Mission Impossible

#1

Hello everyone. I am starting a blog to keep track of the improvements (if any) of a kid I am currently training. To give y’all a little background, I have posted on here before under the name Prometheus. I have been training baseball players for four years, starting after I finished college baseball. Currently, 100% of my pitchers have gone on to receive top Division 1 scholarships. None of them have made it to school as all of them were also drafted in the top 90 picks of the draft and decided to go professional straight from high school. I only have two trainees that are not currently professionals. One is a rising sophomore that has trained with me for three years. He is already being recruited by the top colleges in the Southeast after topping out at 92 mph and sitting 87-89 as a 9th grader.

This blog will not feature any of them. It will only feature my newest trainee. He has come to me as a rising senior in the 14 class. He hasn’t been approached by any colleges and recently topped out at 74 in a camp. I have seen him a tad higher in velo, but not much. I am using this as a means to keep his training measurements organized and will update it as often as possible. He will attend an unsigned senior showcase in November and we are looking to make serious improvements in velocity and pitch quality. This will be an account of the change he will make and hopefully end with a Division 1 school offering him. Wish us luck.

#2

Mission impossible? I don’t think so. Difficult, maybe—but not impossible. I would like to know more about this kid you’re working with—the type of pitcher he is now, the sort of stuff he has at present, the problems he may have and how you’re working with him. Interesting reading, and you never know, perhaps I and others on these boards might be able to help. Please, keep me informed. 8)

#3

Haha, sorry for forgetting to explain the title. That is what a person told me when I took the kid on. I believe it is very possible, even kind of expect it after the success I have had with the others.

I don’t know much about him as I initially took him on as a favor to a guy I have known for a long time. I also viewed it as a challenge for myself. He is a lefty, put doesn’t have that typical veer that lefties often have on the fastball. Other than that, he is a mystery. We won’t get into pitching for another 6 weeks, then we will start diving into his stuff.

#4

Workout attendance at 100% so far from the lefty. Won’t check velo for another 2 1/2 weeks but can already see improvements.

#5

Hey Fire…
What is this kids size?
How is his external rotation…does he have a loose arm or does he appear “stiff” like he is pushing the ball?
A friend of my sons in high school was topping out at 72 mph his senior year and ended up at a small four year school…working as their closer of all things. His velocity has improved to about 80 since he has been there, but, everything moves and the curve drops off the table.
I am much more interested in seeing how the “soft tossers” develop (being the father of one) and where they end up as opposed to the 17 year old throwing 90…no drama in that.
Keep up the work.

#6

Posted: Aug 24, 2013 Post subject: Mission Impossible
Kid is about 5’9, 150. Decent external rotation. Is a little weak for baseball from lifting the traditional way (benching two-three times a week consistently with no posterior work). Pretty good athlete. We gun in 2 weeks but he seems to have already made progress. Extremely dedicated and does everything asked of him. Think that will be the biggest part of his success.

#7

Tested Saturday. Velo was at 80 on flat ground with the few throws he cut loose after long toss. Will test again in 1 month. Participation at 100% over 20 workouts.

#8

Good Luck. And stay away from rocks and eagles. Zeus is still ticked off.

#9

Haha, thanks. If we don’t make our goals, it won’t be for lack of trying. Participation still at 100%.

#10

Hi, “Fearsome Four”.
Interesting, that you mention your wanting to know more about how “soft tossers” (I prefer to call them finesse pitchers) develop. I was one such—an unusual tale, at that. I was eleven when I discovered that I had a natural sidearm delivery and a nice little curveball that came attached to it. I also realized that I would never be one of those rip-roarin’, 97-and-above fireballers, so I went in the other direction and concentrated on acquiring a whole basketful of breaking and offspeed stuff and working on my control and command of said pitches. I became a finesse pitcher, and a good one, and a few years later—as a result of my burning curiosity about a pitch called a slider—I ended up working with one of the finest pitching coaches anyone would give his or her eyeteeth to work with.
His name was Ed Lopat, he was a member of the Yankees’ Big Three rotation, and he was a finesse pitcher, not much on speed but with an arsenal that, it seemed to me, included everything but the kitchen sink and perhaps that too. He saw where I was coming from and that I was really interested, wanted to know and was willing to work at it, so he took me in hand, worked with me and helped me become a better pitcher than I had been before. We worked together for almost four years, and what I learned from him was nothing short of priceless. In addition—here’s the funny part—not only was my best pitch a very nasty slider which I had nicknamed “Filthy McNasty”, after a character in an old W.C. Fields movie, it turned out to be my fastest pitch, a respectable 86 MPH, with or without the crossfire which I had picked up.
And that was how I developed—into a very good finesse pitcher. There are probably a few others—not too many, I suppose, given the emphasis
on sheer speed—who followed similar paths. I can tell you one thing: we finesse pitchers are probably the deadliest of the lot, just because we have learned that if you can’t overpower the hitters with sheer speed you have to outthink and outfox them. 8) :baseballpitcher:

#11

Hey Zita…
I enjoy your responses and advice to the youngsters coming up.
Its a great story you tell and a valuable one, more than one way to skin a cat so to speak.
Like I said there is no drama in the naturally talented fireballers. Heres to the Finesse Pitchers.

#12

Fire…
Great to hear the young man is committed. His focus will be a big determining factor with how far he goes…great results so far, keep it going.

#13

Did you know that the expression “There’s more than one way to skin a cat” comes from gymnastics? The term “skinning the cat” refers to a move on the parallel bars that can be performed correctly in several different ways. So’s getting the batters out—and one does not need a fastball to do it. Ed Lopat threw at least 24 different pitches, different arm angles, different speeds, and it may have been more—and he had the batters completely bamboozled. When he was on, which was most of the time, they would come to bat drooling and licking their chops and go back to the dugout foaming at the mouth and cursing a blue streak because they had nothing to show for it but a futile at-bat. Oh, he skinned the cat all right—“the cat” being the hapless Cleveland Indians, whom he owned for eleven-plus years. They called him “nemesis”, and that was the polite term.
:slight_smile:

#14

24 sessions down, 51 to go. Lefty tested at 82 today. Plan on getting a reading next week off flat ground. Still at 100% participation

#15

Let me guess… by the time you reach your 75th session…you are going to have this 5’9", 150 lb 74 mph soft tosser throwing 90 mph. With no before, during and after video …what’s the point?

How about giving us a little more to chew on. Right now I have to read this thread with the “Mission Impossible” theme song in the background just to make it exciting.

#16

Ok not to be rude but this blog reads as the intro to an infomercial.
“Amazing results in 75 sessions”

All results being listed but no pathways to those results. Is the path to these results coming or is payment expected before learning the secrets.

Maybe this is a little rude, but that’s the way I read it.

#17

Haha. I can understand you thinking that, but I am not selling anything. actually, I have never sold anything. The training I do for my players pro to high school is free, with the exception of a jersey or some other memorabilia from a prestigious event if they make it The reason it is 75 sessions is because they have 13 weeks before their showcase. So 12 weeks of 6 sessions a week followed by the 13th week where we stop training on that Thursday. I guess I was wrong, should be 76 sessions. I have no clue what he will be throwing come November, just always liked the idea of keeping a blog on here to keep up with progress.

#18

No pathway. My program is one that I initially developed in college and it has constantly evolved over the past 5 years of training players. It would be too time consuming to put it on paper do to my obsessive need to not only tell someone what to do, but explain why we it.

#19

Why don’t you name some of the major league draftees you worked with that went in the top three rounds? Take some credit for it. Explain why you weren’t drafted and some of what you learned and impart to your students that make it possible for them to be drafted. I’m starting to feel like the Asian chick in the State Farm commercial.

#20

First

Second

Only seniors this year are the lefty in the blog and another small lefty so the streak may be broken. They have only been with me a month.