In this post, I will be talking about the development plan I have constructed for the pitchers on the Guelph Royals 15u Elite Team.
2019 is a big year for our team. 2018 was a pretty abysmal year for our pitching staff. We walked too many guys, hit too many guys, had too many injuries, etc. There were some great performances by many of our guys but we struggled with consistently competing on the mound day in and day out.
Before we dive into the plans for 2019 let's first talk about how the 2018 off-season went.
In 2018 we made a huge player development investment by introducing Driveline throwing protocols. Due to how large that investment ended up being for one team of 14 players we ended up getting the gear late and that put us behind schedule for the off-season development plan.
The initial roll-out of Driveline had its expected challenges. At first, I was too committed to following the programs exactly and put too much emphasis on individualizing things in Year 1.
This led to some confusing and a little bit of mayhem at our practices until we figure things out.
The biggest lesson I learned from 2018 was that we needed to get our guys off the mound more.
When the season rolled around we were unprepared on the mound and I take the blame for that whole-heartily. Additionally, because of throwing off the mound less in the off-season, there was a huge spike in stress on our pitchers in that first month of the season. While it is nearly impossible to replicate the stress of throwing outside in a game - we need to do a better job of replicating that.
So what do I have planned for 2019?
More mound work, individualized drills - not plans, replicating game atmosphere more, and MUCH more data collection.
Lets back up just a little and talk about this years team and the Fall season. We brought on 6 new players (5 pitch) in the Fall. We also had the entire team run through assessments at the Baseball Development Group in Toronto. Steve and John did a great job of giving me a starting place for building a plan with the pitching staff.
These assessments have allowed me to program individualized drills for each guy based on their deficiencies. This has created a much more organized system to implement. Last off-season we had guys performing different "Days" ie. Hybrid A or Hybrid B - on the same day.
This video demonstrates one of the individualized constraint drills for programmed for this athlete. When first assessed back in the Fall, it was noticeable that his arm action is "long" and "inefficient" - the quick pick drill has been a game changer for him!
While that system certainly has advantages, it also creates a lot of logistical problems and chaos at practice. Not to mention we are still only dealing with Freshmen in High-School. The simpler we can make it - the better.
This individualization of drills is really a best of both worlds. It maintains (if not increases) the level of individualization from 2018 - and does so in a more organized manner for team practices.
This off-season I also designed a more complete mound blending phase for our guys. We will go through 4 weeks of performing some plyocare drills off the mound and throwing light (10-15 pitch) bullpens. The goal with this is to reacclimate themselves with the mound at submaximal intent (roughly 80% rate of perceived effort) and begin to translate the movements they are creating in plyocare drills to the mound.
This video shows one of the mound-blending drills we will perform off the mound.
In this phase, we are also increasing long-toss and incorporating compression throws. So this is not a true mound blending phase - we are still trying to direct some focus on high intent throwing away from the mound. This phase will serve as an intensity builder for the guys - and we will be able to record some data on their compression throw velo to keep as a reference for when they get off the mound.
A quick aside on the compression throw velo tracking. The rationale behind tracking this is 1: our guys have much higher intensity when throwing to the gun, and 2: to see the type of differential a shuffle throw has to their mound velo.
Truth be told, I expect those 10 pitch bullpens to go miserably. We have pitchers who have grown 3-4 inches since the Fall and have put on sizable strength. Needless to say, their old deliveries and their comfortability on the mound is potentially gone.
I am really excited to kick off this mound blending phase. As I said earlier we have 5 new pitchers on the team. This will serve as an opportunity for me to get a good look at them on the mound and truly assess where they are at. Out of the new pitchers to the staff, most struggle with intent off the mound. By doing compression throws (and recording them) before getting into real bullpen work it is my hope for them to bring over that intensity to the slope.
Let's talk about the blending to season phase. Ie. throwing bullpens and getting ourselves polished to compete in season.
This is by far the biggest change to the off-season.
Last season guys threw around 5 real bullpens (25+ pitches). This was simply inadequate.
This year that number is being increased to 8, with the possibility for additional live at-bat days in April. Throughout the blending to season phase we will also be progressively ramping the bullpens up - increasing total pitches thrown to around 40+ by April.
Each bullpen will have a well-defined focus. This focus will be individualized to what will most help the athlete. Focus' range from velo, command, pitch design, stress pens, etc.
The video shown below is an example of what we will do in pitch design pens. Getting slow-mo video of not only the flight of each pitch - but also getting a closer look at their release. Pairing this with some metrics tracked by a Diamond Kinetics ball I will be able to help our pitchers make minor adjustments to their off-speed pitchers and begin to refine their arsenal.
Most pitchers will realistically throw 2 velocity pens (where it is max intent, all FBs) - one at the start of the phase and one at the end.
If a pitcher struggles with maintaining high intent off the mound it is likely that I will schedule more velocity pens for him.
Stress pens are something new added this year as well. Last year one of the biggest lessons was that the results in a controlled bullpen indoors are not at all conducive to game results. We had guys that pounded the zone when no one is in the box and just throwing bullpens - and would later implode in game.
A lot of this is not their fault. It would be easy to just write the athlete off as not mentally tough or not a competitor. But I believe those things can be taught (to some degree).
So stress pens are what they sound like. Making the environment as stressful as possible and forcing the pitcher into an uncomfortable environment - much the same as a game would.
I have broken this bullpen into two distinct types with different athletes in mind. A mental stress pen and a physical stress pen.
In a mental stress pen, one would be bombarded by loud annoying music, other pitchers taunting him, the worst umpire in the world (me calling balls and strikes at random) - and more that we will try and make up based on players weaknesses.
The hope here is that the pitcher is force to concentrate on throwing hard to a spot. In should be difficult, they should fall out of focus, they should be pissed that I call a middle-middle pitch a ball. But it will make them better pitchers.
The physical stress pen is where we try and tax the body like it would be in a game when you are deep into your outing. With time constraints in mind we cannot throw 50-60+ pitch bullpens (do people even do that?) but what we can do is find other stressors in between stints on the mound. Things like burpees, jumping-jacks, sled pushes, sprinting etc.
Here we are trying to increase the heart rate and force the pitcher to not only overcome a bit of fatigue but calm his body and mind down after surges of adrenaline. This will help to indirectly increase workload capacity as we continue to progress towards the season. It should also help our guys get better at dealing with high-pressure situations. Where the heart rate is elevated and adrenaline is pumping - this pen will serve as a reminder of how important breathing and visualization is when you're alone out on the mound.
Lastly, the biggest improvement to this off-season's plan is becoming more data-driven. It's great to have all these bullpen focuses but how do we know if they are actually working?
In comes bullpen charting. Each pen we will have a hitter (a guy who threw a bullpen earlier in the week) chart the bullpens on a laptop. We will have a radar gun hot each time. Tracking location, whether they hit their intended location, spin rate (for pitch design pens mostly) and others.
This is completely rudimentary - but we have not done it in the past. Just with this basic set of data, we should be able to assess whether a pitcher is improving week by week or not. At the very least this heightens the focus each time out for the guys - in all honesty - this data will serve a big role in determining which guys we can depend on early in the season. Not to mention we can start compiling numbers to send out for invite-only showcase events like Tournament 12.
So that pretty much sums up what I have planned for the Guelph Royals 15u Elite team's off-season. I have loved coaching these kids the past month and can't wait to progress deeper into the off-season with them.
You can follow the team on Instagram (@GuelphEliteBSB) and on Twitter (@GuelphEliteBSB) to see how we approach player development in other areas of the game.