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What to Do if You Aren't Getting Playing Time · The Mound Visit

0:10
Speaker 1: All right, we are finally live again. It has been
0:14
Speaker 1: a long time since I've done an episode. I was
0:16
Speaker 1: looking back to see when the last time was, and
0:19
Speaker 1: it was much further back than I remembered. It's saying
0:23
Speaker 1: that the last episode I came out with was on
0:25
Speaker 1: November thirteenth of twenty twenty four, so it's been a
0:28
Speaker 1: long time coming. I have wanted to get this podcast
0:32
Speaker 1: up and running again because number one, I think it
0:36
Speaker 1: hopefully provides some value and it's just another avenue for
0:40
Speaker 1: coaches and players to consume pitching development content, you know,
0:45
Speaker 1: whether it's social media or through podcasts. I think podcasts
0:48
Speaker 1: are a great way to learn. That's how I like
0:51
Speaker 1: to learn. I listen to podcasts all the time while
0:53
Speaker 1: I'm driving. So have wanted to bring this back for
0:57
Speaker 1: you guys, just to provide another avenue and for you
1:00
Speaker 1: to consume some content. So today is going to be
1:05
Speaker 1: kind of uh, I don't want to say random, but
1:06
Speaker 1: I'm going to kind of bounce around from from topic
1:09
Speaker 1: to topic a little bit, just some things that have
1:11
Speaker 1: been on my mind, and with us being in season
1:13
Speaker 1: specifically and me having a lot of dialogue with my
1:16
Speaker 1: clientele this time of year and checking in to see
1:19
Speaker 1: how their seasons are going, how they're feeling, you know,
1:21
Speaker 1: what are you know, what's going well, what's not going well,
1:24
Speaker 1: and how can I be of support during this time
1:26
Speaker 1: of year because you know, as a as a private coach,
1:30
Speaker 1: this is the time of year where you know, you
1:33
Speaker 1: got to be I don't want to say that we're careful,
1:35
Speaker 1: but you know, they they potentially have a lot of
1:37
Speaker 1: voices in their heads right now. Right they got their
1:40
Speaker 1: their school coaches right now that they're with day in
1:43
Speaker 1: and day out, they have their private coach. In some cases,
1:46
Speaker 1: parents are heavily involved with what they're saying. So I
1:49
Speaker 1: like to be aware of that and understand, you know,
1:52
Speaker 1: who's in their ear right now, what are they saying,
1:56
Speaker 1: and making sure that the kid understands what's most important
2:00
Speaker 1: for them to succeed at this moment and and really
2:04
Speaker 1: what to listen to and what to sort of ignore.
2:07
Speaker 1: And my goal is to be you know, a resource,
2:11
Speaker 1: in a positive resource, I should say, for my clients.
2:14
Speaker 1: And you know, I have a lot of kids that
2:17
Speaker 1: are freshmen in college this year, so they're you know,
2:20
Speaker 1: they're going through the college baseball experience for the first time,
2:23
Speaker 1: and quite frankly, for a lot of them, they're getting
2:25
Speaker 1: less playing time than what they're used to. They're coming
2:28
Speaker 1: off of their senior year of high school where they
2:31
Speaker 1: were pitching a lot of innings, whether they were, you know,
2:33
Speaker 1: one of the main starters or a big bullpen piece,
2:35
Speaker 1: whatever it might be, and now they're they're seeing themselves
2:40
Speaker 1: as being one of the last guys called out of
2:42
Speaker 1: the bullpen if they're pitching at all, and it can
2:44
Speaker 1: be frustrating number one, and then number two, it can
2:48
Speaker 1: cause players to lose confidence in themselves. So my goal
2:52
Speaker 1: when I get that type of feedback from players and
2:55
Speaker 1: they're telling me what's going on and it's related to
2:58
Speaker 1: to not playing, is I liked to ask questions just
3:01
Speaker 1: to get them thinking, get them to understand, you know,
3:03
Speaker 1: what is the coach possibly thinking, what does he see
3:06
Speaker 1: as reasons for maybe why you're not pitching, And then
3:09
Speaker 1: most importantly, for them to focus on the things that
3:11
Speaker 1: they have control over, because at the end of the day,
3:14
Speaker 1: you're not the coach. You aren't the one that's making
3:17
Speaker 1: the call on whether you're going to go in or
3:19
Speaker 1: not go in. But what you do have control over
3:21
Speaker 1: is how you show up every day, Are you showing
3:24
Speaker 1: up with just as much energy and excitement to get
3:27
Speaker 1: better that day and to support your teammates if you
3:31
Speaker 1: were the star player who is starting every Friday, or
3:35
Speaker 1: you're the guy that's the last pitcher called out of
3:37
Speaker 1: the bullpen, now that is extremely hard to do. It
3:39
Speaker 1: is nobody likes to be at the bottom of the
3:43
Speaker 1: total pole. Nobody likes to not be pitching. But when
3:45
Speaker 1: you're in that position, how do you respond to it?
3:48
Speaker 1: How do you react to that situation, because that's going
3:51
Speaker 1: to reveal a lot about who you are as a person,
3:54
Speaker 1: in your character as well as how bad do you
3:56
Speaker 1: actually want this? How bad do you want to improve
3:59
Speaker 1: and be ready when your name is called upon? And
4:02
Speaker 1: I always tell players you never know when you're gonna
4:05
Speaker 1: get that opportunity. You never know if tomorrow is finally
4:09
Speaker 1: going to be the game where the coach decides, you
4:11
Speaker 1: know what, I'm gonna give you, you know, an inning
4:13
Speaker 1: today and we're gonna see what you got. And the
4:16
Speaker 1: kids that you know are constantly complaining and moping because
4:20
Speaker 1: they're not playing. They're usually the ones that aren't putting
4:24
Speaker 1: in the extra work or staying ready when their name
4:26
Speaker 1: finally is called. And if their name finally does get
4:28
Speaker 1: called and they don't perform, and then of course we
4:32
Speaker 1: know what happens after that. They're probably not going to
4:34
Speaker 1: get another opportunity for the rest of that season because
4:37
Speaker 1: they are already at the bottom, and then when they
4:39
Speaker 1: finally got a chance, they weren't ready. So once again,
4:42
Speaker 1: I like to get kids to control the controllables and
4:45
Speaker 1: what are those things? The things that I've control over
4:47
Speaker 1: is how I show up every day. It's the work
4:49
Speaker 1: that I consistently put in day in and day out,
4:51
Speaker 1: and then it's simply just being ready when my name
4:53
Speaker 1: is called. And I know it's hard to do that.
4:56
Speaker 1: I've been in those situations a couple of times as
4:58
Speaker 1: a player where you know you're near the bottom of
5:00
Speaker 1: the list, and there's a little bit of added pressure
5:03
Speaker 1: when you finally do get your name called on because
5:06
Speaker 1: you understand that, Okay, I haven't had very many opportunities
5:09
Speaker 1: to this point, and if I don't do well today,
5:12
Speaker 1: I'm probably not going to get another one. So then
5:14
Speaker 1: that that pressure snowballs and builds upon itself, and then
5:17
Speaker 1: I'm not pitching freely. I'm not pitching with confidence. I'm
5:21
Speaker 1: essentially pitching trying to place the ball on the zone
5:27
Speaker 1: or I'm trying to force good things to happen, and
5:29
Speaker 1: we know when we do that, usually bad things happen.
5:32
Speaker 1: So I really put a big focus on the mindset
5:36
Speaker 1: with players that are in this situation and really try
5:40
Speaker 1: to help them stay ready, help them continue to prepare
5:44
Speaker 1: themselves the best way they can for when they get
5:47
Speaker 1: that opportunity, because you know, you can't do everything possible
5:52
Speaker 1: to be ready for that game situation because nothing replicates
5:54
Speaker 1: the game completely. But there are definitely some things that
5:57
Speaker 1: you can do, and one of them would be, you know,
6:00
Speaker 1: touching the mound frequently. The last thing you want to
6:02
Speaker 1: do is go two weeks without touching the mound and
6:04
Speaker 1: then you finally get your name called upon, which I
6:06
Speaker 1: have seen happen because I'll hear kids say, well we
6:10
Speaker 1: have You know, we have a game today and there's
6:11
Speaker 1: a chance that I'm going to pitch, so I want
6:13
Speaker 1: to make sure that I'm fresh and that I'm not
6:15
Speaker 1: throwing a bullpen the day before or whatever it might be.
6:18
Speaker 1: But if you keep playing that game, then you're never
6:20
Speaker 1: going to throw your bullpen because you're always thinking that
6:22
Speaker 1: you're going to pitch that day. So what I like
6:25
Speaker 1: to do, just a general rule of thumb for my guys,
6:27
Speaker 1: is every every three days that you don't pitch, you
6:31
Speaker 1: need to touch the mount in some capacity. And it
6:33
Speaker 1: doesn't need to be a lot. The volume is low,
6:35
Speaker 1: the intensity is low. The key is just being on
6:38
Speaker 1: the mound frequently so that you don't lose feeling for
6:40
Speaker 1: the slope. It can be as simple as throwing eight
6:43
Speaker 1: to ten pitches. You know, maybe it's even half of
6:44
Speaker 1: them are just breaking balls because you want to get
6:46
Speaker 1: feel for you know, for your curve. Maybe you've lost
6:48
Speaker 1: feeling for it over the last week or so and
6:50
Speaker 1: you just want to get some reps with it. That's
6:52
Speaker 1: perfectly fine. That's one thing that is a big difference
6:55
Speaker 1: between say pro pitchers and amateur pitchers is pro guys
6:59
Speaker 1: they are touching the mound constantly as relief pitchers. I mean,
7:02
Speaker 1: I've had some guys that are touching a borderline too
7:04
Speaker 1: much to where it's almost every single day. But there's
7:07
Speaker 1: guys that they just get into that routine. They understand
7:09
Speaker 1: the intensity they need to be at, in the volume
7:11
Speaker 1: they need to be at, to where they can throw
7:13
Speaker 1: on the mound but also still be fresh for even
7:15
Speaker 1: that same day, if not the next day. So that
7:19
Speaker 1: is one of the biggest things that guys need to
7:20
Speaker 1: do that aren't pitching a lot is you've got to
7:22
Speaker 1: make sure that you are touching the mound frequently, at
7:25
Speaker 1: a minimum every three days, just to stay fresh. And
7:28
Speaker 1: then if possible, I know some programs will do this,
7:31
Speaker 1: and a lot of this is out of your control
7:33
Speaker 1: as a player if the coach doesn't set it up.
7:35
Speaker 1: But to have a day once a week where you
7:38
Speaker 1: are able to throw live to batters, and that's usually
7:41
Speaker 1: going to be on and off day. You know, maybe
7:42
Speaker 1: it's a Monday where you don't have a game till Wednesday,
7:46
Speaker 1: or even on the weekend if there's not a mid
7:47
Speaker 1: weekend that week to where you know you can throw
7:49
Speaker 1: to five or six batters so you can get you know,
7:52
Speaker 1: feedback from the batters as well as just feeling comfortable
7:54
Speaker 1: throwing to a hitter in the box, because that's the
7:56
Speaker 1: next big step. When you're just throwing bullpens all the
7:58
Speaker 1: time at eight to ten pitches, low volume, you finally
8:01
Speaker 1: get in a game three weeks later, it's obviously a
8:03
Speaker 1: different environment. It's a different feeling having a batter in
8:06
Speaker 1: the box, and the more that you can get comfortable
8:08
Speaker 1: with that, the better. So that's a message for coaches
8:12
Speaker 1: as well, where if you have a handful of pitchers
8:15
Speaker 1: that just aren't pitching much for you, you got to
8:17
Speaker 1: try to find one day a week where they can
8:19
Speaker 1: throw to hitters so that they can stay fresh when
8:21
Speaker 1: they finally do get that opportunity. And I would be
8:24
Speaker 1: willing to bet that you probably have some hitters that
8:25
Speaker 1: need at bats as well, whether it's hitters that aren't
8:28
Speaker 1: playing a lot, or you have a guy that's struggling
8:30
Speaker 1: and you just want to get him some extra reps,
8:32
Speaker 1: or a hitter coming back from an injury, whatever it
8:35
Speaker 1: might be, there's usually situations where a hitter is going
8:39
Speaker 1: to need some extra at bats. So that's that's the
8:42
Speaker 1: first thing that I would say, like that is the
8:45
Speaker 1: main message I try to portray to players that I
8:48
Speaker 1: work with that aren't pitching a lot. And I actually
8:51
Speaker 1: have had, you know, several players to this point that
8:53
Speaker 1: I've had similar conversations with about this regards to playing
8:57
Speaker 1: time and feeling like they should be getting opportunities they're not,
9:00
Speaker 1: and we've we've really tried to attack this, this focus
9:04
Speaker 1: of being ready when your name is called and doing
9:07
Speaker 1: everything in your control rather than focusing on the external things,
9:11
Speaker 1: the things that are out of your control, like the
9:13
Speaker 1: coach deciding who's going to pitch, because if you play
9:15
Speaker 1: that game, it's going to drive you nuts and it's
9:17
Speaker 1: really not going to accomplish anything. And you know, funny enough,
9:20
Speaker 1: I had a kid earlier today text me saying, hey, coach,
9:25
Speaker 1: I finally got an opportunity, and I ended up going
9:28
Speaker 1: five innings of relief and gave up one run and
9:31
Speaker 1: got the win in the game. This was a pitcher
9:33
Speaker 1: that to this point had only thrown I think about
9:35
Speaker 1: two innings. He had two opportunities this year, two innings,
9:39
Speaker 1: hadn't pitched for a couple of weeks. The starting pitcher
9:42
Speaker 1: just did not have it. I think he said he
9:44
Speaker 1: walked like the first three batters of the game they got.
9:47
Speaker 1: You know this kid that I worked with hot, he
9:48
Speaker 1: went in through five innings, one run, got the win.
9:52
Speaker 1: And now I can guarantee that kid is going to
9:54
Speaker 1: get another opportunity the second that he's ready to bounce
9:56
Speaker 1: back for that five innings because the coach now has
10:00
Speaker 1: some confidence in him. He saw what he was able
10:02
Speaker 1: to do. They came back, they won the game yesterday.
10:05
Speaker 1: So like those are the moments that I'm talking about.
10:08
Speaker 1: You never know when that chance is gonna come. It
10:10
Speaker 1: could come literally, just like that's where the coaches are like,
10:13
Speaker 1: you know what, let's give him a shot, right the
10:15
Speaker 1: starter isn't doesn't have it today. Let's give this kid
10:17
Speaker 1: a chance and see what he can do. And he
10:20
Speaker 1: ran with it, and funny enough, it was almost the
10:23
Speaker 1: exact situation that happened to me my freshman year of college.
10:27
Speaker 1: My freshman year, I was the opening day starter at
10:32
Speaker 1: my juco Southount Community College. I did absolutely awful. I
10:35
Speaker 1: think I went like an inning and a third and
10:37
Speaker 1: gave up I want to say, seven runs. Like it
10:39
Speaker 1: was brutal. I did so bad that after being the
10:42
Speaker 1: opening day starter, I went and went to the bullpen
10:44
Speaker 1: right after that start and became a reliever for most
10:48
Speaker 1: of the season after that. And the guy that came
10:50
Speaker 1: in relief after me that game in that opening day,
10:53
Speaker 1: he went I think four innings of relief or something,
10:55
Speaker 1: did really good. I don't remember if we won the
10:57
Speaker 1: game or not, but he pitched really well and took
10:59
Speaker 1: my spot in the starting rotation. Next game rolls around
11:03
Speaker 1: where that kid ends up starting. You know, four or
11:05
Speaker 1: five games later, they brought me in out of the bullpen.
11:08
Speaker 1: So they gave me a chance out of the bullpen
11:10
Speaker 1: to see what I could do. I was first in
11:11
Speaker 1: relief after him had another bat outing. I think I
11:14
Speaker 1: went one inning, gave up a couple of runs, and
11:17
Speaker 1: mentally I had no confidence. Right, these are my first
11:19
Speaker 1: two games of my college career and they were horrible.
11:23
Speaker 1: And after that game it was at least two weeks
11:27
Speaker 1: before I pitched it again. I want to say it
11:28
Speaker 1: might have even been three games. And I remember, I
11:31
Speaker 1: remember this like it was yesterday. Starting pitcher is doing awful,
11:36
Speaker 1: can't throw strikes, he's getting hit. It's the second inning
11:39
Speaker 1: and there's like nobody out in the second inning, and
11:41
Speaker 1: I literally remember my head coach looks at me and
11:43
Speaker 1: basically says, well, we got nothing to lose, gain or
11:46
Speaker 1: go get hot. So I go and get hot. Come
11:49
Speaker 1: in the game. Have I think I gave up one
11:51
Speaker 1: run in my first inning. I came into the third inning,
11:54
Speaker 1: gave up like two hits, gave up a run, but
11:56
Speaker 1: you know, we're down I think six to zero at
11:58
Speaker 1: this point, so I rolled back out for the next
12:00
Speaker 1: have a one two three inning. Go back. After the
12:02
Speaker 1: next inning, one two three inning. I ended up pitching
12:04
Speaker 1: into the ninth inning that game, going like six what
12:07
Speaker 1: would have been like six innings out of the bullpen.
12:10
Speaker 1: We end up coming back winning eight to six against
12:12
Speaker 1: Central Arizona, who was the number one JUCO in the
12:14
Speaker 1: country at the time. So two things happened because of
12:18
Speaker 1: that game. The first one is the coach obviously got
12:20
Speaker 1: confidence in me after that game because I came in relief,
12:24
Speaker 1: did really well against a great juco, and he now
12:27
Speaker 1: had belief and saw that I could do it. The
12:30
Speaker 1: second thing that happened was those exact thoughts now were
12:33
Speaker 1: in my mind. I now had confidence that I could
12:35
Speaker 1: do anything because I just showed that I could beat
12:38
Speaker 1: the number one JUCO in the country. I knew that
12:40
Speaker 1: there was no one in our league that I couldn't
12:43
Speaker 1: perform well against. Whether that was true or not mentality wise,
12:46
Speaker 1: because I had just proven it to myself, I now
12:48
Speaker 1: felt more confident than ever to go out and pitch
12:51
Speaker 1: in any situation that the coach wanted to put me
12:53
Speaker 1: in and I ended up being one of the main
12:55
Speaker 1: relievers the rest of the year and led the team
12:57
Speaker 1: in appearances that year. And that was after not pitching
13:01
Speaker 1: for almost three weeks during the season because my first
13:03
Speaker 1: two outings were so bad. So that's that's the mindset
13:07
Speaker 1: shift that you have to have as a player. You
13:09
Speaker 1: never know when that opportunity is going to come, but
13:11
Speaker 1: you have to be ready for it because you might
13:13
Speaker 1: only get one other opportunity. If I would have gone
13:16
Speaker 1: into that outing, that third outing after not pitching for
13:18
Speaker 1: three weeks and did horrible again, I honestly probably don't
13:21
Speaker 1: pitch again the rest of the season unless we're up
13:23
Speaker 1: ten zero or down ten zero, and my whole season changes, right.
13:27
Speaker 1: I go from, you know, maybe only throwing five six
13:30
Speaker 1: innings on the year to end up throwing fifty five
13:33
Speaker 1: as a freshman that I did that year, and it
13:35
Speaker 1: literally all came down to just being ready for opportunities.
13:38
Speaker 1: So that's my message for players that are in that position,
13:41
Speaker 1: is you never know when it's going to come, and
13:43
Speaker 1: you just got to be ready for that opportunity. Okay,
13:45
Speaker 1: So that's the first thing I wanted to touch on today.
13:48
Speaker 1: The next thing I want to talk about is another
13:50
Speaker 1: situation that I've had with a couple of clients, and
13:53
Speaker 1: that is you're pitching a lot, but you don't feel
13:56
Speaker 1: like you're pitching well. At least you don't think you're
13:58
Speaker 1: pitching well based off of C metrics, and you're putting
14:02
Speaker 1: too much stock in a small sample size. So I
14:04
Speaker 1: wrote about this a couple of weeks ago. I had
14:07
Speaker 1: a tweet about this. I have a remote client who is,
14:10
Speaker 1: you know, one of the main starters at his college.
14:13
Speaker 1: He's the Friday guy, and through two starts, in my mind,
14:17
Speaker 1: he's done pretty good two starts. He had thrown nine innings,
14:21
Speaker 1: had fifteen strikeouts, three walks, and three runs. He had
14:24
Speaker 1: a three RA through that. But he was hunt up
14:27
Speaker 1: on one specific stat and that was his batting average against.
14:31
Speaker 1: His bat average against I forget what it was. It
14:33
Speaker 1: was over three hundred, or at least close to three.
14:36
Speaker 1: It might not even done three hundred. It was two ninety.
14:37
Speaker 1: Maybe he had given up ten hits in nine innings.
14:40
Speaker 1: And he was like, I don't understand what's going on.
14:43
Speaker 1: I'm giving up all these hits even though you know,
14:45
Speaker 1: my stuff feels better. I'm throwing more strikes. I'm doing
14:48
Speaker 1: all these things well, but I'm giving up way more
14:50
Speaker 1: hits than I did last year. He's like, last year,
14:52
Speaker 1: I had a one seventy three opponent batting average and
14:55
Speaker 1: I had a two eight ERA. So the first thing
14:59
Speaker 1: I said to was this. I said, you have thrown
15:02
Speaker 1: nine innings. You have had two starts this season. Your
15:06
Speaker 1: sample size is nowhere near where it needs to be
15:09
Speaker 1: for us to put stock in a stat like batting
15:11
Speaker 1: average against, because nine innings and the grand scheme of
15:14
Speaker 1: things is nothing. We're talking about comparing it to a
15:16
Speaker 1: year the year before where he threw fifty five to
15:18
Speaker 1: sixty innings. Where okay, fifty five six innings, that's a
15:21
Speaker 1: decent sample size. We can start to look at numbers
15:24
Speaker 1: a little bit more seriously. But when you've made two
15:26
Speaker 1: starts less than ten innings, frankly, with some of those
15:29
Speaker 1: resulting in its stats, I'm not worried about them at all,
15:32
Speaker 1: because we just haven't pitched enough to this point. But
15:35
Speaker 1: I said, you know what, Okay, let's I'll play the game.
15:38
Speaker 1: I'll dive into this and I'll show you that despite
15:40
Speaker 1: you giving up ten hits, you are pitching considerably better
15:43
Speaker 1: right now. I said, you know what, let's start with
15:46
Speaker 1: your strikeouts and your walk numbers, because going into this season,
15:50
Speaker 1: our main focus was for you to throw more strikes.
15:53
Speaker 1: The previous year, he had thrown fifty five innings with
15:56
Speaker 1: thirty seven walks. That's a sixteen percent walk rate Bigley gaverage,
16:00
Speaker 1: which is eight percent. College average is about eleven point
16:02
Speaker 1: nine percent, So compared to college and compared to pro
16:05
Speaker 1: his walk rate was through the roof. It was really
16:07
Speaker 1: really high. So I was like, okay, so last year
16:10
Speaker 1: you were at sixteen percent walk rate. You know what
16:12
Speaker 1: your walk rate is right now? With three walks and
16:14
Speaker 1: nine innings, you are at a seven point five percent
16:17
Speaker 1: walk rate. You are better, way better than a college
16:19
Speaker 1: hours walk rate, and you're even better than the average
16:21
Speaker 1: big league walk rate right now. So the main focus
16:23
Speaker 1: that we had coming into this season was to throw
16:26
Speaker 1: more strikes and to walk less batters. And guess what
16:29
Speaker 1: you are doing exactly that. And I said, not only
16:32
Speaker 1: are you throwing more strikes and walking less guys, you're
16:35
Speaker 1: actually striking out more guys too. Last year you had
16:38
Speaker 1: sixty nine strikeouts and fifty five innings, which is phenomenal,
16:40
Speaker 1: really really good. He had a thirty percent strikeout rate.
16:43
Speaker 1: College average is twenty percent, big League average is twenty
16:45
Speaker 1: two percent. So his k rate was phenomenal. He said,
16:48
Speaker 1: right now, with fifteen k's and nine innings, based on
16:51
Speaker 1: batter's faced you have a thirty seven percent k rate.
16:55
Speaker 1: You have a thirty seven percent k rate and a
16:57
Speaker 1: seven point five percent walk rate. I said, I'm not
17:00
Speaker 1: calling you Trek Scouble, but that's what Terrek Schoubl's numbers
17:03
Speaker 1: look like. His walk rate might be a little bit lower,
17:05
Speaker 1: but that's literally the best picture on the planet. Him
17:10
Speaker 1: and Paul Skins is also there, Garrett Crochet, you know
17:13
Speaker 1: the top pitches from last year. Those are the type
17:14
Speaker 1: of numbers they're putting up. They're striking out north of
17:16
Speaker 1: thirty percent batters and they're walking seven percent or less batters.
17:20
Speaker 1: So from the two numbers that I personally care about
17:23
Speaker 1: the most, your ability to miss miss bats or limit
17:25
Speaker 1: damage and not give up free bases, you are crushing
17:29
Speaker 1: it in those two categories. So I said, we could
17:31
Speaker 1: literally stop right there, and I would say, if you
17:33
Speaker 1: keep doing that over the course of a season, and
17:35
Speaker 1: you throw sixty innings doing that, I promise you your stats
17:38
Speaker 1: are going to be good. And I said, but let's
17:41
Speaker 1: go a little bit further and we can talk a
17:42
Speaker 1: little bit about why I think you're giving up more
17:44
Speaker 1: hits right now. I said, well, first of all, what
17:47
Speaker 1: are the hits that you're giving up. You've given up
17:49
Speaker 1: ten hits. How many home runs have you given up?
17:51
Speaker 1: He said, I've given up zero home runs. I said, okay,
17:53
Speaker 1: how many doubles have you given up? And I think
17:55
Speaker 1: he said he had given up three doubles. At that point,
17:57
Speaker 1: I said, do you remember what those doubles were? Can
17:58
Speaker 1: you describe them to me? And he said one of
18:01
Speaker 1: them was an opposite field flare over the first baseman
18:04
Speaker 1: said another one was a ground ball down the line,
18:06
Speaker 1: and then he said one was a double in the gap.
18:09
Speaker 1: So I said, okay, so we can give you know,
18:11
Speaker 1: firm credit to the one in the gap, right, but
18:13
Speaker 1: a bloop double in a ground ball double down the line,
18:17
Speaker 1: so what it happens? Right? And even even the double
18:20
Speaker 1: in the gap that happens, you've still shown the ability
18:22
Speaker 1: to limit damage even when you digive those extra bay states,
18:24
Speaker 1: because you've only given up three runs through two starts. Anyways,
18:27
Speaker 1: So I said, that's the first thing, dude, Like, not
18:30
Speaker 1: all contact is created equal, and when it's a small
18:33
Speaker 1: sample size like this, there's really no reason to stress
18:37
Speaker 1: and worry about how many hits you've given up. And
18:39
Speaker 1: I said, the second thing that's happening right now is
18:42
Speaker 1: you are throwing more strikes. Right when we throw more strikes,
18:46
Speaker 1: batters are going to be more pronusween the bat because
18:48
Speaker 1: you are proven that you are in zone and they
18:51
Speaker 1: have to be aggressive because you're being aggressive in the zone.
18:54
Speaker 1: Last year, you weren't throwing a lot of strikes. Were
18:57
Speaker 1: you had a lot of true outcomes where you were
18:59
Speaker 1: either striking them out or you were walking them. So
19:01
Speaker 1: hitters were going to be more passive until you've got
19:03
Speaker 1: in a head counts. As a result, you got less swings,
19:07
Speaker 1: which means less balls put in play, which means less hits.
19:11
Speaker 1: Right now, because you're throwing more strikes, they're going to
19:13
Speaker 1: swing the bat more and right now when they are
19:15
Speaker 1: putting the ball in play, they're just finding holes right now,
19:18
Speaker 1: so your babbup is through the roof in this small sample,
19:21
Speaker 1: which is something over the long period of time with
19:23
Speaker 1: what your strikeout rate is and what your walk rate
19:25
Speaker 1: is I'm not worried about one bit because I know,
19:27
Speaker 1: over the course of a long season, you're going to
19:29
Speaker 1: do great. And the reason why this message is so
19:32
Speaker 1: important is because if I worried about my hit total
19:36
Speaker 1: and I thought that was the most important stat, I
19:38
Speaker 1: would probably be changing my approach. I would be doing
19:40
Speaker 1: something different despite the fact that my strikeout rate is
19:43
Speaker 1: thirty seven percent and that my walk rate is seven
19:46
Speaker 1: and a half percent. And now I'm changing my game plan.
19:48
Speaker 1: I'm probably going to start walking guys again because I
19:50
Speaker 1: don't want them to swing the back because when they
19:52
Speaker 1: swing the bat, they get a hit. So I'm going
19:54
Speaker 1: to start nibbling more. And now I'm going to fall
19:56
Speaker 1: behind and I'm either going to walk them or I
19:59
Speaker 1: am going to give up a hit because I'm throwing,
20:00
Speaker 1: you know, two oh three one fastballs. So I told him,
20:04
Speaker 1: you are doing everything right. Let's not change anything. If
20:09
Speaker 1: we look up and you've thrown thirty innings and you're
20:11
Speaker 1: giving up a lot of extra base hits and you're
20:13
Speaker 1: giving up runs, okay, we can change the plan, but
20:16
Speaker 1: you've made two starts with less than ten innings. Your
20:19
Speaker 1: process is good. Let's stick with it long enough to
20:22
Speaker 1: make sure that that the that the results are actually
20:25
Speaker 1: poor before we need to make a change there. So
20:28
Speaker 1: that was a big light bulb moment for that player,
20:31
Speaker 1: and a really important message that I think players need
20:34
Speaker 1: to hear is understanding sample size as well as understanding
20:39
Speaker 1: what is leading to quote unquote poor results to make
20:42
Speaker 1: sure that I don't change something that doesn't need to
20:44
Speaker 1: be changed. And now I'm going down, you know, a
20:46
Speaker 1: rabbit hole that I don't need to go down. Okay,
20:49
Speaker 1: So those are the main things that I wanted to
20:51
Speaker 1: touch on today. I would say the last thing that
20:54
Speaker 1: we could touch on a little bit today would be
20:57
Speaker 1: playing summer ball or training. You know, it's that time
20:59
Speaker 1: of year where you know, halfway through the season, or
21:01
Speaker 1: maybe not halfway, but we're getting close to the halfway point,
21:04
Speaker 1: and players are having a good idea of how many
21:07
Speaker 1: innings they are probably gonna throw this year, and whether
21:09
Speaker 1: they should train play summer ball, and how they should
21:12
Speaker 1: approach that. And I don't think it's a black and
21:15
Speaker 1: white answer. I think if you didn't pitch a lot
21:19
Speaker 1: this season, there's there's probably a need for you to
21:23
Speaker 1: play games. Does that mean you need to be in
21:25
Speaker 1: a league where you're playing games every single day and
21:28
Speaker 1: it's essentially a pro schedule like some of the leagues are,
21:30
Speaker 1: like the Northwoods League and leagues like that. No, not necessarily,
21:35
Speaker 1: but I think there is something to you getting you know,
21:39
Speaker 1: in game experience and throwing the batters and getting your
21:42
Speaker 1: volume up as well, because you know, hopefully you turn
21:44
Speaker 1: around and you're one of the main guys next year.
21:46
Speaker 1: But going from you know, say throwing five innings to
21:49
Speaker 1: throwing sixty to seventy innings the next season, that's a
21:51
Speaker 1: pretty big jump. You want to make sure that you're
21:53
Speaker 1: prepared for it physically as well. So I do think
21:56
Speaker 1: that there's a good opportunity for guys to play summer ball.
22:00
Speaker 1: I kind of like the the idea of blending both
22:02
Speaker 1: of being able to play summer ball while also being
22:05
Speaker 1: on a very good schedule with your lifting and your
22:07
Speaker 1: training as well. But there are reasons why you should
22:10
Speaker 1: consider not playing summer ball. One would be, you know,
22:14
Speaker 1: you were a main pitcher this season, you threw a
22:15
Speaker 1: ton of innings, You're a little beat up, you need
22:18
Speaker 1: time to recover a little bit. Like that's an obvious
22:22
Speaker 1: reason not to play summer ball. Another reason would be
22:25
Speaker 1: even if you did pitch a lot this year and
22:27
Speaker 1: you feel good, you still might not need to play
22:30
Speaker 1: summer ball, Like there might be an area in your
22:32
Speaker 1: game that you need to focus on with your training,
22:34
Speaker 1: whether it's velocity development, maybe it's you know, waking and
22:38
Speaker 1: lifting to where you don't want to have to worry
22:39
Speaker 1: about being fresh for a game and how that's going
22:42
Speaker 1: to impact your lifting schedule because you're still in season mode.
22:47
Speaker 1: That would be a reason to consider not playing summer
22:49
Speaker 1: ball as well. And I would even say there are
22:51
Speaker 1: some situations where maybe you don't play summer ball even
22:54
Speaker 1: if you didn't pitch this season. I would say there
22:57
Speaker 1: are few reasons why that would be the case. But
23:01
Speaker 1: I do think one reason would be that your skill
23:03
Speaker 1: set is just so far behind. Whether it's your velocity
23:07
Speaker 1: development is just not good, your off speed's not good,
23:09
Speaker 1: and really the pure reason that you didn't pitch this
23:12
Speaker 1: year is because your stuff's just not good enough and
23:14
Speaker 1: you got hit around a ton. If your issue was
23:17
Speaker 1: a strike problem and you didn't pitch a lot this year,
23:20
Speaker 1: I think you definitely need to play summer ball because
23:22
Speaker 1: you need more of those in game situations and environments
23:25
Speaker 1: to throw to hitters, to work on your command while
23:28
Speaker 1: also still doing command training in your regular you know,
23:31
Speaker 1: week to week training. But I would say, off the
23:34
Speaker 1: top of my head, the one reason you shouldn't play
23:36
Speaker 1: summer ball, even if you didn't pitch a lot this year,
23:39
Speaker 1: it would be if your main issue was a stuff
23:41
Speaker 1: issue and you really need to dedicate you know, two
23:44
Speaker 1: three months of the summer to velocity development, waight training,
23:47
Speaker 1: all of those things. That would be a reason. And
23:50
Speaker 1: then I would say a lot of guys are going
23:51
Speaker 1: to be in that middle ground where they could maybe
23:54
Speaker 1: play half the summer or play the whole summer, but
23:56
Speaker 1: be on like a very strict schedule where maybe they're
23:58
Speaker 1: just pitching once a week between one to three innings,
24:01
Speaker 1: to where they can still follow a really good lifting
24:04
Speaker 1: schedule as well as even maybe do some VILA development,
24:07
Speaker 1: stuff development, whatever it might be, you know, the other
24:09
Speaker 1: six days of the week. I think that's a happy medium,
24:12
Speaker 1: and I'm actually going to be doing that here in
24:14
Speaker 1: Arizona this summer. We're going to have a college summer
24:18
Speaker 1: team in the Arizona would Bat League here and it's
24:20
Speaker 1: going to be very structured. You know, Yes, we want
24:23
Speaker 1: to win games, but that's not going to be the
24:25
Speaker 1: main focus. It's going to be a team where guys
24:28
Speaker 1: can get reps, they can work on things while also
24:31
Speaker 1: not having their training get affected. So it's going to
24:33
Speaker 1: be very scheduled where they'll know the exact day they're
24:35
Speaker 1: gonna pitch, they're gonna know what innings they have to
24:37
Speaker 1: cover all of those things. So be a good a
24:40
Speaker 1: good opportunity, and a good blend for guys to, like
24:42
Speaker 1: I said, mix the two between training and playing summer baseball.
24:48
Speaker 1: So if you're interested in that, if you're in Arizona
24:50
Speaker 1: or not in Arizona and you're interested in playing for
24:51
Speaker 1: us this summer, that is an option. Just as a little,
24:54
Speaker 1: you know, side note there, But that pretty much sums
24:57
Speaker 1: it up for today. Kind of a ramble or a
25:01
Speaker 1: rant type of episode, you know, jumping around from playing
25:05
Speaker 1: time to summer ball and all that. But like I said,
25:08
Speaker 1: the plan is to continue doing these podcast episodes. I'm
25:11
Speaker 1: not going to guarantee that there's gonna be an episode
25:13
Speaker 1: coming out every week, but I'd love to keep using
25:18
Speaker 1: this path to provide content. So if you guys ever
25:21
Speaker 1: have any questions or specific topics that you want me
25:24
Speaker 1: to cover, please let me know. You know, I think
25:27
Speaker 1: this is a fun a fun path or a fun
25:30
Speaker 1: avenue to discuss pitching versus you know, just making a
25:33
Speaker 1: post online that's you know, a thirty second video or
25:37
Speaker 1: a thread. I think there's something to talking through it
25:40
Speaker 1: and processing ideas and thoughts that can be useful. So
25:43
Speaker 1: if you enjoy this episode, let me know please. I
25:46
Speaker 1: love hearing feedback, and you know, at the end of
25:48
Speaker 1: the day, this is for you guys, and I want
25:50
Speaker 1: to make sure that I'm providing a positive impact for
25:53
Speaker 1: you and helping you as a coach or a player.
25:55
Speaker 1: So until next week, signing off by Way a Way