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When describing Mike Collar’s first summer playing professional baseball, the term “learning experience” comes to mind.
Former University of Maine standout pitcher Mike Collar spent this summer playing Class A baseball for the Tri-City Valley Cats out of the New York-Penn League. This came after Collar was drafted on June 3 by the Houston Astros in the eighth round of the Major League Baseball 2003 First-Year player draft. Collar was the 239th pick overall, following his junior season, which featured All-America East honors, an 8-3 record, and a league high 98 strikeouts.
After signing a pro-contract on June 5, Collar played a 76 game season for the Valley Cats, out of Troy, New York. The team consisted of many first-year players from all over the country.
“The experience was great,” Collar said. “I got to play with a wide-variety of ball players from all over the place, as well as learn the new philosophies involved in playing at this level.”
Along with the opportunity to play with a diverse group of players, Collar was coached by former Major League shortstop Ivan Dejesus, who played 15 seasons mostly in the National League.
Collar appeared in 13 games for the Valley Cats, holding a 2-3 record and a 4.24 E.R.A. Most of the season he spent coming out of the bullpen, recording five saves, as well as starting three games. However, Collar only pitched 34 innings, as mid-season arm problems may have been a factor.
“It was frustrating mid-way through the season when I began having some arm problems that significantly cut my number of innings down,” Collar said.
He also described some of the major changes when going from a Division I college program to professional baseball.
“It’s much higher competition. At a pitching standpoint you have to learn to out-think the hitter and hit spots. I also had to get used to pitching against wooden bats, which changes many aspects of the game.”
Most of Collar’s previous experience comes from playing with metal bats in the America East Conference, in which the ball comes off the bat much more quickly than wooden bats, which are used in all professional baseball leagues.
“Using wooden bats enabled me to pitch more inside and get more ground balls rather than being primarily a strikeout-pitcher,” he said.
In college the six foot three inch, 210-pound Collar could easily be considered a strikeout pitcher, as he was 24th nationally in strikeouts per nine innings at 10.6 and is fifth all-time at UMaine with 213 strikeouts. Along with a good fastball, Collar also exhibits excellent control as seen in his numbers of only 10 walks his junior season and nine with Tri-City. At UMaine Collar went 322/3 innings without walking a single batter, while striking out 41 in that span. But Collar said there are greater challenges involved with professional baseball.
“It wasn’t like college where I could just throw fastballs by the hitters. I had to throw a lot more change-ups and improve my slider to hit spots in a much tighter strike zone. I had to change my pitching mentality a bit.”
Collar achieved much of his early success and credentials under UMaine head baseball coach Paul Kostocopolous. Some of his pitching awards include two-time America East pitching honors, 2001 America East Rookie of the Year, as well as earning the UMaine season record with eight consecutive complete games. Kostocopolous said he remains very confident about Collar’s performance and his pitching abilities.
“This season was a great experience for Mike overall, and it gave him a chance to get his feet wet in a system with philosophies that he is not primarily accustomed to. His season was very typical of a first-year player in the pros. The way they structure the season it is hard to get a good rhythm in a three month span, along with pitching the season on a strict pitch count.”
When asked about the physical and mental talents that Collar possesses, coach Kostocopolous was sure of Collar finding future success.
“Mike is a unique person; he holds a tremendous perspective on who he is, and as an athlete. Mike takes nothing for granted and does his job to the very best of his ability. He is a well-grounded individual who gets the job done.”
Collar hopes to report to spring training next year and hopefully land a spot on the Lexington Legends, a Class A Astros affiliate out of Lexington, Ky.
“I’m going to have to work hard in the off-season and get on a fall team,” Collar said. “Then, hopefully I can land a spot in Lexington come spring time.”
