What is going on with baseball?

Thanks 74,
On the coaching staff duties: it is my understanding that Kopp- who joined the program as the pitching coach in 2020-21 ('21 season) handles much of the scouting and as the PC is the coach with the most day-to-day involvement with player development and working on mechanics, etc. Jerolman handles the hitting side working with hitters and also scouting and recruiting. (Like OC and DC coordinators in football). Since bringing in Kopp and Jerolman, Sully has played more of a CEO role overseeing the entire program and game management but not as heavily involved in the day-to-day player development. Again, that is my understanding.

 

The bulk of the pitching injuries have been guys coming in hurt....or getting surgery their freshman year. These kids have a lot of wear and tear before they hit a college campus

 

The Moneyball clip says “Best scene from Moneyball”. It’s a great scene, but I think the best one is when he fires the Head Scout (cannot be posted here).

 

I’m guessing that this is as good a thread as any for this—
Last night (FSU game) McNeille was in and going along fairly well and then he threw four sliders in a row to a LHH.

The result was a base hit up the middle to keep their inning alive….McNeille is also armed with a 95 mph FB and a serviceable changeup vs LHHers. So why show a LHH four RHP sliders in a row? Again, pitch—don’t throw.

Don’t get me wrong, I have no problem throwing the same pitch back to back if the hitter looks lost on the first one. It does depend on the count and the situation—but the chances of your success showing the same pitch four times in a row (specifically a RHP slider to a LHH) goes way down.

My intention here is not to specifically single out McNeille, it’s the approach/attack plan our pitchers show and struggle with.
You can’t always throw curveballs in FB counts. Sometimes FBs in FB counts located properly work just fine. The point is in the better competition games hitters are skilled enough that you have to have a multiple option attack in place.

You have to be able to locate pitches in all quadrants of the strike zone. You have to be able to change speeds. You have to be able to change the hitter’s eye levels.

Looking first at the situation—RHP vs LHH—4 sliders in a row out of the same arm slot at basically the same speed yields a low percentage chance of success.

By the same token let’s go to Clemente’s 9th inning. He did throw all FBs—but look at the job he did. FBs on both sides of the plate, both down and elevated. Mixed in a couple of running 2-seamers to LHHers as well. That’s a good job of pitching.

When you see the hitter can’t catch up to the velocity, don’t help him out by speeding his bat up with an off speed pitch—locate the FB in a better spot for the next pitch based on the last pitch.

Sometimes it seems like we make the game tougher than it is.

 

Outstanding analysis 74. Thanks! That's the kind of knowledge of how to pitch (and not merely throw) that we seem to lack. Dang, I wish you were our PC!

 

APK-- I agree many of the pitching injuries have been to freshmen—there are notable exceptions but mostly the newbies. My question: knowing that top recruits have thrown many thousands of pitches between HS, travel ball and summer leagues... perhaps a re-think of Fall practice protocols for pitchers may be in order. I've talked to scouts at the scrimmages and they've often seen the drop-off in velo and more critically mechanics from "tired arm" especially in latter Fall scrimmages. New guys trying to impress in the Fall and with "tired arm" and when velo drops and then they try to throw harder and mechanics suffer. Example: This year Josh Whritenour – (highly touted RHP) came in throwing pro ball stuff—hitting 97-98mph, wicked splitter and big spin curve- outstanding stuff but I was at the scrimmage when his velo dropped to 92 and then the mechanics followed and soon thereafter he had surgery… I am not a diagnostic radiologist but it be good idea for new pitchers to get MRIs of elbow and shoulder to see if there are signs of inflammation and other soft tissue stress and if yes- they would be put on a different throwing regime than normal. If this is already the practice then forget the suggestion but I am trying to think of ways to limit our losses from these debilitating 12–15-month injuries.

 

I will give the short version. Pitch up/down, in/out, and change speeds. Nothing over the middle belt high. Duh.

A pitcher can actually do this with command of two and one half pitches. The one and one half is the four seam and two seam fastball. Add ANY off speed pitch with command and the hitter is at your mercy. And if your off speed pitch is awesome mix in the two versions of fastball as out pitches.

Clemente last night had total command of the fastballs. That was all he needed against a team trying to do too much at the plate. Brilliant and CLOSER stuff. You can't be a starter pitching like that,

 

I don't know the ins and outs of how that might work, but it certainly doesn't seem like a bad idea.
As crazy as it sounds, I know some that suggest it's better to just go ahead and blow it out if there are issues....get it fixed and come back better

 

Yep, watching I was thinking Clemente as the closer.

 

Just to clarify for those that don’t know, last two years sully has been calling the pitches in game. In 23’ it was BT calling pitches. Our PC doesn’t call pitches. Sully’s approach is look at the hitter’s heat map and scouting report and pitch to their weaknesses. For all the great things he does with our team, I personally think this is a mistake, hence the results. I feel like a broken record but pitch sequence and pitching to your pitchers strengths will always outperform pitching to a batter’s weaknesses. I would love to see sully let go a little and let our PC call games for a bit, just to see if it’s any different.

 

No argument here on your point about pitching with our pitchers strengths. That’s always been my belief. Sure you take known weaknesses of hitters for information but you still pitch with your pitchers strengths.

The phrasing I always used was You can set’em up to succeed—
or You can set’em up to fail. I preferred for my guys to succeed.

 

apk—

I have heard people say that very thing before (the go ahead and get the surgery so you can come back stronger). I shake my head wondering if those people have any idea of how tough of a process that is for the player. (The surgery and ALL of the rehab throwing/weight lifting/mental challenges and confidence issues that the player is subject to).

TJ surgery is a very important and valuable option for any player to have that wants to continue to play. But it must be realized that ok, you tore it up making it temporarily your weakest link. You are going to have to build it back stronger than it was before-remember you’ve already torn it up once.

First in rebuilding it you must go back and tear down your mechanics to find out what you were doing wrong that caused the injury in the first place. Whatever the mechanical issues were you have to put in the work to correct them or you are guaranteeing yourself to duplicate the injury again.

The phrase that I’ve always used addressing this issue is
“There’s only so many bad pitches in a good arm, then it’s a bad arm”.

It takes a lot of effort and work to correct mechanical flaws into productive proper mechanics that can be duplicated every pitch.
In other words dump the bad or lazy mechanics and do the work to get it right—there are NO SHORTCUTS.

 

Not the best example and analogy, but imagine if Greg Maddux pitched to the hitter's weakness as opposed to his strength (getting you to swing for a ground out or pop up). Yes, none of our guys are Maddux, but that's not the point.

Lets hope Sully goes back to the formula that worked.

 

Amen. And I personally know a coupe of kids that got that "go ahead and tear it" type treatment. Worked for one (after a lot of pain and rehab) and one was never really productive again.

 

What’s the deal or purpose of the Vanderbilt players upon hitting a HR to stomp the plate like they do rather than just step on it and take their arse on back to their dugout?

 

I prefer the Jac robot.

 

Go GATORS!
,WESGATORS