Kornacki: Fetter Discusses Coming Home to Michigan Baseball
2/14/2018 10:56:00 AM | Baseball, Features
By Steve Kornacki
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- University of Michigan pitching coach Chris Fetter said there was only one job in college baseball that could have lured him away from the Los Angeles Dodgers organization last summer.
"If it was anywhere else but Michigan," said Fetter, "it wouldn't have even been a question. I got to learn so much in Los Angeles and be around people who are so bright and look at the game in a completely different way that I never looked at it."
However, when Wolverines head coach Erik Bakich offered the former Michigan captain a chance to come home, Fetter didn't hesitate.
"It means the absolute world -- not only to myself but my wife, Jessica," said Fetter. "My ultimate dream was to get back to Michigan at some point -- this place was so special to me during my time here -- and to be able to try and give that to others and help others have that same experience that we got to experience here.
"I didn't think it would ever happen this soon. I'm just so thankful to be back."
Fetter was an All-American as a junior in 2008, going 10-2 with a 2.47 earned run average, and was a three-time Big Ten all-conference selection while playing on three Big Ten championship teams and in four NCAA Tournaments.
The 6-foot-8 right-hander still owns the program's career record with 332 1/3 innings pitched and ranks third with 28 wins and 281 strikeouts. The San Diego Padres drafted him in the 10th round in 2009, and after four years in the minors that organization made Fetter the offer that started him on a coaching career.
It was issued by former Detroit Tigers and San Diego Padres general manager Randy Smith, then the director of player development for the Padres.
"I went to spring training in 2013 as a player and left it as a coach," said Fetter. "Randy Smith said, 'We don't have a place for you on a team this year, but we'd love to have you stay on board as a coach.' I can't thank Randy enough for that opportunity he gave me to stay in baseball."
Fetter worked with the pitching coach for Double-A San Antonio and learned from current Houston Astros manager A.J. Hinch and Rich Dauer, the first base coach on last year's World Series champions who managed San Antonio then. Both former major league players were in the Padres organization at that time, and Fetter sat with Dauer during games to gain knowledge. Hinch sent Fetter to scout school in the Arizona Fall League after that season.
Hal Morris, a star first baseman for the Wolverines on their glory teams of the mid-1980s before a 13-year major league career, was the director of pro scouting for the Los Angeles Angels and hired Fetter as a scout in 2014. He followed players at all levels in the Tigers, Padres and Cleveland Indians organizations until Rich Maloney, his head coach at Michigan, hired Fetter as his pitching coach at Ball State for 2016.
"Coach Maloney instilled a lot of confidence in me when I was at Michigan," said Fetter, 32, a psychology major. "Good coaches do that. All these kids have talent at this level. It's who can go out there and perform at their best and believe in themselves. His ability to develop relationships with his players is something that I'll always take from Coach Maloney."
What did he value most from his years as a Wolverine?
"I think it was the championships won," said Fetter, "and the relationships we had. When you win championships with teams, that bond is a little different. It's not so much the victories you remember as the times you had in the locker room."
His best friends were reliever Ben Jenzen and first baseman Nate Recknagel.
Fetter continued, "But I will never forget that dog pile at Vanderbilt in 2007. As much as E.B. (Bakich was then a Commodores assistant coach) may not like that day, it was a special day for our group. It was an unbelievable game, and getting a chance to start that game was a lot of fun."
Michigan won, 4-3, in 10 innings to clinch the three-game series in the NCAA Tournament and advance to a Super Regional with eventual College World Series champion Oregon State.
Former Wolverine Chris Fetter joins the U-M coaching staff in 2018 as the program's pitching coach
Fetter gave up two runs on seven hits in seven innings against Vanderbilt, and future American League Cy Young Award winner David Price took the loss in relief. Pinch-hitter Alan Oaks hit a solo homer off Price, who had been 11-0 that season, and Michael Powers came on to pitch the bottom of the 10th and earn the save that prompted that dog pile featured prominently on a lobby wall mural at Michigan's Ray Fisher Stadium.
Maloney termed Fetter "a rising star in the profession" when he departed for the Dodgers, and his education under some of the best minds in the game continued. Current Philadelphia Phillies manager Gabe Kapler was his direct supervisor, and they developed "a very strong relationship" while Fetter learned so much from a "forward-thinking" organization that is known as one of the best in the majors.
"I realize every day how fortunate I was for that time," said Fetter. "Gabe instilled confidence in every one of us and just said, 'Be yourself and don't be afraid to make mistakes. Be smart and aggressive. Let's try and change the game.' He's going to be such an outstanding manager, and his guys are really going to buy into him.
"Erik and Gabe are very similar in that you want to put out your best work when you work for people like that. Their actions meet their words. It was Michigan, my alma mater, but one of the biggest selling points was that it was like a saying we had with the Dodgers: 'We're going to develop the person first and the player second.' Every day starts out in the Branch Rickey Classroom with leadership or mental skills training or some form of training."
Everyone Fetter has met in baseball has helped form his coaching approach.
"Ultimately, I want these guys to be the best versions of themselves. I want them to be a part of their development process. I want to empower them to ask why. I want them to have a say in what we're trying to teach them as coaches. I want them to know that their position coach is going to try to be as up-to-date as possible on the newest things out there and is going to be continually growing himself to impart that upon them as well.
"I want them to know that I'm someone who cares about them as people first. That's our first job, helping them along their path. I was as homesick (for Carmel, Indiana) as I could be my freshman year, and I know the impact Coach Maloney and the other coaches -- Bob Keller, the pitching coach -- had on me at that time. They had a profound impact on me growing up as a man. And now, to be a part of that process for these guys is very special and will ultimately be very rewarding."
Fetter is excited about the possibilities five returning pitchers -- Alec Rennard, William Tribucher, Jayce Vancena, Tommy Henry and Karl Kauffmann -- bring as "prime candidates" for the 2018 starting rotation.
Tomorrow: Check MGoBlue.com Thursday (Feb. 15) for Fetter's look at this year's pitching staff heading into Friday's (Feb. 16) opener and three-game series with Army in Port St. Lucie, Florida.
