AUBURN - In his first season playing for the Auburn Doubledays, Javier Nieves is trying to overcome a couple pretty significant obstacles.

After playing baseball at the catcher's position during his entire career, Nieves is making the transition this season from behind the plate to the mound for the first time in his life. Not that making an adjustment is foreign to the Venezuela native.

Nieves grew up in Valencia, and then played four seasons in the Dominican Republic before earning a roster spot on the Pulaski Blue Jays last season. Playing in the United States has been somewhat of a struggle for him since his English is very limited, with “catcher” and “pitcher” being two of the few words he knows.

An unfamiliar language, a new town and trying to learn a new position would frustrate even the most patient ball player, but Nieves has taken it all in stride.

“Definitely the language difference has been harder for me than learning how to pitch,” Nieves said through an interpreter. “But even though Auburn is a small town, I like it here. The way that everybody treats everyone is nice and it's a beautiful town to play baseball in. It's definitely different here.”

Auburn's pitching coach, Antonio Caceres held the same position for Pulaski during the last two seasons. Despite Nieves' comfort behind the plate, two seasons ago Caceres took note of his exceptional arm strength and wanted to convert him to a pitcher. Nieves struggled at the plate and with his control on the mound at first, so Caceres decided to keep him behind the plate for another season. After Caceres took his current position with the Doubledays, Nieves was called up and the two have been working tirelessly on making the righty a better hurler.

“Javier has been good, but it's like baby steps for him now,” Caceres said. “He has to start learning more about the breaking ball and changeup. He has a great fastball already, but he needs to work on his mechanics some more. The arm is there and eventually he's going to have a very good changeup as well as a decent slider. He's been working a lot on that.”

Nieves has made five appearances on the mound and pitched 5 2-3 innings. He has thrown four strikeouts, four walks and allowed five hits and two earned runs.

Not too bad considering three months ago he was still practicing for his spot behind home plate.

“Learning how to pitch has not been too bad for me,” Nieves said. “I've always been catching for the pitcher, so I had a little bit of an idea on what to do. My throws still get too high sometimes, but I am working hard to get them down. It's been a challenge for me, but I'm trying.”

While Nieves would eventually like to get on the mound more, he and Caceres agree that more work needs to be done before he pitches for a more significant amount of game time.

“We are trying to take it easy with him, maybe get him out there for an inning or two every once in a while,” Caceres said. “But next year who knows what will happen. Right now we want to take it slow, giving him two or three days rest at a time in between games.”

Knowing that the strongest part of his game might be when he is throwing, Nieves only wants get better so he can achieve the same thing all minor leaguers strive for.

“I know that part of the reason I became a pitcher is because I wasn't hitting well,” Nieves said. “Just like everybody else, my dream is to get to the big leagues, and I'm going to keep working hard at pitching here to get there. We will see what happens.”