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Orioles Pitcher Cade Povich: Pitching Development Insights · The Mound Visit

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I am extremely excited for today's podcast because we have our first guest in the
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history of the maun Visit podcast. And this guest is extra special to me
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because I got to coach him in the Minnesota Twins organization. Kidepovich is now
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in the Baltimore Orioles organization where he has been absolutely dominating Triple A. He
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is just one call away from the big leagues, and he's going to give
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us some really good insight into a lot of his thought process and how he
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focuses on executing one pitch at a time. And we're also going to peel
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back the onion a little bit on the earlier stages of his career of going
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from being a high school pitcher in the low eighties to then go in the
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junior college route and then going to the Division I level before entering pro ball.
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He's going to share some really cool stories and insights in his experiences and
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what has ultimately led him to where he is at now. So without further
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ado, let's jump into the episode. Right we are live and we officially
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have our first guest ever in the Mound Visit podcast. And the person we
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have on today I actually know pretty well, I got to work with him
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a good amount in Minnesota. And one of the things I just want to
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tell a short story about first time I met you, Kate, or one
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of the first times I met you was you were throwing a bullpen and I
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was watching all your pitches and I was like, man, you got a
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really good sweeper. And I asked you about it and or how long you
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been throwing it and how you held it, and You're like, well,
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I just watched the video the other day about Blake trying it, and this
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is how you hold it. So I decided to throw it today and I
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got the movement the way we wanted it to. So that was like a
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glimpse into your ability to learn things quickly. You know, I can name
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some other things with some of the drill work we were doing, mechanical things
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we were trying to change early on in your career that you were just able
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to pick up on things extremely quick with grips, mechanical things. What do
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you attribute your ability to learning fast too? Because not every player can do
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that. Not every player can just grab a ball, try I new grip
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and they instantly get it or are able to change something mechanically, like,
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is this something you've always been good at as being a fast learner, or
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what do you attribute that to? I think, honestly, it's just trying
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different things. I mean, when I was younger, the way I figured
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out how to throw my cutter was my dad and I. Well, so
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originally, I actually, like the story started, I wanted to throw I
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mean, as a young kid does a bunch of junk ball and curveballs and
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all this other stuff just because you see guys in the big leagues do it.
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And my dad actually always told me it's like, hey, you're not
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learning any other pitch or anything like that until you learn to change up.
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So sure enough, I went onto YouTube and figured out how to throw a
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change up. Next day I was like, okay, I know, I'm
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to throw one now, and then I don't know. I guess that's just
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where it started kind of, And then it progressed to, you know,
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being a little younger, you're not wanting to throw inside to a kid and
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hit them accidentally. So I was always throwing fastballs away, but I was
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wanting something to throw in and so we ended up going on YouTube and looking
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up Marin Rivera's cutter. I was like, I could use something like that
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to throw inside the kids and I can just throw a normal force them away,
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and ended up picking that up pretty quick. And so I guess it's
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just been seeing something and being like, oh, I think I could do
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that, and just trying it. Sometimes it works, and I mean sometimes
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it doesn't. But for the most part, it's really just been seeing it
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and I guess being able to recite how it works, and just trying it
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for myself. Real quick, everyone, I wanted to let you know about
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my new course called Pitch Design You. It's set to launch on June's I'm
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going to be covering the fundamentals of pitch movement, how to throw every single
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pitch type, as well as knowing which one is right for you, and
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the analytics behind all pitch types, how when and where to use your arsenal.
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I have a wait list right now where I'm sending weekly insights on details
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about the course. If you're interested, check out the link in the show
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notes. All right back to the show. Yeah, that makes a lot
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of sense. And what I'm kind of gathering and just listening to you talk
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is like there's a little bit of an aspect of not being afraid to try
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things or not being afraid to fail in a way. Is there some guys
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that I've worked with, and I'm sure you've played with that they're very iffy
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about trying new things because they're afraid it's going to make them worse or it's
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not going to work. But to get better oftentimes you do have to maybe
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even go backwards for a second, or at least be willing to put yourself
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out there to try something new with the hopes of it sticking and lasting.
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So I think that's a pretty incredible attribute to have. How do you think
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that ties into some of the coaches you've worked with that maybe have suggested things.
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Obviously, I know our experience in Minnesota. We were very hands on
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and we were pushing a lot of things on on guys like yourself to try
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to improve and change. Is are you the type of person that like would
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you consider yourself very culturable to where you're wanting to listen and try things that
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coaches are saying or do you kind of pick and choose you know what you're
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going to try from what a coach is telling you. Is there a little
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bit of a trust aspect of it that you have to gain with a coach
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before you try everything they tell you. I think in part, yeah,
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I think also in part while I was younger, I was so I really
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wasn't too good as far as I mean I can. I could throw a
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lot of strikes, and I can mix pitches and kind of put it where
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I wanted to, but I didn't throw or really hard or anything. So
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it got to a point where, you know, if I wanted to continue
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playing down the road, I had to start trying different things. So it's
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like there's I mean, now there's I guess a certain element of like trying
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to listen to what someone says and then do a little bit of research yourself.
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But at the same time, it's one of those things, at least
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for me, where I think, you know, if we work on something
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and give it a try, and you know, I can look at the
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numbers, look at how it feels, look how the results end up being,
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and if it works, I mean, I'm all in for it.
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That's kind of the name. I always want to kind of take whatever somebody
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says. If it's gonna make me make me better, I'm gonna apply it
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and try and work on it. But at the same time, if we
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work on it, you know, we start kind of getting it to where
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we want, but then we see the results are falling or there's something not
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there. Then it's like, okay, well, I know what I was
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doing before. I can kind of switch back to that in a way.
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That's great. Well, let's take us back a little bit, like,
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I know a little bit of your story, little plug here. I know,
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we both went to South mount Community College and they just beat Central Arizona
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in the playoffs in the first round, which is a pretty big deal to
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knock them out. But take us back to junior college. I know you
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grew up in Nebraska and then you went to Arizona to play at South Mount
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Community College for one year. Like what was your recruiting process like in high
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school? Did you have a lot of options or how did you end up
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at South Mountain? So, I mean there were a few options as far
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as junior colleges just around Nebraska kind of the Midwest area. Late into the
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summer of my senior year of high school, I kind of started throwing a
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little bit harder. I mean, nothing crazy. I think I was up
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to eighty six but for the most part I was maybe sitting eighty to eighty
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four. But I had had an unbelievable senior year spring and summer to where
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Creighton ended up hopping on and just being like, hey, like, we
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would love to have you, we want to offer you. And it ended
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up being one of those things to where its probably a month or so before
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I was leaving to go to Arizona, and I was like, I mean,
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junior college. You know I have this one Division one offer junior college.
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I can go there, give a year of growth where I know there's
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a higher chance that I'm going to actually play right away and not sit on
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the bench and just take a full year of working on stuff, trying to
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get in the weight room and grow. Started up saying, hey, I
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like, I appreciate the offer, but you know, I feel like it's
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so late already. I'm I'm gonna stick to my commitment to the junior college.
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Which going back, it was funny. Actually, I think the way
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I got in touch with South Mountain was during our our fall before my senior
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year. Our team was tweeting out stat lines and whatever, and one of
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the assistant coach, Jimmy Turk, was liking a whole bunch of the tweets,
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but they were only my tweets. So one of my coaches like,
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hey, we see you have interest in this guy. Are you just like
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is it something you're just like following or do you have actual interest? Ended
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up going that they had interest and they wanted to see me throw. So
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I flew out there through a really good bullpen. I don't know if I
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was throwing very hard. I was probably somewhere in mid eighties, but I
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was hitting every spot. They said we would love to have you, and
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I think at the time they were top twenty five junior college and they had
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I Forard his name, but he was one of the top pitchers and in
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your college as well. So then I ended up going there and it was
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Yeah, I loved being in Arizona, and I South Mountain was a really
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good kind of spot and in my development and in my recruitment. Yeah,
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and you you dominated to say the least. I was looking up your stats
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there recently. You were I think ten and one with like a one something
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e er just absolutely crushed it. And and for those that don't know Arizona
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Juco Baseball, well like Arizona is one of the best states for junior college
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baseball. You got Central Arizona, who's always one of the best in the
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country. Yavapaie is good. There's a couple other schools that are that are
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really good programs like That's those are some impressive stats. And then you did
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something that is a little more unique. I would say, it's not that
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common for guys to go to a junior college for just one year and then
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transfer to a Power five Division one school and play right away. But you
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did. You transfer to Nebraska after one year. I believe this was the
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COVID year, so things got a little dicey that year. Obviously you didn't
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get to play that much that year. But how did that transformation happen?
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And was Nebraska a dream school because that's where you're from, or how did
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that develop? Yeah, it all kind of just ended up working out perfectly.
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Just the fact, you know Nebraska, growing up in Nebraska and going
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to games, it was something that I had always wanted to be a part
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of and wanted to go to. Like I always wanted to be in Lincoln.
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I always wanted to play in Haymarket. But I mean, at the
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time too trying to think of, you know, where if I wanted to
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play at the highest level, I knew I would want to go to one
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of the best teams in the country, so I always kind of had sights
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on, I mean, teams like Ole miss or Tennessee, basically a bunch
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of SEC schools. For the most part, that was kind of my goal.
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And then, you know, I pitched well my freshman year. You
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know, you know how it goes. You have the seven inning in the
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nine inning. I got lucky. I think I had quite a few complete
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games because they let me pitch the seven innings a bunch, so that that
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was really nice. But I ended up doing well in my freshman year.
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The off season came around, you know, I had a few offers,
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you know, creating offered again. I had kind of like a walk on
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offer from Arizona just basically saying it was basically there's a way of saying,
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hey, we're gonna watch you next year, knowing that I wasn't taken that
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and then just I think Tennessee and Auburn were a couple other teams that were
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just on the phone with my coaches for the following year. But you know,
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one thing we always did living back home was my mom and I would
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take my dad to a College World Series game for Father's Day. So we
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ended up going to one of those games, and it happened that a day
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or two before that, the coaching staff at Nebraska basically just said they were
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leaving, Like the head coach said he was leaving and the whole staff was
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going with him. So whenever the new staff was announced, it was it
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was on Father's Day. We were sitting there and Coach Arvel from uh he
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he had texted me and said, Hey, this is Coach Arvell. I'm
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going to be one of the new coaches on Coach Bolt's staff. We would
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love to talk to you, have you down for a visit and get to
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know you a little bit. So obviously, sitting there, I'm like kind
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of in shock, because you know, I was. They were telling me
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I was one of their first guys that they were looking towards, and just
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being a Nebraska kid, I thought it was really cool. So we ended
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up going on the visit and, like I think, kind of my whole
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childhood of going to games and Memorial and going to games at Haymarket to watch
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baseball It's just kind of came to light and my eyes just opened just to
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how amazing everything is and what a dream come true it kind of was.
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And we went on the visit, met with Coach Bull, did all that,
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and then we went wasn't decided on anything, really, but we went
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to lunch and I remember sitting there, I was like, this is this
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is what I want. I want to commit here. It's perfect. As
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far as you know, I grew up here, I've always wanted to be
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a Husker. It's close to where my parents' family, friends, anybody can
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can drive forty five minutes from Omaha or down the road to Lincoln to watch.
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And you know, I've guys like Alex Gordon, job achaetment like I
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want want to be part of one of the great pictures that for players and
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pictures that have come out of Nebraska. And you know, just the way
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twenty twenty in COVID year just ended up working out, I mean it was
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it was perfect decision. It was like God was telling me, you know,
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to take this, because who knows if I go back to South Mountain
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and it's COVID year, what ends up happening. Yeah, that's a really
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good point. Yeah, that whole year just changes everything. Yeah, you
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never know what one decision, how that can impact the rest of your life
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and where you go from there. What do you think was the biggest adjustment
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for you from junior college baseball to Division one? Now, you know,
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I had a similar transition. I went to a D one, not a
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Power five school, but still D one. So there's still a little bit
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of a difference of just being at a four year school. In general,
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the junior college lifestyle is a little bit different. Not a lot of rules
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with baseball, so you can practice whenever you want. School, at least
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in my experience, was a little bit lighter in junior college. So there's
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just a lot of changes on the field off the field. But for you,
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like, what were some of the biggest adjustments to the lifestyle of being
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at a four year school and also just the competition of playing against some really
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big schools. Yeah, For one, I was getting used to middle bats
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again coming South Mountain. It was nice pitching of the wood bats my freshman
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year. But I mean, part of it is just like you're facing guys.
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It's not guys that are either your age or a year older, you
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know, you have four years seniors, fifth year seniors that you're potentially going
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up against, and I mean we had a well, it was going to
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be a pretty tough schedule. I mean, we had a pretty tough kind
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of first half before COVID hit and then in twenty one and it was all
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Big ten. But I'm pretty sure our season, if it wasn't for COVID
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in twenty one, would have been a really cool and tough start as well,
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just with the teams we face, but just kind of getting over that
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hump of like you know, you're facing older guys, you got to be
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a little more strategic, strategic they're a little more experienced, and then just
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but it also helped learn from guys on your team that were older and kind
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of what they do. But like you said, Todd didn't Todd had us
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out there for a while during during those practices at South Mountain, So a
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little part of it, I think was getting used to it kind of being
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more of a fifty to fifty split between school work and practice and then trying
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to figure out kind of how to handle free time and what to do away
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from the field, just in part that we weren't at the field for six
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hours a day. Yeah, for sure, what was I gonna say?
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Lost my train of thought? Oh, so for players, let's just think
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of you know, you redoing this whole process or giving advice to other kids
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that are in a similar position versus junior college going to a four year school
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out of high school? Like, what do you think are some factors that
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high school kids should consider when it's comes to going to a JUCO or going
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to a four year school out of high school. I think a lot of
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it, and I've told a bunch of kids this, I think a lot
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of it comes down to, you know, you need to take the ego
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part out of it. The I'm going to a divisional one kind of ego
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that a lot of kids have. I mean, when you're coming out of
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high school and you know everybody's committing and you put that division one and commit,
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I mean, it is it's really cool, But I think you really
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got to think you know where you stand when you're going into that school,
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especially now with the transfer portal, You're going to be going into guys that
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are experienced or you know, in some cases they're all Americans, and you're
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you got to be really you're not going to be starting right away, and
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you got to see who they have behind that guy as well. And you
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know, you don't want to be one of those guys that goes there because
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of all the hype and then sits for two years, ends up not playing,
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transfers to three four different schools. You know, when you can go
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to a junior college play pretty much right away, develop a ton with how
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at least at Southbound, with how the regulations or lack of regulations. It
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was basically all hard work and and Gillen was really good with the weight room
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stuff. And then at just at the field the amount of work I think
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we did majority of it too, was for purpose, so it helped develop
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a lot of guys. But you know, you really got to figure out
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if you're gonna be one of those guys at a d one or if you're
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gonna go there sit, not enjoy it and then not develop as much as
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you could have if you went to a junior college. But I mean,
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at the same time, if you're one of those guys who is a dude
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and could yo start right away, I mean, then albeit do that.
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Yeah, Yeah, it's all a tough balance because obviously you get recruited by
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a big school. Like you said, the ego comes into where you're like,
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Okay, this is a big deal. I want to be a guy
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that's committing to vanderbild Er. I'm committing to Ole miss And it's hard to
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have the perspective of, you know, what are the chances of me actually
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playing? Like I would think most kids have the mindset that, oh,
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I'm gonna work hard, I'm gonna win a spot, and I'm gonna be
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in the rotation as a freshman. So it's tough to have the perspective of
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having confidence in yourself and belief in yourself that you can do something, but
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also being realistic about the situation and who's in front of you. So I
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think it's like I always like to think about understanding what is the most important
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thing to you, Like, are you someone that feels like you need to
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get innings right away as a freshman and that's important to you. Is baseball
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the primary thing or is it secondary? Are you going primarily for the school
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first and the baseball is just secondary to it. There's all those other angles
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to it. But like for guys that want to play right away, in
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a lot of cases, going to junior college route or going to a smaller
21:57
school instead of the big power five school could be a good option too.
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It's just it's a really tough answer and balance, and especially when you're sixteen,
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seventeen years old making these commitments, and if you don't have parents that
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have necessarily been through a similar process or people just in your life in general
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that are able to give you wisdom on some of those things, it can
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be a tough decision. But you know, for me personally, I thought
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the junior college route was great for me. I got to pitch a lot
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right away and develop, and now I gave myself an extra two years to
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get more physical, get more mature. And now when I did transfer to
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you know, a four year school, I was able to play right away.
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So there isn't a perfect answer, but I really like the way,
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you know, you put that in. You know, obviously your route worked
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for you. So now we're shifting to pro ball. You've been in pro
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ball for this is what year four now? For you got drafted in twenty
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one. Going into you know, your draft year in twenty one, was
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there high expectations that you were going to be a fairly high pick before this
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screen even started, or did you kind of develop later in the spring and
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got on people's radars. I think it started in kind of the COVID summer.
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I took most of the off season or most of I guess what would
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have been the twenty twenty season, basically lifting throughout the week. I would
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do, I guess, and a sort of elo program in a way as
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my pens on Wednesday, and then I think Saturdays, I want to say,
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we would throw live at bats. You know, we kind of had
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this small facility meet another guy. Shout out to Southworth for doing that for
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us. It was his place that he he let it open so that guys
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could some of us were there were a couple of pitchers that would go in
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and then we would have a couple hitters as well that we're able to hit,
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just so we could kind of take that time to you know, throw
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to each other. Have somewhat of I guess this season. But then fortunately
24:15
two coach Gillam coach at South Mountain, was also the assistant for the Savannah
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Bananas when they were a college team in the summer, and that league ended
24:30
up saying that the Coastal Plain leagues ended up saying that they were going to
24:33
stay open. You know, I know, the Cape and a bunch of
24:37
other summer leagues teams were shutting down. So I was thankful that I was
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able to play summer ball because Gillam had reached out and said, hey,
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we would we would love to have you play for us, And that was
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really nice just in the fact that I could, I could throw to actual
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in actual games. It's a different region that I've had it been in on
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the East East coast, and you know, maybe this being one of the
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only summer leagues really open, maybe I could catch the eye of some scouts
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leading into twenty one. So ended up being that one of my first starts,
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I think I was sitting maybe eighty eight ninety one, but I was
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in the first couple of innings, I was sitting like ninety one ninety two
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up to ninety three, which I had that was the hardest I'd thrown in
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the game up to that point, and one of the guys from D one
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Baseball ended up being there, and I threw really well, and obviously that
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was throw harder than I had in the twenty twenty season or any time before,
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so I ended up catching his eye a little bit and I ended up
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getting kind of like a little one of those reports on me. And then
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I think that just kind of led into the twenty one season to where there
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was a little bit of I guess speak of me around. But I don't
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think it was anything where I was going to be a crazy round pick or
26:15
anything like that. But I ended up getting the Friday spot there, and
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you know, I threw really well. I got Pitcher of the Week I
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think three times that year, and then was on the first team All Big
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Ten in twenty one, and so I think I just ended up having a
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great year. My stuff jumped, and you know, then I was fortunate
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to be picked by the Twins. Yeah, and you went high. So
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you just said, you know, you didn't think you're necessarily going to be
26:45
a high pick, but we we took you in the third round, which
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I mean third round is is pretty high in my book. So I mean
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we had Angry drafted three. Our first three picks were pitchers. We had
26:56
Petty Hadger and then and then you in the around. Pretty good trio of
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pitchers right there. And one thing that was interesting, and I love to
27:04
hear your journey in perspective on your velocity gain over the years, because now
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you've been up to I want to say, you've been up to ninety six.
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Correct me if I'm wrong, but and you're sitting more in that ninety
27:15
three ninety four range versus when you first got drafted. I remember looking at
27:19
your report of your college numbers and you were, for the most part,
27:22
eighty nine ninety one. And I want to say, within your first month
27:26
of being with us in Minnesota, you hit ninety five. And I remember
27:30
there being a specific game. I don't know if it was like an I
27:33
think it might have been instructs You're like, I think I'm gonna hit ninety
27:34
five today, and literally, like the first pitch or second pitch of the
27:37
outing, you hit ninety five. Just another thing that I loved about you
27:42
is just you have a lot of confidence. But it's like a quiet a
27:48
quiet confidence. It's not like you're ourly ex expressing like how good you think
27:51
you are, but like you can tell watching you pitch that you believe in
27:55
yourself and you have confidence in yourself, which I absolutely love. But take
27:57
us a little bit on your velocity journey of what you think kind of helped
28:02
you go from being a high eighties guy, you know at Nebraska touching low
28:07
nineties, to now being a guy that's that's touching mid nineties. I think
28:11
a part of it was, you know, I've done plios for a long
28:17
time, and I think part of it was just making sure I was doing
28:21
them with a purpose and doing them, I guess for a specific reason.
28:26
I think there's a lot of good habits just with plios and throwing in general
28:33
that can be taught, but you have to make sure that you're implying those
28:36
good habits and you know, not creating negative ones because the negative you pick
28:42
up on the negative habits a lot quicker and a lot easier than you do
28:45
the negative or you do the positive ones. So I mean, I remember
28:51
we had talked about what plos and how to do plios a certain way to
28:56
where you know, it was more on that positive side and to be deliberate
29:02
with them to where they're going to transfer over. And I think doing that
29:07
and then kind of on those medium days when we work on the mound,
29:15
you know, we would get a bunch of reps in and get the mechanics
29:18
more efficient, where I was actually kind of using my lower body and getting
29:22
as much force as I could into the ground. And I don't know if
29:27
you remember, but my front leg has always been I think one of the
29:33
weakest links. So we hammered that a bunch and that continued to get better,
29:38
and I think as that got better, so did the velocity. Yeah,
29:42
you know, I do remember that specific. I actually every once in
29:45
a while I look at videos on my phone just of past drails use examples,
29:48
and I still have a good amount of videos of you from the front
29:52
view where I'm sitting like on the ground in front of the mound, and
29:56
we're watching that lead leg as your nee tended to bow out towards third base
30:00
a little bit before it would extend back. So and yeah, like you're
30:03
exactly right. As you improve that, your your velow started to go because
30:07
you're able to transfer energy up the chain much quicker. So what has been
30:11
you know, we talked about adjustments from college or sorry, from high school
30:15
to college. Was there a bigger adjustment from college to pro ball or would
30:19
you say it was it was about the same. It's just kind of getting
30:22
used to the lifestyle. Some of it was the same. I think there
30:30
was more to it as you kind of as or as I have kind of
30:34
progressed throughout pro ball so far. I think the more I've gotten up the
30:42
I mean the lower levels in a way, there's there didn't feel like there's
30:48
too much difference. I mean, you're basically similar age as everybody. Everybody's
30:56
kind of on the younger side in that in low way, I mean,
31:00
especially after the draft, guys getn't put in and there's there's a bunch of
31:04
like high school guys, then in college guys as well that I may have
31:08
played with or played against. But you know, as you move up,
31:12
you start getting into more of a mix of I mean Double A has guys
31:18
that are pre experienced, most of them are a little bit younger, but
31:25
there's also that amount that are older. And then obviously in Triple A you're
31:32
in with a bunch of guys who are all different ages. I mean,
31:36
I think our team here in Norfolk is probably one of the youngest as far
31:41
as it's just loaded with prospects for almost the most part. But I mean
31:49
looking at other teams, I remember when I first got caught up Triple A
31:52
last year, I was just in the dugout watching the game and the team
31:56
we were playing, looking on the scoreboard, and it was like every guy
32:02
has already debuted two three years ago, so they have that experience. They've
32:08
played in the big leagues. And I think the big thing for me was
32:14
realizing, like, they have that experience and they're much older, and they're
32:20
obviously really good. They're they're in Triple A, they've they've been to the
32:23
show for a reason, And I think part of me was not idolizing that
32:31
they were like these great players and whatnot, but just the fact that in
32:37
my head I was thinking about how how good these guys are and like this
32:43
is like I'm in Triple A, Like I'm one step away. These guys
32:47
are like really, this is really really good players and whatnot. And part
32:55
of me had to step back in the offseason this year and be like,
33:00
you know, there's there definitely is. Yeah, there's a lot of really
33:04
good there's a lot of really good guys in Triple A. But there's a
33:08
lot more really good guys than all stars in the major leagues, which is
33:12
where we end up wanting to be. And while they're really good, man,
33:19
hitting is hard and you got to remind yourself of that, and you
33:23
know they were in your shoes once where they were young, and you know
33:29
they probably saw the guys up top as being these really good ballplayers, and
33:35
they are, obviously, But you also have to take a step back and
33:39
realize what the game is and not get too carried away into thinking how good
33:46
someone is, because at the end of the day, those hitters that are
33:50
really good still fail almost almost seventy percent of the time. Right now,
33:59
that's a good pave, and yet it's I can imagine it can be easy
34:01
to get starstruck in away, especially if there's a guy you're playing triple A,
34:06
like you said, that has big League time, that maybe you were
34:07
watching on TV while you were still in college, and now you're pitching against
34:12
him, and it can be easy to lose sight of Okay, I'm here
34:16
for a reason. I can still get this guy out. I don't want
34:20
to let who this is in the box affect my mindset in the way I'm
34:22
attacking him. And evidently you have made that adjustment from last year to this
34:27
year, because you're crushing it this year. You've just been been lights out
34:30
every start and have been doing really well I'm curious, you know, diving
34:36
into the mental side a little bit now of being in TRIPLEA. You're dominating
34:42
right now and you are one call away. How do you keep yourself in
34:45
check mentally to not look too far in the future of like, hey,
34:49
maybef, I have one more good start, I'm going to get called up
34:52
to the big leagues. Or if you see someone's underperforming in the big leagues
34:54
that maybe you're going to get the next opportunity, Like how do you keep
34:58
yourself level headed and focusing one day at a time. Well, I mean,
35:01
like you said, it's focusing on one day at a time. That's
35:05
kind of been my biggest thing this year in general, is just taking everything
35:09
one day at that time, taking everything one better at a time, one
35:15
pitch at a time, and really just you know, I remember thinking,
35:21
or I remember just in past, in lower levels and stuff in years previous,
35:29
just being a part of games where something would happen, there's a week
35:34
hit that falls, you know, airs, whatever it is, and I
35:38
remember just getting so upset about it end game, like like come on,
35:45
like this is affecting me, blah blah blah. But kind of the whole
35:52
thing as well, this year has just been kind of dialing all that back
35:55
and just controlling what I can. You know, I think the mental side
36:00
is a huge part of it. And when I was in spring training with
36:05
the Twins, I ended up getting the Mental Abcs of Pitching and I started
36:09
reading that a little bit, and then I remember, I don't know if
36:14
I forgot the book somewhere, I lost it, but I haven't read it
36:17
since. And then kind of towards the end of the spring training, I
36:22
was at a Barnes and Noble kind of near art facility and there was one
36:27
there, so I ended up picking it up. I've been reading that so
36:30
far basically as much as I have been able to this year, and I
36:37
think that has just helped a lot in aspect of you know, I can
36:42
control my delivery. I can control when the ball leaves my hand and where
36:49
I want it to go, but once it leaves my hand, I have
36:52
no control over anything else that happens really in the game or in that situation.
37:00
You know, I can think to execute a pitch, and I can
37:06
do everything in my power to try and execute that pitch, and you know,
37:10
hopefully majority of the time I do execute that pitch and and you know,
37:15
I get the result that's in my favor. But at the same time,
37:20
you can throw the perfect pitch exactly where you want to, with the
37:23
exact breake numbers and whatnot, and you know, a guy can stick his
37:28
butt out and throw the bat at it and it can fall for a hit,
37:30
or you can throw one out of the zone that they somehow hit over
37:37
the fence. It's just that's just how it works. But that's nothing you
37:40
can control. As long as you're executing your pitches and doing what you are
37:46
able to control, you know, it's out of your hands from there.
37:52
Yeah, I love that. It's there's so many things outside of your control
37:55
that if you try to manage all those things, you're just going to go
37:59
crazy becase because you can't control for all of those other factors of what your
38:02
fielders do, what the batter does, what the umpire does. So I
38:07
love that mindset and speaking of something that is out of your control as well.
38:10
We kind of went over this one or or skipped this one a little
38:15
bit. But back in twenty two you were traded from the Twins to the
38:20
Orioles right at the deadline. I believe like it was the last day of
38:23
the deadline. What was that like, Like, did you did you think
38:29
that you might get traded? You hear rumors or anything, or how did
38:30
you find out and how did that make you feel to be traded? Yeah,
38:35
there was nothing that I knew about. I think if you it was
38:43
the day before, I want to say, or going back, I guess
38:47
to my start before, there must have been a good amount of I can't
38:52
remember exactly where we were playing, but there must have been a good amount
38:57
of scouts in the stands or something, because I remember coming back it might
39:02
have been we might have been in Wisconsin against the timber Raillers, But I
39:08
remember if I don't know, if you remember, Bobby Malachi made a joke
39:13
to me just about how they were scouts in the stands and whatnot, and
39:17
you know, it was going to last day, so nobody really thought of
39:21
anything. Wasn't hearing anything, and he was just weird. We're joking around
39:29
in general, just with the amount of scouts there that you know, any
39:31
one of us could get traded, and we were putting them kind of back
39:35
and forth, like, hey you did good today. They were they're up
39:38
there watching and then you know, going to last day, I was on
39:44
the phone, I think with my now fiance, and I got was getting
39:50
a call from a son and I was like, he doesn't ever call me
39:52
really, so I should probably answer this answer it. And he's like he's
39:59
just telling me, you know, hey, like this is we just want
40:05
to know this is really good for you, just kind of giving me the
40:09
whole workup on on it basically before before just saying, hey, you know,
40:16
we made this move and you're gonna go to the Orioles. And at
40:22
the time, I mean, I think I was also in my bedroom at
40:27
our host family's house getting ready to go to the field for our game that
40:34
night, and I remember thinking afterwards, like not really knowing what to think
40:43
or what to expect, just in the fact that you know, you always
40:49
think you're gonna stick with the team for basically your ole development or as long
40:52
as possible. And I think part of it too, was like thinking of
41:00
it in a bad way and not realizing, you know, the bigger picture
41:06
of you know, how this is getting traded, being one of the main
41:12
pieces in a trade for a guy who was at the time an all star
41:15
closers. I mean, that's huge, and that kind of gives an insight
41:23
of the work that you're doing and you know how much other teams are noticing.
41:30
And I think kind of just at that part at that time, being
41:32
my first year, you don't really realize that. You just think you're getting
41:36
traded and you don't realize how good a thing it is until you know you
41:43
really look at it from more of a broader perspective. And that was one
41:49
thing I kind of had to understand and realize, I think, just talking
41:54
to agent, coaches and parents and getting an understanding of how good that actually
42:00
is. Yeah, exactly like you said, you got traded for the Orioles
42:06
closer at the time, who was an All Star that year. If you
42:07
got his first name was Lopez was his last name, I can't remember,
42:09
or maybe Orge Lopez. So you were the main piece in that. And
42:15
yeah, it was the same thing earlier that year, we traded Chase Petty,
42:17
our high school first rounder from the year before. We traded him to
42:22
the Reds and he was, you know, devastated in a way at the
42:25
beginning, because yeah, you almost look at the negative at first of Okay,
42:30
the Twins don't want me for whatever reason, they want to get rid
42:31
of me. But like Petty, he got traded for Sonny Gray, who
42:35
was the twins Ace for the next couple of years. Like, it's it's
42:38
a big deal to get traded because that means the other team sees a ton
42:43
of value in your in the future, right, Like so the red saw
42:46
value in Petty in their future, the Orioles saw you as value in their
42:50
future by trading you know, their best relief pitcher at the time, knowing
42:54
that the future is going to be bright if we can get someone like Kate
42:58
Povich on our staff. So it's like seeing look at from that angle might
43:00
make it a little bit easier of a transition, but and I think so
43:05
far it is definitely uh paying off in the Orioles favor that trade, to
43:08
say the least. But walk through a little bit. I know, Josh,
43:13
and Josh, I want you to jump in on this too. So
43:15
Josh, you were traded as well from the Phillies to Texas and courage me
43:20
if I'm wrong, But I think that was during the off season versus kid
43:22
you were during the season. What was it like joining a new team,
43:27
you know, at the end of the year with guys that you've really never
43:30
met or played with, and they're kind of in their own groove and been
43:31
playing together for the last you know, four or five months. Yeah,
43:36
it was, I mean I was kind of a big part just in the
43:39
fact that you know, at the end of the year, guys kind of
43:47
you've had it basically almost a whole season together and me being already a guy
43:52
who's kind of shy. You know, I was going over there not knowing
43:58
really what to expect, and you know, I wasn't high at the time.
44:02
I was hoping to maybe be trade. When I got traded, maybe
44:07
go make the jump to double A, and and in the same part,
44:15
you know, you go over and you're not really sure what to expect as
44:17
far as what this other team is going to do pitch development wise and whatnot.
44:22
So it was a little bit of adjustment, just trying to sit back
44:27
and you know, meet everybody, learn kind of the way the Orioles take
44:32
things and and take on pitching development and the things that they prioritize, and
44:39
and just listen to kind of their thoughts, and you know, on both
44:44
sides, get just get to know the org, the players and everything a
44:49
little bit yeah, for sure, Josh. What was your experience like being
44:54
traded? Yeah, so I was actually the same. I got traded during
45:00
the trade deadline, actually yeah, and so yeah, it was it was
45:07
pretty weird. Uh, social media and you before I got any kind of
45:13
calls. I remember, I was chilling with my friends and then they showed
45:17
me a post on Twitter and they're like, yeah, Josh, guess I
45:21
just got traded. And I was like what, So, yeah, social
45:24
media and you before me? Was that the same with U? K?
45:31
I don't think so. I'm pretty sure they tried to call in order for
45:38
me to kind of know first before I saw it on social media. But
45:44
I remember as soon as I got done, I'm pretty sure my parents and
45:46
a bunch of friends were blowing me up. So it's it was probably right
45:51
at the around the same time. Awesome. Awesome, Well, I just
45:57
want to quickly jump in, and I'm super interested in how you actually throw
46:00
your pitches, because now you're just absolutely dominating the minor leagues, and I'm
46:06
just super interested in if you have a bowl, like if you can just
46:09
take us through how you throw each one of your pitches. Yeah, I
46:14
don't I have appliatball. It's it's tough because I that's why being the off
46:20
day, I throw tomorrow, so I don't like taking the day before off.
46:22
But I thought I had baseball in my back I usually always do.
46:27
It's not like me, but I can try and use this pio. So
46:30
basically like my four team, I just throw typical four seam horseshoe kind of
46:36
on the outside. I remember, I think at Nebraska I had the horse
46:40
show on the inside and we switched it around just to get the seam still
46:46
work better, to get a little bit more carry. And then my change
46:52
up is kind of I guess I'll use the drive line logano. I don't
46:55
know if you can see that as like the scene, but I try and
46:59
kind of go along the seam and kind of put these two fingers inside of
47:06
the one seam to where when I throw it it's basically got that one seam
47:09
effect. Just because you know I've tried, I think, I mean,
47:14
we talked in the offseason, I tried kind of doing more of a stuporinated
47:17
one. I had always thrown more of a pernated one in the past,
47:22
but just with the fact that I had have a good cutter and a good
47:28
slider. We're just looking at the fact that I could supinate pretty well,
47:32
so we're trying that and playing catch with it is. I was like,
47:37
I'm gonna have such a good change up, like I can't wait. And
47:40
then something about when I went on the mound and just got my spine.
47:45
I guess more involved in it was storing. It just didn't do anything,
47:47
and it was basically a slow fastball. I was like, all right,
47:52
well, we got to scratch that. So now it's more kind of along
47:57
this one scene. It's almost like a slower one scene fastball, but it's
48:00
been getting a lot more depth than my old one, and then it's been
48:07
taken off and playing way better. And then my cutter is my fastball grip.
48:14
But I go on the other side, so I go, this is
48:16
actually my agent talking with him. Alex Wilson. He played in the Bigs
48:22
for I think I want to say eight years, so it's nice to have
48:27
him kind of on my sete as well. But I go on the opposite
48:31
side of my four team. So I guess if the logo is kind of
48:37
like the horseshoe where it's that way, my cutter, I throw this way
48:43
where it's inside, and I turn it a little bit, and then I
48:45
basically put all the pressure. I have my middle finger sitting on that seam,
48:52
and I put almost all the pressure there and just throw it like a
48:57
fastball, and it keeps a good amount of area. And then I think
49:02
it is around two to four on the on the right side, as far
49:07
as if you're looking at a movement plot, just a verify, throw that
49:13
more around eighty eight, ninety even up to ninety two with it. You
49:21
know, it's a firm pitch real quick. I just want to strike exactly
49:22
base. I want to make sure I understand it correctly. So this would
49:25
be your regular forceing, right, So horseshoe on the inside and you're throwing
49:30
your cutter like this or is it still the horseshoe on the on the outside.
49:35
Oh yeah, it'd be like that. So it'd be like yep,
49:37
yeah, it'd be like yep. Pressure not that much tilted. I just
49:44
like it's literally just like a a little bit the smallest little tilt fingers together
49:49
and then basically like almost my middle finger pushing down and then almost the pad
49:55
even of my index finger, like not even really on the ball, just
50:00
really trying to get that when I throw it, just give that little turn
50:06
to kind of shift the access into where I want to. And sometimes I
50:12
mean I've had somewhere it's still around ninety where like how I normally throw it,
50:17
but just I maybe get an extra turn on it and it takes off,
50:22
and I was, man, why can I throw that one more?
50:30
What's the curveball or the sweeper? Yeah, so the curveball just typical kind
50:37
of if these were the two seams, I just go along with the two
50:40
seam, spike it and then I kind of put my thumb more directly behind
50:46
it, just kind of get it out of the way when it turns over.
50:52
And then the sweeper is also on the two seams, So if we're
50:55
just on the two seams here, I take the index fingers still this I
51:00
am kind of trying in one that I learned, move it on the outside
51:05
of the two seams and do this kind of baby spike to it in a
51:09
way. And then I was watching a recent video of Bauer in Mexico talking
51:17
to one of his teammates on how he throws his and so lately I've been
51:22
just putting a lot of focus on pressure on the index finger actually, so
51:28
it's not as much as like the cutter, how I have almost all pressure
51:31
on the middle finger. But I do put a little extra focus on the
51:36
index finger just for really being able to kind of push it as I kind
51:44
of let it spend. So I think it's helped just kind of focus more
51:50
on getting here rather than I mean sometimes just trying to throw like a fastballt
51:54
get more here starts to gyre a little bit, doesn't get as much sweet
52:00
kind of like what we talked about a little bit in the off season when
52:02
I when we had talked about it. So I think here just gives that
52:07
extra focus of staying on it a little bit longer and giving it more of
52:12
that three o'clock rotation, which is super important to get just from kind of
52:17
where my arm slot is. Yeah, that's great. I love those are
52:22
those are great grips, really good insight. Well, we won't take too
52:24
much more of your time, but I'd love to hear a little bit more
52:28
about some of your routines, like what is what is your throwing and lifting
52:31
look like in between starts. Yeah, so I mean I think you can
52:37
maybe I test a little bit to it. I used to throw a ton
52:42
in between, in between starts and in every aspect in a way. I
52:52
mean, I remember in the past bullpens, I'd throw twenty five to up
52:58
to thirty sometimes, and then pregame I would throw a bunch, throw a
53:06
bunch on the mound, and then throw probably around twenty five pitches as well
53:10
in the pre game bullpen. So I've dialed back on that a ton,
53:16
you know, and a lot of big part of that it's talking with our
53:20
new pitching coach with the Orioles, Drew French during spring training when I was
53:24
in Big League camp and he had he had talked a little bit about just
53:29
sping around, you know, guys who have been All Stars in the past.
53:37
And so now I've dialed it back to where the day after in my
53:43
light days, I keep pretty light where I almost like I'll do bands,
53:49
warm up the arm a little bit, but I pretty much won't do much
53:52
playouts. I'll do super light throwing, I won't really let anything go,
53:59
just kind of move the arm basically like a day before. I'll extend it
54:06
a little bit more, but that's just kind of doing maybe a couple of
54:12
playout drills just for the next day, kind of getting the feel of stuff,
54:17
and then like bullpen days, I try to stay a little bit higher
54:24
with the intent on bullpen days just because in games you're going to be moving
54:29
pretty fast. But I kind of lowered the quantity down to where I'm only
54:32
throwing really fifteen or so pitches in a bullpen throughout the week and not really
54:40
overly prioritizing, you know, how good of a bullpen it is. I'm
54:45
really just trying to if there's something I'm working working on, making sure that
54:50
I get that down. But then at the same time, it's just trying
54:55
to prepare for the start, you know. I always took I think a
55:00
big part of bullpens being like like I had to throw a good bullpen,
55:06
like I need like things got to be whatever. But you don't get outs
55:09
in bullpens. And you know French too, so he I think he was
55:15
the assistant with the Braves the years and years before. So I actually threw
55:22
against the Braves at the Braves place in spring training and he made the introduction
55:30
to Max Freed for me, which was really cool. Someone that you know,
55:35
I get compared to all the time, and someone I had started watching
55:37
a bunch in college, and you know, talking to him, a bunch
55:43
of it was, you know, like your job and the goal is just
55:46
to get out and it doesn't really matter how and you know, kind of
55:51
taking that into a week you're not getting outs in a bullpen, You're you're
55:57
working on stuff, but you're also trying to maximize how you feel going into
56:04
your next start, and so kind of taking that role on, you know,
56:09
not making it anything too crazy or getting too up or down about how
56:15
bullpen goes leading into your start, which has helped me, I think in
56:24
preparedness then also just readiness and feel for that start. You know, I
56:30
don't feel overworked throughout the week. But then as far as lifting goes,
56:35
I try and go obviously, like depending on where we're at, it's in
56:39
some places. In some cases it makes it a little more difficult to have
56:45
it exactly. But day after a start I try and go lower body,
56:49
pretty heavy and intense with that lift, and then a bullpen day I'll do
56:54
kind of more of an upper upper body lift, and then usually the day
56:59
after or that is more of a lower body but kind of a light I
57:05
guess, more explosive end lower body workout, and then maybe the day before
57:12
start, I'll do just like a recovery lift where I'm just kind of moving
57:17
everything, making sure nothing has like tightened up over the course of lifting or
57:28
the course of the week, and just making sure my body feels one hundred
57:32
percent ready or I mean, there's not a lot of times you're fully one
57:37
hundred percent going to starts, but it's close to one hundred percent going into
57:40
the start, going into the night to where I can be well arrested,
57:45
well recovered, and ready to go for the next day. Yeah, it
57:50
sounds like you've just done a really good job of learning yourself of doing enough
57:54
to feel like you're recovering and fully prepared. But you're not overdoing it.
58:00
You're just beating yourself up during the week because I'm sure as you're figuring out,
58:02
especially being on like a five man rotation, like you have less time
58:06
to recover. So the more you're doing stuff to tacks the body between outings,
58:09
like over the course of twenty five to thirty starts in a season,
58:13
like you're you're gonna be a lot more beat up. So it sounds like
58:15
there's been a lot of maturity and kind of learning what works for you,
58:20
you know, over the last couple of years, which is great. How
58:22
does that change for you during the off season, Like, are you a
58:24
guy that likes to take a lot of time off from throwing, or are
58:28
you throwing pretty much year round? Kind of just give us like a quick,
58:31
you know, rundown of like what an off season would look like for
58:34
you. Yeah, I know that's been kind of, I guess, a
58:38
hot topic recently just with everybody how many guys have gone down so far this
58:44
year unfortunately. But the way I've looked at it, I think just starting
58:52
with basically, I can't remember what I did really in college and what those
58:59
off seasons look like. But I know after my after getting drafted and kind
59:04
of the first being able to plan the first few or the last few weeks
59:09
of low way and then we had like instructs and whatnot. I know,
59:14
I remember after that getting somewhat of or not somewhat it was pretty detailed like
59:21
offseason plan just as far as like ramping up for next year and whatnot,
59:30
and kind of also doing a little bit of my own research. Like I
59:35
think it's good after the season, especially now playing so many games to take
59:43
a couple of weeks off just for the arm, for the body, just
59:47
for everything in general. So far, over the past couple of years,
59:52
basically once our season ends, I won't Last year I did go. I
59:58
went to tread to throw kind an exit pen. But after that, pretty
1:00:02
much two weeks no baseball, no lifting, just kind of enjoy life for
1:00:09
those two weeks, because I mean, the offseason is a lot of work,
1:00:14
and I'd like to take those two weeks. But outside of that,
1:00:20
I don't really like taking much other much more time, you know, just
1:00:23
the research I've done and whatnot. I don't want the ligaments and stuff and
1:00:31
the muscles to tighten up, and you know, they've been stretched out and
1:00:38
stretched and worked on for a whole season and you know, staying healthy.
1:00:44
You don't want them to tighten up and then trying to ramp up again.
1:00:47
So I try and get back to throwing. Nothing crazy, though, I
1:00:52
think for the first two or three weeks it's literally Monday, Wednesday Friday of
1:01:01
super light ploo work. You know. I prefer to do them off the
1:01:06
mound, just to feel the slope as much as possible, especially in the
1:01:08
off season, but a lot of it is super light, working on maybe
1:01:15
some mechanics stuff during them, but not really doing any throwing or stuff anything
1:01:21
like that. Afterwards until the third week, I start kind of implementing a
1:01:29
little bit more throwing until we ramp it up the four times a week and
1:01:35
then progress into more of a full full week schedule, and throughout that I
1:01:42
try and lift four times a week as well, just trying to put up
1:01:49
on as much muscle as possible. I think those five six weeks when the
1:01:55
throwing is light, it's really important to make the weight room extremely heavy,
1:02:04
just in the aspect that you know, your focus for the majority of the
1:02:07
years is on throwing and making sure everything feels good, feels right. So
1:02:15
when it's that time where that's not really the main focus, that's kind of
1:02:20
when the weight room has been a big focus. And that's where I've seen,
1:02:24
you know, my biggest gains going into when we've really started ramping up
1:02:29
the throwing and putting a radar gun back there, whether it's you know,
1:02:32
compression throws or doing some getting some readings on some playoffs and whatnot, that's
1:02:42
great. Before we go, I know, Josh, you might have a
1:02:45
couple quick hitters. But this is this has been really great, Really appreciate
1:02:50
the time. Kad. Do you have a couple of thoughts Josh that you
1:02:52
want to finish with? No, maybe just one last question. So when
1:03:00
you're on the mound, what are the couple things that you're thinking about every
1:03:04
pitch. Yeah, the biggest thing for me has been just to execute the
1:03:09
pitch. You know, for the most part, my catcher has a good
1:03:16
plan. We've got cards and stuff that give a good plan of what's going
1:03:22
to give the best positive possibility of getting the better out. And for the
1:03:28
most part, I roll with that unless I kind of have a plan in
1:03:31
my head on if I saw something in the swing or something feeling is feeling
1:03:37
really good in that situation that I want to throw it. But for the
1:03:39
most part, the biggest thing has just been the thought process of just execute
1:03:45
this pitch, whether there's runners on, kind of like I said in earlier,
1:03:51
you know, that's the only thing I can control is whether or not
1:03:53
this pitch is executed, and everything else is out of my hands. And
1:04:00
you know, I've also I've learned more this year with the pitch clock in
1:04:04
the past. You know, I throw a couple of balls, and there's
1:04:08
really no reset, just in the fact that you're so worried about the clock
1:04:14
and getting a violation and whatnot. But a big thing with this year too
1:04:19
has been, you know, throw a few balls in a row, or
1:04:23
don't execute on a few pitches in a row, being able to step off
1:04:27
the back of the mount kind of look at the right field foul pool,
1:04:31
just regain that focus back and take a deep breath and be like, all
1:04:34
right, let's execute this next one and get back into it. Awesome,
1:04:42
sounds good. That was great before we let you go. How can people
1:04:45
get in contact with you? If a player has a question or wants to
1:04:48
follow you onlinehe where's the best way to follow you? Yeah, I would
1:04:53
say Instagram, just at Kate Povich. You know, I know we've talked
1:05:00
about Twitter too. I guess a little bit can work. I actually,
1:05:08
I know we talked about that. I had started kind of my own pitching
1:05:13
page as well, But funny enough, I ended up before the season started,
1:05:17
basically deleting Twitter from my phone and iPad and everything. But I'll go
1:05:24
on like Safari and go on Twitter here and there just to stay up on
1:05:29
you know, a bunch of just different pitching stuff if I'm curious and whatnot.
1:05:33
So I would say best chance is probably Instagram, but maybe I'll go
1:05:40
on Twitter once every now and then, and at CPO twenty two I might
1:05:48
be on there sometimes too. Perfect. Awesome, man, Well, really
1:05:54
appreciate your time. I know we took up a lot of your time.
1:05:56
Just appreciate you sharing the stories and just the details of your process. Think
1:06:00
is going to help a lot of players out there. So thank you,
1:06:02
dude. Yeah, no, this was great. I appreciate you guys having
1:06:05
me appreciate it being the first guest. But no, this is awesome.
1:06:12
I'm glad I was able to be a part of it.