BRICK TOWNSHIP — Joe Testa, former Brick Township High School and Wagner College star pitcher, headed down to Fort Myers, Fla., over the weekend, but it wasn’t on spring break.
Testa, who currently resides in Jackson, is on a business trip of sorts to pursue another season of professional baseball in the Minnesota Twins organization, after an adventurous and somewhat unexpected journey last summer.
“For this week, we’re just doing [physical] testing, workouts, shuttle runs, mileand two-mile runs,” Testa said. “This year, we have only three days [of workouts] because we get started right away with games.”
Testa started his workouts this week on solid footing against many new prospects after jumping from Rookie League to High A in Florida on a Fort Myers Miracle team that made the championship series. After the Miracle lost the first two games and then won the third, 5-3, in the best-of-five championship series, Testa’s season ended with his team’s 7-6 loss in the next game. He did not pitch in that game.
“I have to throw first-pitch strikes; the hitters are more disciplined,” said the lefthanded Testa. “I’m using my change-up more for strikes along with a curve, slider and cutter. I’m working on my off-speed pitches. I’m happy with my control with my fastball last summer. I’m working on locating my off-speed pitches.
“And my pickoff move, I have to do that better,” Testa added.
Testa signed a free agent contract in June while pitching in the Jersey Shore League, after setting a number of records in his career at Wagner. Just like in his college career, when he switched roles from reliever to starter to ace, Testa had gone from reliever in the Rookie League to starter for two games with the Miracle and ended up again as a reliever, appearing in the second game of the championship series. Testa came in to pitch 2 2/3 innings of shutout relief in Game 2 of the championship series, allowing two hits with one strikeout. Prior to that, Testa pitched four innings with two runs allowed in the first inning before bearing down and not allowing a hit from there, with five strikeouts and a walk.
With his dream of pitching professionally still alive, Testa worked as a substitute teacher in the Brick school district while working out with some of the players on this year’s Brick Township team. He was also a pitching instructor for Play Ball in Toms River.
He said he also did “a little more lifting and running” during the winter months using a program for lifting and long- and short-distance running schedules supplied to him by the Twins organization, but not too much lifting, he said.
“When I was younger, I did that and got bulky and big, and I don’t want that,” Testa said. “I don’t want to lose anything on my fastball.”
Testa said it “kind of stinks having to leave that,” referring to his working with some young prospects on a regular basis over two or three months at Play Ball. “But it kind of works out, because their baseball season is starting up for them, too,” he said. “It was good for me because it got me thinking even more about the game and some of the things I have to do.”
Testa, who bypassed Low A in Beloit, Wis., last season, hopes to at least be back at High A ball, where the team plays a 140- game schedule, and possibly even a higher level. That will be challenging, where many of the players are draft prospects. Testa was bypassed in the draft while in high school and college, where he felt some evaluators around the major leagues held his 5-foot- 10-inch height against him.
“I’ll definitely be throwing a lot more,” he said. “It will be the longest season I’ve ever played.”
Testa said he likes the higher level of play with the stronger defense behind him; he was 3-0 as a starter and had a save in 28 innings, striking out 30 and walking eight with a 3.18 ERA.
In his professional debut as a starter, Testa pitched five innings for the Miracle in High A in which he allowed three hits, including a solo home run, with three strikeouts and two walks. He left with the score tied at 1-1, but the Miracle rallied for two runs in the bottom of the inning and went on to beat the Lakeland Tigers, and Testa got the decision. But then he was humbled, lasting only two innings in which he allowed five runs on five hits with two strikeouts and a walk but did not get the decision.
In Rookie League, Testa was 2-0 with a save in 13 2/3 innings pitched. He struck out 17 and issued his only walk in the final inning he pitched while compiling a 1.32 ERA.
But Testa said he enjoyed the atmosphere more in High A and playing every game in front of crowds of 3,000 or more under the lights, as well as obliging young autograph-seekers.
“I’m ready,” Testa said of the upcoming season. “Pitching on High A level helped my confidence.”
Testa said he is not certain whether he will pitch in relief but was throwing six days a week in the winter to keep himself in a regimen of having to pitch regularly. “If you pitch in relief, you have to master your pitches, because you can use four or five in an inning,” he said. “If you’re starting, you use only a couple.”
“With the fastball, it’s a matter of whether I start or relieve,” Testa added. “If you start, you stick with a couple of pitches and add others [in later innings] when necessary. Hitters recognize pitches early when you’re starting, so you have to set them up.”
And each different role demands a different mental outlook.
“Even though I like starting better, it’s tough to relieve. It’s a lot different,” said Testa. “When you start, you set the tone, but if you relieve in a tight game, you have to get up for it.”
It was only a year ago when Testa ended his career at Wagner as the Northeast Conference Pitcher of the Year with a 1.63 ERA that moved him up to sixth in the national rankings before he finished with a 2.08 ERA. In 91 innings pitched, Testa struck out 80 and walked 27 and threw only four wild pitches all season. Opposing batters hit 223 against him. He left behind career marks in victories with 19, strikeouts with 307, innings pitched with 292, and starts with 43. He helped his team reach the conference tournament in three of his four years, including last season.
A few months later, Testa was pitching for a Miracle team that won the first-half championship and just fell short of winning the overall championship, a goal that Testa said he has never before experienced. Along with furthering his own personal career, Testa hopes he may get that opportunity again to win a title this year, in addition to furthering his career. He’s ready to do his part.