Tanner shines in San Jose championship run

After winning the first two games of the series on the road, the Giants returned home to revel in the traditional dog pile following their Game 3 win. San Jose's left-handed ace Clayton Tanner generally doesn't show a lot of emotion on the baseball diamond. This occasion -- San Jose's third California League championship in five years, and the fifth in team history -- was fit for an outpouring of emotion. And it was worth any discomfort of being trapped under a dozen or so jubilant teammates.

"I'll hold my breath a little while if it means we get to win a championship," Tanner said.

Tanner -- who was born in Australia, but grew up in Concord -- is certainly deserving of a celebration this time around, having posted two solid years at San Jose. In that time, he earned 22 regular-season wins. He allowed just one run over two starts in the 2009 postseason, posting a 2-0 record, including a Game 1 win last Thursday in which he allowed seven hits over seven innings, while striking out nine.

Finally in the spotlight

Because of the depth of pitching in the Giants farm system, Tanner's success has been about as low-profile as can be. For most of his stay in San Jose, he has been a back-of-the-rotation starter. In fact, he was never considered the ace of the staff until left-hander Craig Clark was promoted to Double-A Connecticut four days prior to the start of the playoffs.

It wasn't hard to get lost in the shuffle this season, with Clark breaking records left and right en route to being named the California League Pitcher of the Year. Top prospects Madison Bumgarner, Tim Alderson and Scott Barnes -- the latter two who were traded this season -- also started the year in the San Jose rotation.

Tanner was overshadowed in 2008 as well, when he was the odd man out with San Jose sending four starting pitchers -- Alderson, Kevin Pucetas, Jesse English and Ben Snyder -- to the California League all-star game. Being passed over was difficult for the young lefty to digest.

"At first it was kind of tough. I made the all-star team two years ago in Augusta. It was a great experience and it was great to get honored like that," Tanner said. "But (last year) they had better stuff than me, or they had better numbers than me, so they definitely deserved to be there."

Still, Tanner turned in a solid 2008, posting a 10-8 record with a 3.69 ERA. He had just 84 strikeouts in 117 innings, however, which loomed as a factor in the organization's decision to have Tanner return to High-A in 2009.

"Well, sometimes the stepping stones in development are not always sequential," said Bobby Evans, Giants vice president of baseball operations.

An even bigger factor though was Tanner's age. Just 21, he was the third youngest pitcher after Bumgarner and Alderson to toe the rubber in San Jose over the last two years.

"He was 21 years old, so that's still very young for the California League," Evans said. "And it would have been very young for Double-A."

Improvement across the board

Evans said the improvement in Tanner's strikeout rate from 2008 to 2009 was evident, as were Tanner's numbers across the board. He posted a 12-6 record this season with a 3.17 ERA, striking out 121 against 42 walks in 139 1/3 innings. There was one glaring decline in Tanner's performance this year however, as he allowed just one home run throughout all of 2008.

"That was crazy because I gave up a ton this year," Tanner said.

Indeed, Tanner surrendered 18 home runs this season. His saving grace was many of them were solo shots. In a June 25 game against Stockton, Tanner surrendered four home runs. All were solo shots, while two were on the first pitch of the at bat. The other two came on 1-0 counts. Therein lies the reason for Tanner's success the second time around in San Jose: He challenged more.

"If I throw a ball, it's like, 'Here comes a strike,'" Tanner said.

His confidence to challenge hitters more readily complimented his rapid tempo on the mound. Tanner walks fast, he talks fast, and he certainly works fast. Games he starts regularly last less than two-and-a-half hours. It's been his style to turn-and-burn on the mound since he started pitching as a sophomore at De La Salle High School, said Tanner's high school head coach, Eric Borba. Now in his second year as head coach at Orange Lutheran High in Southern California, Borba took the opportunity to watch several of Tanner's starts down south this season, including Game 1 of the California League Championship Series at High Desert.

"As far as makeup and stuff, he's very, very similar (to high school)," Borba said. "But since he's been drafted, he's dropped his arm slot a little bit."

Working from a traditional over-the-top arm slot in high school, Tanner garnered a lot of attention with a sharp 12-to-6 curveball. It helped him excel in his first year as a junior. But even then -- when the Spartans won the North Coast Section Championship in 2005 -- he wasn't the ace of the staff. It wasn't so much because his fastball topped out in the mid-80s. More that De La Salle boasted senior right-hander Eric Massingham, who went on to Cal Poly before being drafted by the Phillies in the 25th round earlier this year.

In the summer before Tanner's senior year, his velocity spiked. He started hitting 90 mph consistently, and in turn started catching the eye of pro scouts. It was at the Anderson Bat National Classic, a coast-to-coast annual invitational held in Placentia, that Borba knew he had a surefire ace for the 2006 season.

"The coaching staff kind of looked at each other and just knew he could be special," Borba said.

Now that Tanner has lowered his arm angle to a three-quarter slot, he features more of a slurve -- a combination between a slider and a curveball. His bread-and-butter are a two-seam fastball and a sinker, while he also throws a four-seamer and a changeup. He no longer throws a traditional curveball, however.

"Here's the pitch that got him drafted, and he's not even throwing it anymore," Borba said.

Tanner committed to Pepperdine out of high school, but decided to go pro when the Giants selected him in the third round of the 2006 draft, the same in which San Francisco drafted Tim Lincecum in the first round. Tanner was the top high-school pick and was the youngest draftee by the Giants in the first 37 rounds that year.

Moving on up

While next year's minor-league rosters will not be officially determined until spring training, it is likely Tanner will start the 2010 season in Double-A.

"He had the kind of year where you'd like to see him get a chance at the Double-A level," Evans said.

Meanwhile, Tanner abides by a fairly straightforward philosophy.

"You just have to go out and throw and if you do well, you're going to move up," Tanner said.

Tanner certainly threw well this season, helping ensure one of three minor-league championships for the Giants. Salem-Keizer won the Northwest League title, and the Dominican Summer League Giants won the DSL crown. The teams throughout the Giants farm system compiled a regular-season record of 463-305 in 2009, while four teams -- San Jose, short-season Salem-Keizer, rookie-class Arizona, and the DSL Giants -- had the best overall records in their respective leagues.