Bourn builds strength, speed with sprint legend Burrell Center fielder uses training program to regain basestealing form By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com | @MLBastian | February 21, 2015 + 12 COMMENTS GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Michael Bourn knows he is not a kid anymore. As the Indians center fielder gets older, he understands that more time must be spent behind the scenes building and maintaining the strength in his legs in order to be the same type of baserunning threat he was a few years ago. "I didn't have to do anything to get ready for a game," Bourn said of his younger days. "Pretty much, I could just walk over to the ballpark. I could jump out of bed, make a couple sprints and be ready to play. Now, that's not the case. I've got to get my body warmed up. I need to get prepared to play." Bourn's new mentality made for a unique offseason for the 32-year-old veteran. For three months this past winter, Bourn teamed with University of Houston track coach Leroy Burrell, a former Olympian and past world-record holder for the 100-meter sprint. Bourn focused on his running form with the goal of reducing stress on his hamstrings, which have been problematic for the center fielder over the past two years with the Tribe. Outlook: Bourn, OF, CLE Outlook: Bourn, OF, CLE Michael Bourn is hoping to improve his stolen base numbers, which were down last season, along with his on-base percentage in 2015 Bourn played baseball at the University of Houston and knew Burrell by reputation, but it was Indians strength and conditioning coach Joe Kessler who got the ball rolling on their offseason partnership. The center fielder was all in with the idea and met with Burrell, a gold medalist in the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, a handful of times each week for a variety of drills. "I told him, 'I'm on your program. You just help me out,'" Bourn said. "He worked with one [baseball player] before. I remember seeing him. But, I'm kind of his project. The thing is, we were learning off each other. ... He did a good job with it. If you think about it, I was just happy that he was willing to work with me." Last year, Bourn stole only 10 bases and finished the year hitting .257/.314/.360 with 30 extra-base hits, including 10 triples, in 106 games for the Indians. Bourn, who had two stints on the disabled list last year, has stolen only 33 bases in the past two years after averaging 51 thefts per year across the 2008-12 seasons. "I never lost my explosiveness. That never was a problem," Bourn said. "I just had to get comfortable coming back off a hamstring injury to have that wherewithal of, 'OK don't worry about that.' I felt like my last couple months last year, I felt much better. I felt like I got it stronger and it was back to where I could start running again. I just built on that going into the offseason." Bauer's offseason work paying early dividends By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com | @MLBastian | February 21, 2015 + 37 COMMENTS GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Trevor Bauer headed into the offseason with a long list of goals. Beyond his work to enhance his velocity and overall command, one project that the young Indians pitcher tackled was finding a way to improve his two-seam fastball and splitter. Bauer began that process last year, when he filmed bullpen workouts of teammates Corey Kluber and Danny Salazar to study their two-seamer and splitter, respectively. Bauer then found clips of Blue Jays starter Marcus Stroman's sinker and Yankees righty Masahiro Tanaka's split to add to his offseason film study sessions. "They're two of the better come-back two-seams I've seen," Bauer said, referring to Kluber and Stroman. "Then, I looked at Tanaka and Salazar for my split, getting the axis right. I had some high-speed video that I took last year of [Kluber and Salazar's bullpen sessions]. I also grabbed some off MLB on Tanaka and Stroman." During Bauer's mound session on Friday at Cleveland's spring complex, the right-hander tested out the refined pitches. While it is very early in camp, Indians pitching coach Mickey Callaway was impressed with the early results of the work Bauer put in over the winter. "It was probably the best command we've seen out of him, especially for the first time," Callaway said. "It's got that axis of spin that he was looking for in the offseason. That's going to contribute to the movement that he wants. Obviously, it's still a work in progress for the consistency of it, but I definitely saw some pitches [Friday] that had some pretty good movement." Bauer spent portions of his offseason traveling around the country to visit an assortment of pitching specialists. Along the way, the pitcher continued on his usual program of using high-definition, slow-motion footage of his delivery and pitches (and the pitches of others) to make adjustments. For a bulk of the winter, Bauer said he does a three- to four-hour throwing program six days per week. Callaway met with Bauer in Seattle at one point over the winter to check in with the pitcher. "We're seeing very intense focus on command, which is what we'd like to see," Callaway said. "He had a really good winter, and he did a really good job of communicating with us and keeping us in the loop, and it was in line with what we talked about going into the offseason. It was a great offseason for him. I see a ton of maturity coming out of him in camp so far." Last season, the 24-year-old Bauer went 5-8 with a 4.18 ERA, 143 strikeouts and 60 walks in 153 innings (26 starts) for the Indians. Bauer had eight Major League outings prior to 2014, so he was pleased to head into this past winter with nearly a full season's worth of innings to evaluate. "Until you pitch for a while in the big leagues, or at any level, you don't really know," Bauer said. "You can guess, but you don't really know a lot of things. So, it definitely gave me a path to go down or a guiding line. I had some ideas on what I did well and what I needed to improve on that you can't really have until you pitch and experience it. That was definitely helpful in deciding what I was going to work on." Kluber to keep to regular Spring Training routine By Jordan Bastian / MLB.com | @MLBastian | February 21, 2015 + 2 COMMENTS GOODYEAR, Ariz. -- Corey Kluber logged more innings last year than he had in any other season in his career, but the 2014 American League Cy Young Award winner does not want to change his Spring Training program too much. Cleveland's staff does not see any issue with letting the pitcher stay the course. "It's kind of hard for us to really want to do anything different," Indians manager Terry Francona said. "The way he works and the way he conditions himself, and his routines, he tolerated last year. He looks great." Last season, the 28-year-old Kluber went 18-9 with a 2.44 ERA and 269 strikeouts in a career-high 235 2/3 innings. His 2014 innings total was a 47-percent increase over his '13 total (159 2/3), and the most innings the righty had thrown in a season prior to last year was 188 1/3 innings (2012), which came between the Major and Minor Leagues. One thing Francona said the Indians may attempt is to decease the intensity of the innings Kluber does throw early in camp. That might mean having Kluber pitch in Minor League games, rather than in some Cactus League contests. "When you're on the backfield without the scoreboard and things like that," Francona said, "I do think it helps maybe limit the intensity. Or, if a guy wants to work on a particular pitch, when you have that scoreboard sitting there and people are paying to get in, they always try to make pitches instead of throwing the pitch they need to work on." "Things are good," Kluber said after a bullpen session Saturday. "This early in spring, you're not going to be locked in, but physically everything feels good. I'm happy with that." Here are some more notes and quotes from Saturday: • Indians center fielder Michael Bourn arrived to camp on Saturday and took part in an informal workout on the field. Bourn said he liked the additions of Brandon Moss and Gavin Floyd to the big league roster and did not have any issues with the relatively quiet winter the club had in terms of transactions. "I don't think sweepig changes were needed," Bourn said. "Of course, they know better than we do. They're the front-office people. That's why they do what they do. We try to come in here and hopefully they put a team together that will be able to compete. Of course, we have that." • Officials from Major League Baseball were at the Indians' complex on Saturday morning for a meeting with the team. They went over some new rules, including the recently announced changes that are aimed at improving the pace of games.