Next Steps

I’m still smarting from the verbal smackdown laid on me by Thy Drunken Rookie in last week’s comments section. His scathingly funny witticisms aside, his post did actually contain valuable information and actually further confirmed some mechanical issues I was questioning in my delivery.

At the Fort Myers showcase, I did notice that the pitchers—both lefties and righties—who were really bringing it velocity-wise all had incredibly long strides and almost seemed to vault towards the plate. They were, as TDR so eloquently put it, generating an obscene amount of power with their lower halves.

I have been toying with the idea of lengthening my stride, thereby getting lower in my delivery. Hearing it from the peanut gallery (albeit a knowledgeable peanut) has catalyzed my desire to put the muscular strength I’ve created over the past few months to uses other than just lifting barbells.

Oddly enough, I was toying with a longer stride at my throwing session on Thursday and I actually noticed that the control and break on my curveball improved tenfold when I lengthened my stride just short of a groin-tearing distance.

I’ve been hard at work trying to get more throwing time for myself in March before I hit the next block of independent league tryouts. A rival team in the league I played in last year has been gracious enough to invite me to their indoor sessions on periodic Sundays in March and April. Also, I will be making a trek to London, ON in early March to throw in a top notch facility run by guys with a myriad of professional baseball experience. 

I will still be throwing my weekly simulated games on Thursday nights and I hope to tag along with another team’s indoor workouts on an alternate day of the week. There should be plenty of throwing opportunities for me in the coming weeks so I can turn those sevens on the radar gun into consistent eights.

I’ve sketched out a preliminary tryout schedule for myself as the winter chill gives way to the spring thaw. I’m planning on attending one independent league tryout at the end of March, two in April and then a tryout in Brockton, Massachusetts on April 30 and May 1. I’ve picked Brockton over the Frontier League Tryout and Draft in Kentucky because there will be five leagues in attendance at the Brockton tryout, whereas there will only be one league watching in Kentucky. Obviously, I want to attend tryouts that will give me the best opportunity to get a contract.

As of right now, the one tryout in March and two in April will be for some combination of Atlantic and Frontier League teams, but that is subject to change as I conduct further research and more tryout details become available.

Truthfully, I want my schedule to be as malleable as possible. I’m waiting to see if the Canadian franchises in Quebec City, Calgary, Edmonton or Winnipeg will be having open tryouts since playing in my home and native land for the summer means that I would avoid the work visa headaches associated with playing south of the border.

Plus, I’m still keeping the final Indy Pro Showcase of the year in Detroit in July on my radar as a last ditch effort to get a contract this summer. Obviously, best case scenario is that I have a team in place by then, but it’s always good to have a contingency plan just in case my velocity doesn’t come around by the first of May.

Pitching Feedback

After the pain in my arm finally subsided—it was so bad on Thursday afternoon that I was forced to drink my post-tryout beers with my right hand as my left arm hung limply by my side like a vestigial tail—I had a burning desire to know how I stacked up in the scouts’ eyes after my performances on the mound.

I know I put up solid numbers in Fort Myers, which proved to me that I can compete and hang with players vying for independent league roster spots and that, most importantly, I can get batters out (which, at its root, is what pitching is all about).

But, as I mentioned in the final video last week, I was not offered a contract and I wanted to know why. I sent an email to the main pitching scout running the showcase and asked for some qualitative, scout-like feedback on my mound sessions.

He said that everything about me was fine except my velocity. My mechanics were sound and the command of my changeup and curveball were there, but my fastball just didn’t have the giddy up necessary to warrant a contract offer. It sat around 78-79 with periodic stops in the 82 MPH range. For a left-handed pitcher, my fastball velocity, according to the scout, must never dip below 86 in the independent leagues.

Now, this can be construed as both good and bad news. Good, in the sense that I only have one thing to work on. It’s not like he said my delivery needed a complete overhaul or anything; I just need to increase my velocity.

The bad news is that the majority of velocity is God-given. I don’t know if my DNA contains the necessary material to throw consistently in the mid to upper eighties, but I sure as hell am going to try my best to see if it’s possible.

 I know I can throw harder than I did in the tryout. For early February, not to mention being asked to pitch on consecutive days this early in the season, I was pleased with the way I threw, but the lack of velocity tells me that I need to up my throwing volume to see the radar gun tick upward.

Once a week just isn’t cutting it anymore. I’m in the process of organizing more throwing sessions for myself and I can’t wait for the weather to get nicer so I can start throwing long toss again, which I believe is the secret to greater velocity.

I’m glad I had the opportunity to test myself in Fort Myers and now I know exactly what I need to do in the coming months to get a contract. I’ve spent the last few months preparing my body strength and conditioning wise, now it’s time to get baseball-specific.

Building up my arm strength and stamina on the hill so I don’t run out of gas is going to be the key for me moving forward. The showcase was validation that I belong and I can be successful against these hitters. The next time I attend a tryout I won’t be going in with that reservation hanging over my head.

I’m toeing the rubber and letting fly with my best stuff.

Indy Pro Showcase - Day 2

Here's the final video update from the Indy Pro Showcase in Fort Myers. I just want to thank all of you who have emailed, texted and posted comments supporting me on this trip down south. It means a lot to me and I read each and every one.

I will be back on Wednesday with a regularly scheduled column that will hopefully include a qualitative analysis of my performance at the tryout as well as video of my pitching performance from Day 2 complete with my commentary.

 

Indy Pro Showcase - Day 1

Indy Pro Showcase - Prologue

Here's the first video post from my experience at the Indy Pro Showcase. I went to Terry Park in Fort Myers earlier this afternoon to get the lay of the land before the showcase kicks off tomorrow morning.

Facing My Fear

Full disclosure: pitching to left-handed batters isn’t actually a fear, but in the interest of driving readership for the site, I figured a compelling title was what I needed in my last column before my tryout showcase in Florida next week.

Did it work? Well, hopefully you’re still reading.

Plus, if you really think about, my preference of facing right-handed hitters is actually an advantage for me on the mound. First, righties are much more prevalent throughout the game of baseball, which means that I’m facing batters from my preferred side of the plate the majority of the time. Second, managers are always reticent to put left-handed hitters in the lineup with a southpaw on the hill so, more often that not, I don’t have to worry about left-handed sticks in the first place.

Nevertheless, I did buckle down and throw a couple of at-bats against left-handed hitters in my last throwing session and I actually felt surprisingly comfortable with them digging in against me. I didn’t notice a precipitous drop-off in the efficacy of my pitches that sometimes, in my mind anyway, appears when facing left-handed hitters.

I’m going to use a compliment sandwich (two good things sandwiched around a quick bout of negativity) to describe my thoughts on the throwing session. The previous paragraph was something good. However, I was unhappy with how the session began. My pitches were all over the place, I had no idea where I was delivering the ball and, upon releasing each pitch, my legs flayed every which way like Elaine Benes trying to dance.

Part of my struggles were due to the fact I started throwing full speed much too quickly and didn’t take my time to establish proper mechanics before heating up. Second, but an extension of the first, is that I rushed my delivery, completely missing the mechanical checkpoints necessary for a smooth, repeatable motion.

Luckily, I was able to self-correct the flaws by the end of the session, but it was a tad disconcerting that I allowed myself to lose focus so quickly. In a practice session, I have more than enough time to fix the problem. At the tryout showcase, there’s no guarantee I will have that safety net available to me.

However, I was happy with the way I threw by the time I called it a night and I was encouraged by the velocity on my pitches even though I was once again sore from last week’s workouts. I’ve realized that I haven’t had one throwing session all offseason where my arm and body have felt one hundred percent.

Thus, this week, I’ve made the conscious decision to scale back my workouts in advance of my final indoor session tomorrow (I will also be tossing a very light bullpen on Sunday morning to alleviate any lingering kinks). I took the entire weekend off, worked out light Monday and Tuesday, taking Wednesday and Thursday off, light workouts Friday and Saturday, then off until a run in Florida on Tuesday before I take the mound on Wednesday.

I would like one throwing session where my arm feels like it could throw a baseball through a brick wall. I need to remember what it feels like to be pitching at full capacity in a dress rehearsal performance before the real thing next week.

In terms of blog coverage, my plan is to tape video blogs each day I’m in Florida in lieu of written columns (admittedly ambitious). I’m thinking of producing 3-5 minute clips: my thought process on Tuesday heading into the tryout, a recap of each day of the showcase on Wednesday and Thursday, and then a final wrap-up on Friday. Taping the segments won’t be an issue, but I’m worried that my limited technological know-how will screw up the uploading process to the blog. Plus, the upload will depend heavily on the internet connectivity I’m able to acquire in Florida.

Worst case is I’ll post all the videos when I get back. Best case, you will be able to follow along with my progress down in Florida for all four days next week (most likely looking at an after dinner post each day).

Well, now it’s go time. Time to show these independent leagues what I’ve got. The next time you’ll hear from me I will be in sunny Fort Myers, hopefully taking the next step on my quest to play professional baseball this summer.