Reese Kaplan -- Forgotten Setup Guys Part 4 of 6

If you say the name Bob Apodaca to any Mets fan under the age of 50, they will remember fondly his stint as the team’s pitching coach which lasted for four years between 1996 and 1999 working under Bobby Valentine.  

He didn’t have much to work with the first few years.  Hell, Mark Clark was his best starter in 1996!  That was followed by people who showed flashes like Rick Reed, Dave Mlicki and Bobby Jones.  He did get a pitcher with a pedigree in Al Leiter in 1998 but in 1999 he was expected to work miracles with a 40 year old Orel Hershiser, import Masato Yoshii, a raw and undisciplined starter who later became a long-time reliever, Octavio Dotel, and the Gambler, Kenny Rogers. 

However, prior to his coaching career, he had a short and stellar career as a reliever for the NY Mets during the late 1970s. 

Like his bullpen mate, Skip Lockwood, Apodaca also started out as a third baseman, but was converted to pitching while in college, finishing out his amateur days as the MVP at Cal State.  He then was inked by the Mets in 1971 as a free agent and made by today’s Mets standards a shockingly quick rise through the system, going 24-11 with a 2.73 ERA over his less-than-three-year ascent to the majors. 

His September call up in 1973 was NOT a good indicator of future success.  He is one of few major league pitchers who recorded an infinite ERA as the result of walking the two men he faced and then having one of them come around to score.

In his rookie qualifying season of 1974, the Mets got a better indication of the man they drafted.  At age 24 appearing as both a starter and reliever, he appeared in 35 games, finishing with a 6-6 record, 3 saves, finished 15 games and would record the highest ERA in a full season during his Mets career – just 3.50. 

The best was yet to come and there was no sophomore jinx for Apodaca.  His second time around the league he was in 46 games exclusively in relief, finishing the year with 13 saves and an ERA of just 1.49.  He and Skip Lockwood provided shutdown relief late in games for the club. 

Apodaca would follow that up with two more strong seasons, appearing in 43 games in 1976 and then 59 games in 1977.  Unfortunately, that was the end of the road for young bullpen stud.  In Spring Training of 1978, he tore a ligament in the elbow of his pitching arm and at age 27 his major league baseball career ended.  There was an attempt at a comeback in Tidewater in 1979 that lasted just four innings, then after a year off to rest and recuperate, but after six games in Jackson in 1981 it was clear he was done. 

 His coaching career began the next season in Little Falls of the short season A-ball level.  The following season he was promoted to Jackson in AA, then the next four years in Columbia.  He was named the South Atlantic League’s Pitching Coach of the Year in 1986 which kind of flew under the radar as the Mets were World Series bound.  His staff had an overall ERA of just 3.38 and the team went 90-42.  He joined recently deposed Pirates manager Clint Hurdle as his pitching coach in St. Lucie and later followed him to Colorado where he had the unenviable task of being a pitching coach at Coors Field after his Mets tenure ended.  In between he had a couple of years as the Brewers pitching coach, and today serves in a front office capacity for the Colorado Rockies.