SURPRISE, Ariz. _ One of the hottest stories this spring in Texas Rangers camp has been the Matt Bush saga, so hot, in fact, that HBO deployed a crew to the Surprise Recreation Campus to finish off its upcoming feature on him.
HBO also followed him around various parts of the country, including a trek to his old high school field in San Diego. Bush hadn't been there in more than a decade, when he was actually in high school.
Bush doesn't mind the attention. He understands that his story is part of the gig, a former No. 1 draft pick who drank his career away, nearly killed a man with a friend's truck, went to prison for it for more than three years, and then became a key piece to the Rangers' bullpen.
There's no faulting any outlet for wanting to tell the story. Bush understands that, too.
But the baseball side, beyond his rookie breakthrough, has gone largely untold.
He is facing only his second season in the majors, his first full season, and the second season is considered by many to be the most difficult of any player's career.
Bush isn't a finished product off the field. He also isn't a finished product on the mound, though he remains supremely confident that he won't be a victim of the dreaded sophomore slump.
"I don't know too much more than myself and what I'm capable of," Bush said. "That's all I'm really focused on, what I'm going to be doing on the mound. I can't really focus on my second season, a sophomore slump, or anything like that. I'm just trying to continue to repeat what got me here.
"Last year I was very confident and went out there with a good mindset," Bush said. "I'm just not worrying about this year, 'Oh, I've got to have a good year. I've got to repeat.' Just remember that I still have the same stuff, nothing has changed. It's just a new year."
Bush and his teammates know that he can't be a success without sobriety, and to that end they have become part of his support network. He also leans on his father, girlfriend and Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
At the field he turns to fellow members of the bullpen and to pitching coach Doug Brocail and bullpen coach Brad Holman. Manager Jeff Banister has taken a turn or two making sure Bush's mind is in the right place.
But Rangers coaches know that Bush, despite his tremendous talent, has learning to do.
"Absolutely, he does," Brocail said. "Do I see him as a second-year player? Yes. I speak to him like a second-year player. The reason being is there's a lot more knowledge to be learned than Cole Hamels. You still have to walk him through steps of, 'This is where you're at. Give me your answer as to why?'
"If he doesn't have the answer, and I don't expect him to, you have to force feed it to him. He has a lot of maturing to do in the game of baseball. Not just his life and his personality. He's deep into the major leagues. It's not like he had pitched the previous three years. This is something new."
Brocail said Bush approached him a few days ago after a so-so bullpen session and said he wanted to shorten his arm stroke. The lesson there is that patience is a virtue and getting work done on the side or on flat ground can prevent any massive changes.
On Monday, Bush's fastball sat at 97 mph as he struck out the side in his only inning during a B game against the Chicago White Sox.
"I asked him today, 'Do you still want to change that arm stroke?' " Brocail said. " 'No, I'm good.' The wheels were spinning a little bit. He didn't have the day that he wanted to have. Just because you didn't have the day you wanted to have doesn't mean, 'Oh my God, I need to change something.' "
Bush, ever confident, isn't sure he needs to learn as much as he needs to perfect the things that make him successful, throwing strikes and changing speeds. He did that last season en route to a 7-2 record with a 2.48 ERA, 0.941 WHIP (walks, hits/innings pitched) and 61 strikeouts in 612/3 innings.
"Once I got out there and got my first couple innings in, it just felt like baseball," Bush said. "I think the less you think about it, the easier it is."
The Rangers will take a cautious approach with him this spring, using him mostly in minor league games or B games before allowing him to appear in Cactus League games later in camp.
That's OK by Bush, who knows as well as any other Rangers player to not take anything for granted.
"There's never a point in my life where I've ever taken the mound and didn't want to strike everyone out," Bush said. "There's never a moment where I tend to take it easy or go out there not feeling confident. The second you waver from that is when things get a little haywire."
But he does rate as on the inexperienced side as a second-year player. The Rangers are aware of it and confident that he won't fall into a sophomore slump or get sidetracked by tough baseball moments for too long.
"We didn't even have him in big-league camp last year," Banister said. "We've been very attentive on how his spring looks. We're tying to keep him on a similar track as last year.
"I think all his life experiences have given him a good foundation to work through them. I hope he doesn't have to go through too many of them."
