Doug Fister spent rehab time focusing on mental side of pitching

Right-hander Doug Fister returns to the starting rotation tonight as the Nationals wrap up their home-and-home interleague series with the Tampa Bay Rays.

Fister, who will be activated from the disabled list after missing time with a strained right flexor forearm muscle, was impressive in his rehab assignment with the Double-A Harrisburg Senators last Friday night. He struck out four and allowed only two hits over six shutout innings in the 4-2 win over Trenton.

In seven major league starts this season, Fister is 2-2 with a 4.31 ERA over 39 2/3 innings. His best start this season was May 3 at the Mets, when he went 6 1/3 innings without allowing a run. His last win at home was April 16 against the Phillies. He gave up seven runs in two innings at San Diego on May 14 before being pulled in his last start before going on the DL.

"Making the decision for the DL was kinda almost an easy one," Fister said. "At the time, it wasn't allowing me to get my job done and that's something we can't toy around with. We've got to win games here, period. If that means me taking a step out, that's what I had to do. That was an easy decision for us over the time. Being on the DL, I think it's improved and gotten a lot better.

"I'm really looking forward to seeing how it improves. There was a lot of mechanical issues that I've had and it kind of got away from me. ... It's these three weeks or however long it's been, it's almost like a spring training for me trying to get back on track. As everything goes along, it's going to progress even better. I'm looking forward to seeing how that goes."

Fister said the time off concentrating on his mechanics helped him to also slow everything down and focus on the mental aspect of his game. Why was he throwing the way he was? Was he compensating for an uncomfortable feeling in his arm? How did that hinder his performance? He looked back to successful starts in the past for answers.

"I sat down and really looked at some video of previous years and (I've) seen a comparison where I've been and where I used to be and kind of get that feeling both by visualization and in the bullpen," Fister explained. "I really started to feel that in Harrisburg when I threw down there. Looking forward to getting into a game again and continuing to feel that progression. That's something to me, I spent a lot of time visualizing.

"In the minor leagues, we did a lot of mental skills work. We say this game is 80 percent mental and how much time do we really spent mentally? It's something that we're really trying to focus on. Getting back to kind of my roots has been something that has definitely helped and (I'm) looking forward to seeing how it translates into a game."

Fister took us into what specifically he did with the mental aspect of his game and how important it is to his ability to get batters out.

"Being able to look at hitters objectively and being able to come up with an approach that starts with knowing what I do and what I do best and not looking at is as emotional - did I do well or did I not do well?" Fister said. "Looking at it as a mechanical A-B-C kind of objective. Where's my position in my body? Where's my legs? The human body is an amazing thing, how it can compensate for lack of rotation or whatever limitation it holds. If something's hurting, it compensates somewhere else and takes over.

"Trying to look at that and see what causes the issue - what now? - (and) keeping it from coming back. That's the kind of work that I've done. The mental skills of visualizing what sort of position I should be in, what sort of position do I finish in. There's a lot of keys to pitching and trying to break those down while I had the time and get that feeling back is kind of what I spent a lot of time doing."

This type of work seems like a great exercise for every pitcher to go through and likely would help guys like Stephen Strasburg. Maybe Fister can use this knowledge to help his teammate and become the in-house pitching coach? We will see how all this work will play out on the mound tonight against Tampa Bay.

As for Strasburg, looks like he is very close to returning to the rotation at the beginning of next week after 80 pitches Wednesday at Double-A Harrisburg.