Sleepless Nights Induce Success for Schwinden

August 14, 2008   ·   Patrick Hickey, Jr.   ·   Jump to comments

Playing 76 games in only 81 days this season, you’d never expect any member of the Brooklyn Cyclones to have a problem falling asleep at night. Busing their way through cities all over New York and the North East this summer, sleep would seem to be a precious and immensely valued commodity to all of them, right?

Brooklyn pitcher Chris Schwinden however, actually prefers to burn the midnight oil on a consistent basis.

As a matter of fact, he even believes it makes him a better pitcher.

“I don’t know why, but I do pitch much better when I don’t get a lot of sleep,” said Schwinden. “If I get too much sleep, I feel lazy on the mound and usually get hit pretty hard. When I don’t, I’m more energized out here and I win.”

So what does he do during all those late nights, you ask?

“Our catcher Ralph Henriquez has a Playstation 3 and I stay up playing MLB:08 The Show or Tiger Woods a lot of the time,” he said. “Most of the guys usually head to bed around 1 am, but I stay up a few hours longer than them.”

You’d expect a ballplayer who stays up all night exercising his thumbs and index fingers on Sony’s newest video game console to be a bit lethargic come game time, but with a 3-1 record and a 1.09 ERA in 10 appearances this season,Schwinden is one of three Cyclones appearing in the New York Penn-League All-Star game next week.

Armed with four pitches, a 92 mile-per-hour fastball, changeup, curve ball and slider, Schwinden has baffled hitters consistently this season, striking out 45 hitters in 41 innings with only six walks, indeed making it look like he’s playing a video game, rather than facing professional hitters. Allowing only 28 hits in that time as well, Schwinden hasn’t given his teammates on the field much work to do, making up for the fact that he keeps some of them awake with his late-night gaming escapades.

“He’s easy to play behind,” said Cyclones third baseman Eric Campbell. “He comes ready to play every time his name is called upon. The main thing with him is that he throws strikes. I think he has the best control of any pitcher on our staff.”

While his teammates have to deal with his late-night habits, the coaching staff only sees the 21-year-old’s successes on the mound. Starting the season as the team’s spot starter and long reliever out of the bullpen, Schwinden got an opportunity to start and hasn’t faltered yet. Pitching into the sixth inning in each of his last three starts, Schwinden has proved he belongs in a rotation consisting of hot shot prospects such as Brad Holt and Jenrry Mejia and has quickly become a cornerstone of the pitching staff.

Schwinden has been so good as of late that the coaching staff sees him in the rotation for the rest of the year, something that appeared quite unlikely for the 2008 22nd round pick when the season first began.

“He’s worked really hard to get to where he is right now and he deserves it,” said Cyclones manager Edgar Alfonzo. “He’s one of my starters now and I’m happy for him.”

The Visalia, California-native is pretty proud of his accomplishments on the field this season as well and as a result, has vowed to continue playing video games this season.

As a matter of fact, Schwinden has already been talking about picking up a new game in the near future: Madden 09.

“A bunch of us have been talking about getting it,” said Schwinden on August 11, a day before the game was released to the public. “I’m looking forward to playing it soon.”

Notes-

Got word of a few Cyclones currently nursing injuries such as John Servidio, Ike Davis and Reese Havens. However, there is no clear word on the what the actual injuries are. When th team comes back home on Friday, expect an update after the day’s article.

Link-

Box Score to last night’s 3-1 Cyclone loss.

Update-

New Podcast up!

Interview with Ralph Henriquez on 8-10.

You can download it from I-Tunes here, or stream it from the web, here. Enjoy!

Photos by Patrick Hickey Jr. and Jim Dolan