College Baseball Pitcher

Did you ever throw at a batter on purpose?

Asked by JP45 about 12 years ago

Yes. It happens. I would only ever do it as retribution for my teammate being beaned though. I never hit a guy out of frustration or to send a message. It's not necessarily a moral stance, I was just way too competitive to give a guy a free base, no matter how angry I was.

At what point in your life did you realize you weren't going to make it to the big leagues?

Asked by THEMASK about 12 years ago

Tough question. No one ever admits to themselves they can't make it. If you do that, you lose your edge. And at high levels of college baseball, trust me, the competition is fierce. I tore my labrum and rotator cuff in literally the last game I pitched (State American Legion Semifinals) in the Summer before I started my college career. I was a huge recruiting disappointment and couldn't break a sheet of toilet paper with my fastball after that. I still never gave up hope that I would come back and get my fastball back, although by that time I wasn't thinking about playing in the majors. I just wanted to feel normal. Still, I always dreamed that I would magically gain a fastball and be able to play at the next level. I'd say as a population, athletes have a tough time letting it go.

Have you ever played with anyone who went on to play in the majors?

Asked by front_cup about 12 years ago

Yeah, plenty of guys. Anyone who played college baseball in a fairly big conference is going to have played with plenty of future major leaguers. On my team, we typically had 3 or 4 players drafted a year (which isn't a whole lot). I'm fairly certain no one on my team actually played a day in the majors, but plenty of guys we played against did. Some of them were top prospects when we played them and you knew they were on their way to the majors. Those guys stood out. There were also guys that weren't all that impressive that blossomed and made the majors as well. Of course, the best player I ever saw was widely believed to be the top pick in the draft when we played him... and then he blew out his arm. I don't think he ever made it. Anyway, at top schools (think ACC, PAC-10, SEC, Big 12), there are major leaguers from just about every team. At the next level down (think of schools in the top 16 conferences http://www.boydsworld.com/baseball/isr/confisr.html , just about every decent team has multiple players drafted every year. Factoring in that you play a LOT of games in baseball and that there is a decent amount of interleague play, and everyone has played with their share of major leaguers.

What, to this point, has been the highlight of your baseball career?

Asked by VidaBlues about 12 years ago

My college career was a disappointment. Winning two conference tournaments while I was there would have to be the team highlight, but my personal ones mostly have to do with my career outside of college.

Should college athletes should be paid?

Asked by satch8020 about 12 years ago

This is a tough question to answer. Let’s be clear though... scholarship players are absolutely paid. Guys who get free rides to private schools are getting $50k a year educations for free. How many 18 year olds do you know that are getting paid $80k a year (very rough estimate of what you’d have to make to pay $50k a year)? Not many. Those Duke basketball players are making bank for 18-21 year olds. The average college baseball player on a full scholarship, by that standard, is being paid more than the average minor league player. Beyond that, players get some living expenses paid for and get per diems and meals paid for on road trips. So there is some pay. Generally, I don't think it’s a travesty that players don't get "paid" the way we think of them earning contracts. I think for sports like basketball and football (sports that earn money), it would be nice if some of the money earned by the teams went back to the players and their families. At the same time, once you start paying players, schools are going to start cutting other athletic programs, the rich schools will get richer (be more able to pay athletes), and it would be harder and harder to regulate agents, boosters and the like. Basically, paying players would exacerbate a lot of the ills of college sports as they are. My half-baked solution is to allow college players to do endorsements. Limit how much time they can spend doing them, how many products they can endorse and how much money they can receive. The players that are good enough will get endorsement offers and the money won't come out of the schools, it will come out of commerce. Everyone wins. Except Jim Tressel.

How rampant are steroids amongst high school and college players?

Asked by familyjewels_KK about 12 years ago

I never saw steroids nor seriously suspected them at the high school level. That doesn't mean they didn't exist, but I never saw it if they did (and I played on enough club and traveling teams to have seen a lot). The college level, I think, is a whole different story. My school did drug testing regularly and very strictly (the strictest testing I ever heard of), and there was still tons of steroids. Most of the time guys would just do a cycle over the Summer, when there was no school testing. There were also ways around testing in case someone ever thought they might test positive (these were not the kind of methods you could rely on, but something you might do just in case... using masking agents was fairly common for instance, hyper-hydrating was a safety measure). At many other schools, players didn’t have to worry about testing until tournament time (the only NCAA mandatory testing time) and could cycle pretty much year round. At my school, where everyone dreamed of playing at the next level yet no one was a sure thing to play in the majors, lots of guys took steroids hoping to gain even the slightest advantage. We had a guy on the team who had a connection and it was readily available. I myself even considered it. But as someone who could have ballooned to Barry Bonds/Roger Clemens cartoonish-like levels and still not have been worth anything as a prospect, it wouldn't have made sense. Plus, I'm scared of needles. And I like my testicles. Anyway, when I played, users were still way ahead of testers and steroids were rampant.

What schools recruited you, and how did you make your decision?

Asked by chicken_thai_'za about 12 years ago

A few major conference teams and mostly lesser schools. I went to the best baseball program I could, where I thought I liked the coach, but I'd say it didn't really work out. Scouting services do much of the player evaluation for colleges these days. They rank players, generally on a scale of 1-5. They then send lists to schools accordingly, along with specific evaluations and video tapes. Level 5 players can play at any major college and are the types that might be drafted out of high school. Level 4 means you generally can't play at the highest levels of college ball, but could contribute anywhere else. Level 3 is the type of player who could play at the lesser Division 1 schools. Levels 1 and 2 are for guys that probably can't play at the D1 level but could play college baseball somewhere. I was a level 4 guy. After my arm injury Id probably have been a level 3 guy, but I was stuck at a level 4 school and was stuck in scrub duty.

You have any wild stories from team road trips?

Asked by crusher2000 about 12 years ago

Not really. I think there is a misconception out there that road trips are all like the movie Bull Durham. But in college we had very little freedom. Every once in a while guys would go out and drink, miss curfew and get in trouble but nothing major really happened. I’d say the only cool thing that ever happened was that a guy on our team joined the mile high club on a team flight.

Is it true that certain colleges give their athletes "help" with their grades?

Asked by Ribbons about 12 years ago

Yes. To some degree I would imagine every major college program gives help to its athletes. Athletes have access to tutors and other resources that normal students do not. Bigger programs make sure that their athletes get in the right classes, have the rights sorts of exams and get the right professors. I can remember sitting down in a statistics class, looking around and seeing the football and basketball teams in class with me, and knowing that it would be an easy class. Now, whether schools help their athletes "cheat," I can't say. I am sure that cheating happens everywhere. My guess is that the vast majority of the time there is cheating, it is done by individuals, and not some form of institutionalized cheating. More often than not it's done by the eager kid who wants to be "in" with the athletes or tell a story later about how he helped out the football team in college by writing their take-home exams for them. As far as instituionalized cheating goes, I would imagine that most major programs are trying to make academic life as easy as possible of their players and that sometimes in the effort to do so they break NCAA rules. I can't say I saw cheating. But I can say that I don't know how a lot of athletes made it through school. I had a chemistry class (that was a very hard, curved class) with a future NBA star and he would go to class (only because there would be an assistant coach there to check in to make sure he got to class on time) and then get up after about five minutes and go hang out outside and hit on every girl that walked by. He was not, as far as I could tell, a genius who could get away with not doing the work and then ace the tests. He made it through his sophomore year without flunking out (before he declared for the NBA draft). I don't know how that happens without some kind of cheating.

Who was your favorite pitcher growing up?

Asked by Cobs' Money Pit about 12 years ago

Dwight Gooden when I was really little. I was too young to appreciate him in his prime years, but I was aware of his legend on some level. I’ve still never seen a more fluid and powerful motion in my life. Do yourself a favor and youtube some of his highlights from 84-85. The guy was athleticism on the mound personified. Not to sound like an old fogie, but in today's age of mechanical teaching, you don’t see fluid deliveries like his very often. When I really studied the game when I was older, I loved Maddux and Pedro. Those guys were the smartest pitchers I ever saw. They also had filthy stuff (which helps obviously), but they were so, so smart. Maddux could throw a Mariano-like cutter or a Webb-like sinker (minus 5 MPH) at any time to any place, and he knew where to put it and how to randomize it. But Pedro was the closest thing I've seen to pitching genius. His pitch sequencing was something else, he had everyone scared of him and he knew it. They weren't scared of being hit, they were scared of being made to look stupid, which he made them do on a regular basis. He might throw someone 5 straight change-ups one at bat, make him look silly, and then know that he could sneak fastballs by that guy for the rest of the game because he was scared to look stupid on change-ups. The second the batter would adjust, Pedro would be on to something else. It seemed like he always knew when a player adjusted and he was one step ahead. I can't imagine ever seeing a more fun pitcher to watch.

How fast did you throw?

Asked by DYBJ! about 12 years ago

Highest recorded pitch: 89 (nothing crazy). I was topping out at 84-85 after I hurt my arm though (pathetic).

Do the majority of MLB-bound college players finish their degrees?

Asked by jimmyWise about 12 years ago

I think it depends on who we are talking about. Does "MLB bound" mean that we know that those players make it to the majors, or are we talking about those guys that seem MLB bound at the time they are drafted? If its the latter, then I would say most guys get their degrees. Most "MLB bound" players never actually make it or their careers are pretty short. Those guys, overwhelmingly, get their degrees, eventually. If we are talking about guys who we know, after the fact, actually make it to the majors, then I'd say its pretty close to 50/50. MLB bound college players are drafted out of their junior year or senior year. So most are within a year of college graduation, and given that they spent a minimum of 3 year years in college and that the end of the minor league season (end of August) coincides directly with the start of first semester, it is really easy for most guys to graduate by the time they make it to the majors or after they finish their careers. On the other hand, most MLB players are not the most bookish of people and if they can avoid going to school, they will. Also important to keep in mind is that there are a lot of junior college players that are MLB bound. Those guys are almost never going to get their degrees. So all in all, I'd say its roughly 50/50 that an MLB bound player gets his degree.

My kid is 12, and I'm asking what we are signing up for. Are high school age pitchers generally told to pitch to their own strengths, to hitters weaknesses, or are they given some other strategy or no strategy at all (just get some strikes)? Thanks.

Asked by Rodk about 11 years ago

A high school player should be pitching to his own strengths and addressing his own weaknesses, period. He should not be worried about pitching to opponents' weakenesses.  he should be focused on his own development First of all, you are not going to have great scouting reports on opposing players, so you will not know, going into at bats, whatt a players' weaknesses are, much less be able to exploit them.  Second of all, it will not help a high school players future if he has learned how to pitch the number 4 batter on Smithtown High School's team.  All that matters is that he becomes the best player he can be.  Even minor leaguers are working off of their own strengths and weaknesses, rather than the opponent's strength's and weaknesses.  Even in college, a pitcher is working on his own game all of the time, except in games that matter (typically conference games and tournament games).  

I'm just coming out of high school and I want to try my hand at pitching in an amateur league, but I've never pitched before and I haven't played baseball since I was 8. Any advice on how to get started?

Asked by E. Duckworth over 11 years ago

Yes. I have a lot of advice. I spent some time after my college career as a professional pitching coach, mostly working with developmental players (kids). 1.) Throw and throw a lot. Every day. 2.) Throw long toss. If you want to be a good pitcher and you haven't pitched much, it is far more important to long-toss than to practice your wind-up or to throw from a mound. I think the amateur mind sees pitching as something fundamentally different from throwing, which probably comes from watching MLB, where yes, pitching is very different. But you cannot pitch until you can throw. And I don't mean "throw" from a standpoint of "I can get the ball there." I mean "throw" from a standpoint of having coordination, power and accuracy when you throw and getting an expected result. Throwing long toss is FAR better for development than pitching from a mound. Throwing long toss will help you develop coordination, accuracy and arm strength much better than pitching from a mound will. Anyone can throw a ball from 60 ft. away for strikes and think he's doing it right. Unfortunately, that means that throwing short distances reinforces a lot of bad habits. If you are doing something wrong, it will be much more apparent from longer distances. I recommend two kinds of long-toss. (a) throw the ball about as far as you can, accurately and in the air, with a partner. Don't worry about arcing your throws moderately Do this for 15-20 throws 4-5x a week. (b) Throw 120 ft, on a line, using momentum (you should run into your throws), downward. For this drill I usually have players stand 150 ft apart and each person puts his hat on the ground 15 feet in front of him. Each person tries to hit the other persons hat. You must throw the ball hard or it doesn't count. This will reinforce throwing on a downward plane and make you use the proper muscles that you need when you pitch. 3) Throw more, you are thousands of pitches behind all the guys that have been pitching for years. 4) Once youve thrown a ton and developed a decent feel for long tossing, spend a few hundred dollars on a pitching coach. Seriously. Find out who is reputable in your area, make sure he gets results and has a head on his shoulders and listen to whatever he says. Make sure he reviews both your long tossing and your mound pitching. Learn a change up and maybe a curve. 5) Keep it simple. The key to a good delivery is having a repeatable delivery. 6) When you finally get on the mound, forget everything and be aggressive. Most amateurs tend to overthink things. Just go at the hitter (more accurately, go at the catcher, albeit with the hitter in mind) and if he beats you, so be it. You can't do anything about the hitter, you can only give him your best and hope for the best. 6) Acknowledge a high likelihood of early failure, but never accept it. 7) Throw more. Use everything you've learned along the way.

How dirty is the world of Division 1 college recruiting? Is a major program that chooses not to break the rules at a significant disadvantage?

Asked by B0 about 11 years ago

There isn't as much fandom or money involved in in college baseball the way there is in football or men's basketball.  So people and programs aren't going to be throwing a bunch of money at players to get them to go to a school for baseball, nor or they as likely to put the athletic department at risk by breaking the rules.  I don't think cheating happens in baseball the same way it does in the big money sports.  That said, I think because there is less supervision by the NCAA, there are plenty of procedural rules that are broken all of the time that nobody notices.  I don't think it puts any school at a particular disadvantage.  School are competing with the MLB draft for players more than they are competing with each other.   Typically great players will be deciding between X University and the minors, not between different schools.  

If you get drafted out of high school, do you have to choose EITHER college OR minor league baseball? Can you be property of a MLB team while you're going to college?

Asked by blahblah about 11 years ago

Yes.  You cannot play in college and be property of a MLB team.  Once you decide you attend college, you are no longer property of the team that drafted you and you go back into the pool of players that may be drafted by other teams in future drafts for which you are eligible.  

My son is a LHP, 6', throws 85 with more to grow, good smooth mechanics with high arm slot and control. Can he walk on to a D1 Mountain West team that ranks # 87or Big West #89. His offers have been out of state with good,mid D1s but cost too much.

Asked by College Dad almost 11 years ago

Is the catcher the one who calls all the pitches? How much credit do you think the catcher should get when a pitcher has a great game?

Asked by TY9 about 11 years ago