First week done, live pitching next week!

Okay, we've finished our first week of practice and even though our ground is heavily insulated by beautiful white snow, I am ready to head down south and play some great college baseball!  Our arms aren't ready yet, but they will be ready to play.....just four weeks from today we open up!!  Maybe it's the coffee I'm drinking, or maybe it was just being able to start the day with an early morning practice, but it feels so much like baseball season already.

All of our pitchers have had one mound appearance now, and Monday we will begin throwing to live hitters in the cages.  At this point in time, the pitchers are not necessarily ready to get hitters out (hitters often get themselves out anyway!), but their main goal is to get in there, continue to work on mechanics and location, and gradually get their arms in shape for the season.

Next week most of our guys will throw 40 pitches to the live hitters.  Even though they have thrown breaking balls during some drills and flat ground work this week, they will not yet throw any breaking balls to the hitters.  I send them into the cages with a specific five-pitch sequence, making changes in the sequence from night to night. For the first week, we will mix fastballs (2-seamers and 4-seamers) and changeups.  A typical sequence might go like this: 2 fastballs in, changeup away, fastball away, changeup down.  When we throw fastballs on the (throwing) arm side we throw 2-seamers, and fastballs to the glove side are 4-seamers.  When we throw this 40 pitch outing, the pitchers just repeat that same five pitch sequence eight times.

We'll probably start introducing some breaking balls to the hitters after next week.  These live sessions are generally more beneficial for the hitters than they are for the pitchers, but it is important for us to remember that what makes one group of players better makes the team better.  This is not to say that it doesn't help the pitchers, because it certainly does.  Pitchers get immediate feedback on their pitches based on the batters' swings and whether the hitters are squaring up the ball or jamming themselves or rolling over. This immediate feedback should help each individual pitcher understand some of his current strengths and weaknesses.

Sometimes the hitters figure out the sequence and thus are prepared for the type of pitch that is coming.  I have talked to the pitchers about that, and want them to know that it is great for us if the hitters do that.  It makes it a bigger challenge to put each pitch in the right location so as to make it more difficult for the hitters anyway.

These sequences also help the pitchers in their preparation for pitching in games, because they tend to learn to follow one pitch with another pitch, and to anticipate the pitching patterns that are more disruptive to the hitters.  Ultimately, all practices are designed to help individual players improve and of course to enable the team to get better each day.

In sports, each day an athlete/team either gets better or gets worse.  Improving is a choice, as is regressing!!