entire season.

"He always is, because as long as he's doing the kind of job he can do ..." San Francisco pitching coach Dave Righetti said. "To say he is the key is unfair, because this guy hasn't been on the field for a year and a half. But he's one of them.

"Most people don't have just one key on their key chain."

This, after all, is a guy who collected 43 saves for the Giants in 2002 ... 45 saves in 2001 ... and 41 saves in 2000.

Now, things have gone so well with Nen that the Giants are expected to work him into a Cactus League game this weekend -- if not that, at least into a minor league game where he can pitch with runners on base and concentrate on throwing strikes even with distractions.

"I think I'm ready to get into a game, or at least into a game situation," Nen said. "Start thinking about runners. Maybe not paying attention to them, but think about them. Think about throwing strikes with them. Get more strategic."

Essentially, this spring is a series of tests for Nen. And though he has passed each one so far, the daunting thing is that there is no end in sight. The Giants pretty much are going to have to watch Nen like hospital orderlies all summer -- particularly if, as expected, they contend in the NL West.

"There are not many closing guys, 300-save guys, I can think of who have had rehabilitation during the season and who you have to guard during the season," Righetti said. "Most times, those guys are probably not in any kind of pennant race. Like Trevor (Hoffman) in San Diego last season."

If you look too far into the future -- and the Giants understandably are very reluctant to do that with Nen this spring -- one of the visions you can see is the Giants in a tight divisional race and a closer itching to pitch every close game.

"He's going to want to pitch every day," Righetti said. "He's going to want the gloves off. That's going to be tough, because that carrot is going to be out there every day.

"If we're in this thing, it's going to be a tough judgment every day."

As for early on, if Nen does break camp on the opening day roster, the Giants almost certainly will not allow him to pitch back-to-back days in April.

They can't. Not until they're sure that Nen won't blow again.

By the 2002 postseason, the labrum in the closer's right shoulder was more frayed than that pair of acid-washed blue jeans in the back of your closet. The inevitable arthroscopic surgery took place about 10 days after the Giants lost to Anaheim in the World Series. Nen rehabbed. He worked. He threw some in camp last spring.

Something wasn't right, though. And when he pitched in an exhibition game in Pac Bell Park just days before last season was to start, it definitely wasn't right. So he underwent a second surgery in April.

So much for 2003.

He mostly stayed with the team and rehabbed during the season, but, as he said, "there would be days I'd have to get away to keep my mind right."

He always figured he could be in this position this spring. Feeling good and closing in on the opening day roster. But after what happened last spring, Nen also has learned that danger lurks with each new sunrise.

"In the back of your mind, it's always there," he said. "But being an athlete, and the way I've pitched over the last number of years, you're always thinking positively. You wouldn't want to put those other things in your head."

Besides, athletes know. They know their bodies. And while Nen wasn't ever sure last spring, he's more sure -- at least, as sure as he can ever be -- this spring.

"You get the sense he's more at ease with himself," Righetti said. "He seems lighter."

The good news Friday was that, a day after throwing 25 fastballs to Tony Torcato -- and then throwing a handful of sliders after that just to see how that felt -- Nen said he felt just the normal stiffness pitchers feel the next day.

Of course, the guy hasn't been on a regular pitcher's schedule since October 2002, so some wise guy -- hmm, I have no idea who -- asked how he can be sure it's just the normal stiffness.

"Normal stiffness for what I've gone through," Nen expanded. "I don't think I'm every going to be normal again. But as long as I can pitch...."

As long as he can pitch, he's only going to become more comfortable. As long as he becomes more comfortable, he's going to locate better and better. And as he does that, he will begin looking like the closer with 314 career saves as opposed to some reclamation project.

And that's when the Giants will know they have something.

Excited?

They're trying not to overdo it.

But those who caught a glimpse of Nen the other day took a few moments to allow themselves a little spring daydreaming.

"Having a guy like Robb Nen in the bullpen, healthy, it's like when you were a kid waiting for your dad to come home from work," Herges said. "And when he comes home, it's like, 'OK. Everything is OK now.'

"That's how he is in the bullpen."