If it’s 2010, chances are that a reliever is stirring in the bullpen, and this starter won’t see the 6th inning. Why? Because he will have exceeded his 100 pitch limit by the end of the 5th, or would too greatly surpass it if he went back out the following inning. The 100-pitch barrier proves the undoing of his fun.

Let’s talk about the number 100. It’s big, even, and round. 100 RBI’s in a season is a milestone, as is 100 years spent living on this earth. People celebrate the 100 mph pitch with great excitement, and few have ever been capable of throwing with such speed. 100 wins in a major league season is a fantastic total for a ballclub. And, when a starting pitcher throws 100 pitches, it is time to put in a reliever.

Baseball is too often "all about the Benjamins"

But Why? Why does the number 100 have such power over us? The transition from 99 to 100 is exactly the same as 109 to 110. The three-digitness of 100 just seems to hold some magical power over us, one in which milestones are created and bodies break down.

There is no good reason that we should assume that 100 pitches is the number after which pitchers’ arms will be hurt and effectiveness will be lost. Surely there is some general number for this, but I don’t believe that 100 is it.

Back in the day, pitchers threw 300+ innings a year and finished games without pitch counts. Some got hurt, and some didn’t. Is this the way that starting pitching should be? No, but it represents the other extreme.

Rather, I think the number falls somewhere between 110 and 140. Unfortunately, I don’t really have a good backing for this claim, other than experience and an appeal to the way pitchers pitched in the olden days. Yet, here are a few ways we could find a true pitch count limit…

1. Glycogen testing: Glycogen is the form of carbohydrate that is locally stored in muscle tissue. Glycogen stored in the rotator cuff, for example, is going to be chiefly used up by the rotator cuff muscles. When glycogen gets depleted, muscle performance drops off dramatically, as glycogen is your muscle tissue’s favorite and fastest energy source. If we could find out how many pitches depleted glycogen in the throwing arm and body as a whole to performance-affecting levels, then we would have a good reason to remove a starting pitcher at that point.
2. Velocity readings: Radar guns track every pitch thrown in professional baseball. When a statistically significant drop-off occurs in a game, that would be a sensible place to remove a pitcher. Understand, however, that if a pitcher throws 90 for 100 pitches then sits at 89, that might not be a statistically significant drop – as a loss 1 mph on a 90 mph fastball is only a 1.1% drop. But dropping to 87 from 90 (5%), might represent a more serious drop in performance.
3. Control and game performance: This is the way pitchers were evaluated before pitch counts and radar guns – by visually assessing their effectiveness. If you walk two straight hitters in the 8th, all with high pitches (signs of a dragging arm), maybe your dogs are barking. What’s wrong with this in today’s game? I say nothing, although we do need to make sure a pitcher’s connective tissues can hold up as long as their muscles can…
4. Connective tissue testing: I’ve read studies that claim that ligaments and tendons are more often injured due to highly repetitive stresses rather than one-time acute stresses. This means that you are more likely to injury a ligament or tendon as pitch count rises. Yet, this seems intuitive and obvious. Would you be more likely to tear your quad in the first mile of the Tour de France or the 500th mile? Duh.  But, testing that can tell us how and when connective tissue is becoming stressed to a dangerous level would help us estimate when it’s time to come out of a game.

Maybe all of these tests would tell us that 100 pitches is indeed the generally accepted time to yank the starter…but I would guess that it’s probably not. Differences in genetics, strength, conditioning, body control and experience all play into it, and there is little reason to think that only a handful of pitchers today are capable of throwing somewhat regular complete games. Roy Halladay and Cliff Lee finish about 30% of the games they start; are they superhumans? No. Are they doing something, something secret that the rest of the league doesn’t do, that allows them to go an extra 2-3 good innings? No. Rather, they are just effective pitchers who have established the ability to safely throw 115 pitches every time out, coupled with a coaching staff that understands this. I’m getting my first experience with this as well, as our pitching staff is given a leash of about 120 pitches. If we end an inning at 100, we go back out as long as we are effective. We get to have 15-20% more fun than other starters in our league.

I was discussing this with another pitcher in the bullpen, and he had an interesting point when I posited that there seemed to be a shift in the Majors toward letting starters go longer. He said that because steroids are largely gone, batspeed is down. Because batspeed is down, pitchers are more effective. Because pitchers are more effective, hits and runs are down, and pitchers who give up less hits and runs are less likely to get removed from games. Pretty good logic.

So is the 100 pitch barrier arbitary? I say yes.

Our weekend was spent in Traverse City, Michigan, which is way up North on the shores of Lake Michigan. The Traverse City Beach Bums were our Independence Day opponents, and I doubt we could have had a better place to play for the holiday.

Game 1 of the series was a win, thanks to Tyler Lavigne, who continued dominating teams like he has all season. Game 2 was mine, and it was lucky that my date fell on July 3rd. July 4th is usually spent with family, cooking out and doing various patriotic things, and so crowds aren’t usually as big on the actual holiday. July 3rd, however, is the day before the day, and since it fell on a gorgeous Saturday, the ballpark was packed.

Before the game, a really nice ceremony was held honoring our troops. The Blue Angels were in town for an air show, which we had watched on the beach that afternoon, and they were also at the game shaking hands with our veterans. I’m not all that sentimental, but with all of the speeches and veterans around, I felt pretty thankful to be on a baseball field, with 6,500 fans to watch us play. That was the biggest crowd ever in Traverse City, by far the biggest I had pitched in front of, and It was a neat experience. We even got a fly-over from a B-52 bomber. When the game started I got hit like a red-headed stepchild and didn’t make it through 4 innings, but it was a good day nonetheless. Some of our hitters really stepped up and mounted a strong comeback to try and bail me out. Though they couldn’t, the loss felt like a minor detail in light of the sacrifice of all our military personnel out there. Sports are crucially important to our culture, and I don’t believe what we do is at all frivolous, but fighting for one’s life is scary, and there were a lot of people watching us who had done just that. If it’s a job for the solider and a job for me, I’m pretty happy to be pitching baseballs rather than grenades.

Game 3 was a loss as well, and while it was a hell of a shame to leave town with a series loss, the weekend as a whole was interesting. Without baseball, I would probably never have visited Traverse City, which is a decent little town. I had never seen the great lakes before, and Lake Michigan was pretty amazing. Blue water that was only a foot or two deep for 1000 feet out. We got a chance to walk in it before heading to the ballpark on Sunday. And not to mention that it was the annual Cherry Festival, which brought thousands of people into the town for the weekend. With a ton of people around celebrating our country on a blue-skied holiday, the atmosphere was buzzing.

My stomach also honors the cherry.

Yeah, the ride home was long, and quiet (we were all pissed about dropping the series), but win or lose the trips are an experience. Independent of our losses, this one was pretty cool. As we rolled out of town we caught 5 different sets of fireworks from our bus, some I think that were in Grand Rapids, which kind of summed up the life we live. Being on the move all the time, we don’t get to soak in a lot of things like holidays and family moments, but we get a high volume of little cultural fragments. Sure, we didn’t get to watch the fireworks from a blanket with our loved ones, but we got to watch it from the bus, doing something we love with our summer family. I don’t remember the first time I watched fireworks, but I’ll remember the first time I watched them from a bus.

Wake Up

I awaken anywhere between 9am and 2pm. 5-8am basically doesn’t exist. Because we  don’t have to report to the field until usually 2-4, depending on the day and our workload, we have all morning and early afternoon to ourselves. And, because the first half of the day is boring and uneventful, sleeping seems like the best use of our time. Sure, I could get up, make breakfast, and read the paper, but I’ll have time to do that when I’m old. Rather, I sleep until I feel good…then I sleep about a half hour longer. Why do we need all the sleep? More on that later…

Upon awakening, I make breakfast and watch TV or do a little writing. At home, I get the chance to make healthy food for myself, which is great because while on the road we rarely have healthy, fresh options. Some oatmeal, fresh fruit, eggs, fish oil and a protein shake start off a great day during a homestand. If we’re on the road, then I force myself to sleep even longer before foraging outside for food. Usually the bus will take us somewhere if we don’t have restaurants within walking distance, but sometimes we’re out of luck. Grocery stores are my savior, as I can save some dough and get quality food in lieu of Wendy’s and whatnot. Hotels in small towns are boring, and we don’t have to be at the ballpark until 4:00 while on the road for a 7:05 game.

The Least Attractive Redhead I know

The Workday

At the ballpark, it’s time to make our money. We get all of our practice, training, etc. before the game, which is why we are there 3-5 hours before our game. We get time in the clubhouse to change, make some food, rock out to some music, or whatever for our first hour at the field. Again, the workload of the day depends on how much of our time during pregame is free. The two days after a start I have a lot of training, dry drills and conditioning to do, so there’s less time to sit around. But other days, there’s more time to sit and enjoy the antics of the rest of the team. Batting practice lasts 45 minutes, and then we either continue to get our practice in, individually, or head back to the clubhouse for pregame food, showers, bullshitting, and uniforms.

Once the game starts, we have 3 hours to hopefully earn our salary. One of my teammates was calculating our earnings today. He told me that based on my pay rate, if you were to assume I get paid only on days I pitch, I earn about 1 dollar per pitch, or roughly $100 per start. Yeah, I don’t make much, but I couldn’t care less. Most of it goes in my pocket, anyway, because we don’t pay for much of anything.

After Hours

Once the game is over, it’s back to clubhouse for more free food, which is hit or miss depending on the clubbie. Here’s how the clubhouse works:

We pay clubhouse dues to the “clubbie”, who washes our uniforms and buys our food for us. When we’re away, we’re at the mercy of a clubbie who may or may not care how well we, the visiting team, are fed. If they provide us nice, catered meals after each game, then we all go home full and we can pocket our per diems. But, if the food sucks, then we may or may not eat it, and may have to go searching for food at a time that most restaurants are closed. We have to pay him dues either way.  Our clubbie at home, Mark, is terrific and takes great care of us, so we all try to take care of him as well. He works long hours and is a great guy.

Once we leave the ballpark, our real free time is upon us. This is our only chance to socialize, though we are all usually tired from a long day in the heat. If we don’t go out to the clubs, life outside of baseball gets kind of dull. So, we all try to go out a few days a week to see some new faces. We have all day to sleep, so being out until 1 or 2 isn’t a big deal. When we go out, some guys drink a lot, some guys don’t drink much, or at all. After that, we go to sleep, and do it all again.

The compact schedule makes for a fun but rigorous summer. Days off are rare and having a game in a new city the next day is commonplace. Those lazy afternoons become valuable when you have to pack up the bus at 11:00pm after a game and drive to a new city, where you hopefully arrive before the sun comes up. Sometimes you do, sometimes you don’t, and a 4:00 bedtime can feel regular at times. Sleeping on the bus, if you’re a light sleeper like me, is difficult. But, after a few cumulative late nights it gets easier.

Life-Giver?

Just recently we were on the road near Chicago, and we had a 4 hour drive to our next road series. After wrapping up the first series, we were sent packing with a really terrible spread of food that nobody ate. So, we hit the road with empty stomachs heading up to Kalamazoo, Michigan. Upon arriving at around 3am, we were all starving and had to find food. It was early morning, so nothing was open. McDonald’s was serving, but only via the drive-thru. So, our assistant coach convinced the drive-thru window person to make 50 double cheeseburgers for us, along with 10 orders of chicken nuggets, powerades for everyone, and 20 orders of fries. It took about 45 minutes of waiting and about 45 seconds of annihilation before all the food was gone. I had actually avoided eating a McDonald’s burger before then, so this 3:30 burger was my first. When you’re starving, you take what you can get. Late nights and fast food: two things that wear you down in a hurry, but that I wouldn’t trade for anything. It’s an interesting life, to say the least, and I’m going home with stories.

But in the professional season, off-days are few and far between, and the rotation gives each starter 4 days to prepare for his next outing. Everyone is different in what he needs to prepare, but I’ll share my own preparation schedule that I feel gives me the best chance to succeed and stay strong throughout the season.

Day 0: Pitch (hopefully well)

I do very little on this day.  I stretch everything out, warm up really well, and go out and give em my best on the mound. Afterward I ice my elbow If I think I need it, but I generally am not a big icer.

Day 1: Repair Thyself

I do not lift weights on this day, nor do I do any shoulder or elbow prehab. I usually do not throw, either. My rationale for this is that throwing 100+ pitches is very destructive on the body, and a full day of rest is necessary to keep me healthy. If I do prehab, even without throwing, I’m still not allowing those tired and inflamed tissues in my arm to fully rest. So, I leave my arm alone – completely. I once asked my surgeon what he thought a pitcher should do after a start. His reply? “sit on the couch and eat potato chips.”

I keep off my arm as completely as I can, but my legs are a different story. Day 1 is my big run day, and I like an interval type workout with slightly longer distances. 10-12 “Bows” is one of my favorite workouts on Day 1. A “bow” consists of a very light jog on the warning track, and then an all-out sprint from foul-poul to foul-pole. A short rest is OK in between each bow, as keeping the sprint a sprint is a goal, and too little rest will reduce it to a fast run.

A crude drawing of a Bow

After getting my running done, I do hip work with a mini-band around my ankles, and I get a whole-body stretch in. After that, it’s bucket duty during BP and sitting through the ballgame.

Day 2: The Busy Day

Day 2 is hectic. No rest on this day.

First priority is a full-body lift, which will consist usually just of big, compound lifts like deadlifts, squats, chin-ups, floor pull-ups, and one pushing exercise like DB bench press. In-season I use heavier weights for low reps, with usually one higher-rep set thrown in to maintain my muscle mass. The low rep stuff keeps my max strength up without depleting all my energy, and I’ll typically use sets and reps such as 4×2, 4×3, 2×2 and 3×1, etc., done at 80-85% of my 1rm. Keeping max strength up is crucial, or else you end up a weakling by the all-star break, and all your offseason work becomes for nothing.

After lifting it is time to take care of my arm, which means my complete shoulder circuit of 2-3 sets, and all my elbow prehab. I also like to do some grip work holding heavy weights, (in addition to the deadlifts) like farmers walks or blob holds, if I can, because they make my elbow feel really good. I’m not sure why holding heavy things makes my elbow feel great, but it does.

Holding heavy things is fun!

After all the strength and prehab stuff, hopefully I have few hours break before going to the field. I’ll throw at the park, stretching it out a bit if my arm feels up to it, but basically the goal on this day is to get the arm moving again and prepare for my bullpen the next day.

After throwing, it’s time for al little more running. Short sprints, maybe 12x40yd is about par for this day, but I play it by ear depending on how I feel.

Day 3: Back to Work

Day 3 is highlighted by my heavier bullpen of the week, usually in the 5-10 minute range depending on what I need to work on and how I feel. This pen is thrown at maybe 70-80%, but I might pump it up higher if I feel I need a little higher intensity work, as your pitches and they way they feel change the harder you throw.

I do another set or two of shoulder and elbow prehab, this time with lighter weights. Usually 2lb is all I touch after Day 2 for my shoulders, and I like doing some table scapula stability exercises on Day 3 as well. Elbow work is very light. The workload starts to taper down on Day 3, as I have to be fully recovered by Day 5.

This is the last day I run hard. The other day I did 20x40yd sprints, but I mix it up depending on how I feel. Pick-ups, maybe 3 sets of 20 is something else that I might do on this day, to get some lateral leg work.

Day 4: Tapering Down

On Day 4 I play catch, usually ending with a flat ground or maybe a short, light mound bullpen of just a few minutes. The goal is to keep the arm moving while still working on the feel of my pitches. I feel better on game day when I have played catch the day before, rather than taking day 4 off.

I jog a little bit, just to get the blood flowing. I stretch really well and don’t do any other physical stuff with my arm.

Day 5: Pitch (hopefully well)

Hopefully I maintain my place in the rotation and give the fans something to cheer about. Then the preparation starts back up again!

Again, everyone is different, and this is so far what I have found works for me. Making sure you’re recovered for the next start is key, and if fatigue sets in you have to adjust your workload to compensate, ensuring that you’re at your best every time you take the mound. I enjoy training hard, but being a hero in the weightroom or on the track isn’t worth a damn if it leaves you tired for that next outing.

But it doesn’t just stop there. Aside from being provided with multiple loaves of bread, plastic silverware and two orphanage-sized jars of Skippy and Smuckers to stave off the pregame hunger, players are typically provided with a big spread of concession-stand hotdogs, hamburgers, corndogs, soda, popcorn, or whatever the ballpark was selling that night. 10 pizzas from Papa Johns after the game?

Absolutely.

Sure, the pasta and other catered meals sometimes find their way into the clubhouse after games, but those meals appear with less frequency and certainty.

Plus, it’s the little things. There’s actual Gatorade in the cooler, a big tub of Dubble Bubble, and all the free bags of David sunflower seeds you can spit. And yes, I know Dubble Bubble tastes like soggy newspaper roughly 25 seconds after your first chew, but hell, just spit it out and grab another piece – it’s free, after all.

Dubble Bubble is to Gum as White Castle is to Restaurants

I just find it ironic that the high level athletes, besides playing a kids’ game, largely get fed kid food, and they love it. I’d be lying if I told you that my first peanut butter and jelly sandwich wasn’t awesome – it was. I eat super healthy when I can buy and cook my own food, so I never eat the stuff that I’ve been eating, mostly because if I don’t, I’ll go hungry. The travel schedule and energy demands of being on the road and at the ballpark all day are high, making packing all of one’s food pretty much a non-option. Sure, you can plan ahead and bring some healthy stuff with you, but overall, you eat what they give you. You can cringe at the options, or allow your smiling inner-child a summer in the sun.

So as the pitchers leaned on the railing, watching the games, we bounced ideas off each other and our pitching coach about each hitter. Some of the things discussed were:

1. The stance: Where does he start? Open, closed, hands high or low? Where do his hands go when he strides, and where does his stride take him?
2. The batspeed: Does he have any?
3. Tendencies: Is he looking to pull? Letting the ball get deep? Can he hit an inside fastball? An outside fastball? What can he handle up in the zone? Does his approach noticeably change when ahead or behind in the count?
4. Swing path: Does he want to extend his arms, or does he stay compact? Is his swing inside-out? Does he go straight to the ball or have a loop?
5. Where is he in the lineup? What is his job likely to be? Is he a bunter with runners on? Will he try to move the runners over when he should, or will he hit more selfishly?

These are a lot of the things that we think about, trying to get a handle on where to throw certain batters. Even if our analysis gets a little complicated, our approach and job always stays simple. You try to figure out which guys can hit a fastball in, and which ones can’t – if they can’t then you exploit it. If they can’t hit away but try to jump on something in, then let’s throw him away. If they suck at hitting offspeed then maybe we force them to hit offspeed. But, baseball changes according to situations, and so there is never an exact science behind pitch calling. Sometimes you pitch a guy according to your read and he beats you, but next time out you don’t let him beat you the same way again, and you don’t deviate from your own strengths. At the very least, you go with your best pitch, regardless of who is at the plate.

And remember, analyzing a hitter isn’t done to make a pitcher “beware” of their strengths – it’s to get a handle on what he tries to do at the plate. One should never go out on the mound with the mindset of, “if I miss inside he is going to crush it, but if I throw away I’ll be safe.” That mindset teaches a pitcher to be timid, when above all, aggressive pitching is effective pitching. Know the hitter, but never give him too much credit. Albert Pujols sees maybe 2000 pitches a year, and still only hits 40 out of the park. Find out what they’ve got and where they’re weak, but don’t be afraid to challenge and outcompete them where they’re strong.

Here’s how Independent ball works, and why it can be harder than affiliated ball to keep your job:

1. The coaches want to develop you into the best you can be, but their first goal is to win. This is because they aren’t affiliated with a MLB team, and so the team at hand is what pays the bills. If you can’t help them win, they have to find someone who will. You don’t get 2 years for them to try to make you into something – you get 3 weeks. Guys sometimes get released after throwing one bullpen or hitting one round of BP in camp (though my coaches gave us a really thorough chance to show what we had).
2. There’s tons of guys with experience, who have played at a higher level and gotten released, and they have priority for roster slots. Is this unfair? No. It’s life. If you want to break in you just have to be better than the guys who have been around.
3. The pool of players are all very good and very close in talent level. It often comes down to small things that separate players or their aforementioned track record.
4. New players are constantly looking for jobs. Our coaches said they got calls every day from guys who had gotten released, guys they knew were good. We picked up a pitcher 10 days into camp, and he is good, and he made the team. There is always someone out there looking to replace you.

So as I arrived in camp, amongst 17 other pitchers, nearly all of whom were taller than me, I felt like whatever talent I had would get lost in the sea of 90mph fastballs. It’s an awesome feeling to know that you have the better part of a dozen 90+ arms on your squad, except when you’re competing with them to stay on said squad. We let go of some good pitchers, and are left with a lot of really good pitchers. Having made it through, I feel great about our ability to shut other teams down.

But, the one piece of advice I had heard from all they guys who had been here before me was, “worry about yourself and do your thing. You’ll drive yourself crazy if you start picking the roster and worrying about how other guys are throwing.” It was good advice, and I tried my best to just keep focus on myself and do my best. In the end, that’s all anybody has, and even with hitters in the box, it’s just you competing to throw your pitch to the mitt. That was my goal, to keep that tunnel vision the whole way through.

But it’s not that easy. You wonder who has a spot locked up because they played affiliated ball last year, and who they like as starters and relievers, and what your role might be. And when you think about all these things, suddenly your future feels beyond your control. I fought to keep my future, mentally, in my own hands every single day.

I didn’t go out, thereby avoiding any bar fights or hangovers. I was in bed at 9 or 10 every night (not because I wanted to, but because when you have 9:30am practice and you’re that bored you just fall asleep). I watched 3 gory movies a day with Dennis, my host “Dad.”

I took care of my arm, and made sure I physically had what I needed every day for practice. When the team ran, I ran hard, because I really wanted to be there. I didn’t know what it would take, but I didn’t want to get beat out because of some controllable detail. I’ve never been good enough yet to take those little details for granted.

But I learned a lot, and thankfully didn’t get released in my first of hopefully many spring trainings. I executed in all of my chances on the mound, which is all I could ask of myself. In my career it had been a long road to get this opportunity, and I didn’t want to stumble at the finish line. While I can’t control what happens after the pitch leaves my hand, or whether those who evaluate me like the pitches I throw, I try to take care of everything else that falls within my power.

So having earned the right to stay, I took a deep breath, called a few people and shared some good news, and have turned my focus forward to Saturday. Making the team and earning the right to wear No.9 on gameday was the biggest accomplishment of my life so far, but now that’s in the past. I thought I would have this big rush of relief, but I don’t, and that’s because I have just as much work to do as before. It’s good to set goals like stepping stones – and now that I’ve planted my feet firmly on one, I’ve got to go out and pitch well to keep moving forward. Gotta give my team a chance to win every time I step on the hill.

No matter how far you get, it’s better to feel like you’ve accomplished nothing; You’ll never cease to be hungry. When it’s all said and done, then look back and be proud.

1. Similarity and Deception: A curve thrown within 15mph of one’s fastball won’t “pop” out of the hand. This is an interesting phenomenon – on almost all slow curves, the ball will appear to pop up out of the hand immediately upon release, and batters can easily pick this up. Curves that are thrown harder tend to take the same flight pattern as a fastball out of the hand, eliminating this tell for the batter, forcing the hitter to wait longer before deciding what the pitch is and where it will end up.
2. Sharper and later break: This is just physics – the harder the ball is thrown with forward spin and the faster it will move when it does start to break, and the extra velocity will help it travel farther before breaking. The pitch won’t break as far, but any hitter will tell you that a short, sharp curve is more difficult to square up than a long, loopy one.
3. Shorter Reaction Time: Duh. Throw it harder and their reaction time is shortened, making any pitcher harder to hit.

The Ol’ Vida Blue

The first reason is probably the least mainstream, and is something that hitters start to pick up on when they reach the more elite ranks. High school hitters don’t pick up on much unless they’re special, but college and pro ones do. That slow curve almost always appears to start going upward out of the hand, which makes it look larger, and tells the hitter that a fastball is not on its way. It is something that is hard to describe, but is easily seen from the batter’s perspective.

The solution to this is to throw the pitch harder. For those who throw it 20 miles per hour slower than a fastball, getting to that 17mph difference will feel like the ball is coming out very fast. Those first few bullpens will be filled with curves in the dirt as the arm speeds up faster than the grip is used to. But, over time, that 17 will feel normal, and 15 will be possible. Falling somewhere between 12-15mph slower is where almost all curves are thrown at the pro level, and one’s goal should be to get to the point of throwing the curveball with the exact same intentional speed as the fastball. This will maximize all of the off-speed benefits the pitch has to offer.

So go watch some games, and pay attention to the numbers. Aside from Ted Lilly and a few others, most curves will be at or under that 15mph threshold. The site fangraphs.com is pretty cool, as they show you pitch speeds for all major league pitchers. Check out Justin Verlander’s chart here.

Maybe if it gets good enough, someone will compare your curve to Vida Blue, who apparently threw a pretty nasty one. In the immortal words of my friend Joe Michalski… “Give ‘em the ol’ Vida Blue Hammer!”

Summer Demands

The summer for a college baseball player is unlike the summer for most other college athletes; Instead of a nice break to relax and train without school, the vast majority of college players play a schedule more rigorous than their college season.

Baseball is the most demanding college sport anyway – 56 games spread over approximately 100-120 days while balancing a full course-load simply blows any other sport out of the water. Plus, baseball has an indulgent pregame that makes any single game longer than two games of most other sports. Don’t believe me? Let me enlighten you…

Baseball usually has a 3-4 hour pregame, depending on whether it’s home or away and the coach’s policy. Lacrosse, for example, would arrive after we had reported for our pregame and complete their pregame, play the entire match, and clear the field before we even threw the first pitch. One game’s time commitment for a D-1 lacrosse player? 2-3 hours. For a D-1 baseball player? 5-7 hours. Factor in the fact that lacrosse plays 1/3 the amount of games, and you can see how big a part of life baseball is.

My point in all this is that baseball players are very stretched for time during all seasons of the year. As soon as the college season is over, there is usually a 2 week buffer between college and summer ball, and summer ball consists of 40-45 games played usually in under 50 days. Then, a month later, daily fall practices start.

So, back to the original question: What is appropriate lifting volume for summer ball? Well, it depends on goals…

What are you getting out of the summer?

Some players need to become more physical, some need to improve skills, and some need to gain experience. Training to become a better baseball player becomes difficult when you assume an in-season courseload for more than half of the calendar year, summer included. Plus, though the fall is more of an offseason for practice and development, it’s still a time where players must impress their coaches to earn a role in the spring season. There is almost no time during the year when a college baseball player can focus solely on their bodies without having to remain fresh for on-field performance.

The Varying Plans

For the player needing to become better physically by gaining or losing weight, or by improving strength and conditioning:

• Focus is chiefly on the body, not on the skillset
• Lifting and training volume is heaviest for this group: strength training 2-3 days per week, conditioning 1-3 days per week, depending on goals and position
• Skills are placed on the back-burner, and a lesser role must be assumed on the team – this might mean choosing a role as a part-time player, even if skilled enough to play everyday.
• Example: if a shortstop needs to develop more hitting power, then it may be OK to have to sit out a game due to training fatigue.

First priority for some

For the player needing to hone and develop baseball skills as a first priority:

• Focus is first on skill development, as the player assumedly has enough or near-enough physicality to succeed
• Lifting load is moderate – likely 2 days of strength training and 2-3 days of conditioning, depending on position and goals.
• The body must be fresh enough to allow proper movement patterns during practice and games. Being too tired or sore from training to get in the proper skillwork each day is unacceptable.
• Full-time play is fine as long as the developing skills aren’t jeopardized. Example: if a pitcher is changing his mechanics, he should be pitching, but not so much where he might lose his adjustments while pitching at game speed.
• Another example: if a third baseman needs 300 ground balls per day to increase his fielding ability, then he needs to take them, even if that means only playing a few days per week.

First priority for others

For the player who needs to gain the fine-tuning and experience of playing every day:

• Focus is on being prepared to play every day, practice and training are still crucial, but cannot impede game-time readiness
• Training load is moderate to light, depending on the tolerance of the player. This may mean 2 days of maintenance lifting per week with 0-2 days of conditioning.
• Body must be fresh enough to play every inning of every game if given the opportunity. Any leftover energy can be used for training.
• Example: if lifting is going to impede a pitcher’s ability to extend to his full pitch count, then the lifting needs to be backed off.

The Real Purpose of Summer Baseball

The bottom line is that coaches want their players to come back better, and for each player that improvement is going to come from different factors. Players need to avoid the desire to play every single game when that workload may impede their ability to grow and improve as a player. For a player who desperately needs more size to increase hitting power, it would be irresponsible to save all his energy for the field. His first energy allowance should be to strength training (and eating!), not being an everyday player. Summer games are developmental even for the country’s top prospects. While scouts still attend summer league games to check up on quality players, everyone knows that the real purpose of summer baseball is to come back next spring as an improved version of last year’s model.

Know thyself; portion thine energy accordingly.

I got a kick out of this man Elliot  running around calling everyone a “beautiful rotational athlete.” Interesting guy.

Now, I DO think he knows what he is doing, but he acts like his new program is a whirlwind of modern science – it isn’t. Good trainers have been doing for years what he is now introducing as revolutionary, and the training isn’t nearly as complex as he makes it out to be…case in point: he pulls out a chart of Dustin Ackley’s power curve, then a minute later shows one of their players doing lateral hops.  Wow! All that technology boils down to…..lateral hopping. Lateral hopping is a good plyometric for pitchers but lets, please, not act like it’s never been done before. That could have been prescribed without dropping a dime on sophisticated software.

And take a look around this “bare” weight room. Little equipment? Hardly; they just removed the superfluous machines that no good trainer would keep around. The good things (and heavy, at that) are still there – squat racks and a lot of dumbbells. And the pulley systems are pretty expensive, despite being minimalistic, so I don’t like them pretending like it’s the gym Rocky trained in.

But Hooray for the Mariners, they do seem to have found someone who at least knows something, even if he is playing it up a bit too much.