First Real Appearance

Yesterday I threw an inning against the Washington Nationals. I’m going to consider this my first appearance of instructs and consider the inter squad game a warm up.

One cool thing I did not know about the games here is that we play in the big league spring training fields. It was fun being in a stadium compared to the back fields where I had my season.

I came in the bottom of the eighth inning down 8-2. My main goals for the outing were to throw change ups for strikes and get good early separation with my hands.

The first guy I faced was a lefty and he lead off with a triple. Not a big deal I guess he hit it well and our outfielder tried his best but it was over his head. I remembered that our pitching coach liked the idea of throwing inside on guys when there was a runner on third and trying to jam him. I tried this and ended up hitting the guy. Oh well, setting up a double play.

I threw two change up strikes to the third guy which was pretty cool but he ended up hitting a sac fly and scoring the run. Two fly outs later and I was out of the inning, stranding a runner at third.

The line on me was 1.0 IP 1 ER 1 H 0 BB 1 HBP 0 K.

I gave up a run which sucks but I felt good throwing and was glad that I had some better change ups thrown rather than my usual spiking them into the ground. I hope that is what they want to see out of me rather than going out there and dominating this early in my pitching career. I’d like to do both and that is my plan for the next two and a half weeks.

I’m happy with my progress so far and it’s fun talking to pitchers that are higher up than me. According to my calculations I have four more outings to make the adjustments they are asking and learn what I need to do for the offseason. My next outing is scheduled for Wednesday, but I have a bullpen Monday that I’ll work on more mechanical adjustments.

First Fall League Appearance

Today was an intersquad game following a morning of practice. I was schedueld to throw yesterday but since it was raining all of yesterday I was pushed back into today.

I felt good on the mound but it was weird throwing in an intersquad. When I used to hit, I always felt weird hitting against guys I knew well and I do not think I was as intense as I am during a regular game. Anyways, onto the performance.

To start the inning we worked on our bunt defense. After my warm up pitches there were runners placed on 1st and 2nd to simulate a bunt situation. I struck out the hitter trying to bunt but because it was practice he got to keep bunting. He ended up getting the bunt down after the strikeout and I threw him out like a regular play.

The real outing started after that. I faced the same hitter who had just seen me throw four pitches and I fell behind in the count 1-0. I had to come back with a fastball in that situation and he singled up the middle. I like to think I was setting up the double play for later. The second hitter took a pitch, then fouled off a failed hit and run. In the 1-1 count I went with fastball because I was having trouble locating but he popped out to right field.

I fell behind the third hitter 1-0 also, it was my recurring theme for the day, but induced him into a 6-3 double play to end the inning. Technically I threw 1.2 inning but officially only threw 1.0 inning.

My line was either 1.2 1 K 1 H 0 ER 0 BB, or 1.0 1 H 0 ER 0 BB.

After the outing the minor league pitching coordinator explained to me that I was breaking my hands late which is why I was not getting good extension towards the plate. For the next two days I will be working on getting that timing down for Saturday when I go against the Nationals for real.

I didn’t get a chance to throw any off speed pitches during the game which was what I was looking forward to doing. Having fastball command in my eyes is more important right now than throwing good off speed pitches. Especially because I fell behind all three hitters there was not a lot of room for me to start working on the secondary stuff.

Overall I feel good about the performance and I’m looking forward to hopefully throwing again Saturday against an official opponent.

September Showers Bring October…

I’m not sure where I was going with the title of this post but today was my first scheduled outing for in the instructional league. Unfortunately it rained for an hour right when our game was supposed to start and as I am writing this it is still raining.

The overall mood of the team was happy that we were cancelled but I was bummed I didn’t get to face live hitters from another team. I think the coaching staff wants me to throw in an intersquad tomorrow along with the four other guys who did not get to throw today.

Intersquads are fun but they aren’t the real deal. I guess I’ll have to convince myself that it is the real deal tomorrow to make sure I’m focusing as much as I need too. Tomorrow should be fun because I’ll get to try the new pitches I’ve been using during catch as well as see how I do against some of our own hitters.

That is if this rain ever stops.

The Season Is Here

Today was the first game of the instructional league season for the team.

We lost 5-2 to the Astros. Every pitcher we had that threw today was from either Short Season A or Class A. I was looking forward to seeing the guys that are higher up throwing today. What I noticed was that they were very similar to the pitchers in the GCL.

What they did better was their command. They weren’t throwing 95 or throwing disguising off speed but what they had was better command of their pitches. The ability to command a variety of pitches is what allows pitchers to advance. That makes me happy because I know I can work hard to improve the command of my pitches.

I’m slotted to throw in the game tomorrow against the Nationals but there is an 80%+ chance of thunderstorms during the day. Then on Wednesday we have an off day full of practice.

I’m excited to see how my change up feels being thrown in a game and what kind of reaction I get from the hitters.

That is if the rain holds off.

FIL – Day 4

Tomorrow and Saturday are the last two practices before we start having games on Monday. I know that we will still do the practice in the morning / game in the afternoon set up that we had in the GCL.

Practice has been going well but I’m still trying to figure out the mentality of some of the guys around here. There are some that are pissed they are here, some that are happy to be here, and I think a lot of indifferent guys that are just going through the motions. There are a variety of reasons for guys to be down here and some are here just to lose weight or build muscle.

One place where a lot of guys are just going through the motions is during the weekly yoga session. For some reason I am in yoga twice a week, even though I am not part of the strength and conditioning program, which tells me that they want me to become more flexible. I’ve had two sessions so far and enjoy the stretching routine and the burn that yoga has given me.

I’ve thrown one bullpen so far and throw another on Saturday. I’ve mentioned before how I received no instruction during the regular season but now the instruction is coming. Each pitcher is assigned a pitching coach who is there to help them reach their individual goals throughout the four weeks. In my plan, there are objectives such as extension through the pitch, and developing depth to each pitch that I throw.

This is what I wanted throughout the season. I wish they would have worked with me more on off days doing mechanical dry work and working with different grips, but at the time I think they were interested in seeing what I was going to do and how I was going to react do becoming a pitcher.

Going forward the coaching staff has laid out a plan for me to complete on an individual level. They keep saying that ERA, Ks, and other pitching metrics do not matter here because it is purely development, but I’d like to have good stats in case anyone is checking.

One thing the minor league pitching coordinator said today while we were doing our running in the blistering sun, with almost 100% humidity, that our friends would love to be doing this right now. At the time it gave me a second wind because I thought about how at one point I was glad to have time off in June, but how I wished I was somewhere busting my butt to play. After my bullpen Saturday I’ll have a better feel for how the coaches feel about me because each week we have a meeting to review progress.

After that I’ll know where I stand and see what the plan to improve myself will be.

Florida Instructional League – Day 1

Today was my first day as a participant in instructional league baseball. This league is similar to the GCL that I was just in which I think gives me a slight advantage compared to guys that were playing higher up.

Today was a lot of talking but it was also a 3 hour practice with a lot guys and coaches to meet. In total there are 55 players here, and 31 of them are pitchers. Along with the 55 players, there are 35 staff/coaches here.

A lot of the talk today was that the players here were selected because they have something specific to work on. For me, I’m not sure what the individual plan will be but I’ll be assigned a coach to work with one on one.

The assistant GM is down here and have a speech about being committed to the team for 30 days. When he put it that way I realized that I won’t be here that long, but can make strides going into spring training next year. I didn’t agree with everything he said because I don’t think that they believe everyone here can be a major leaguer, but that’s just the facts of the business.

My first bullpen is scheduled for Wednesday and the first game is Monday. Apparently stats don’t matter here and it is strictly development and instruction. If it’s up to me Id prefer the instruction to go along with good stats.

The funniest part of today was continually being asked when I got drafted and having to explain to people that I didn’t.

Tomorrow is the first day of the regular schedule of being there in the morning but done after lunch. I’ll see what the individual plan for myself is going forward.

Back In Orlando

Today was my travel day back to Orlando for Florida Instructional league.

Everything went well with my flights except that my bag did not make my connection. At this time it will be delivered at some point to the hotel, but hopefully before I go to bed.

I’m not sure what to expect going into practice because I was told there are at least 10 coaches here. I didn’t receive any instruction during the summer but with that many coaches I find it hard to believe that they won’t tell me something. I also don’t know the level of competition that I’ll be going against as I saw Ryan Zimmerman, third basemen for the Nationals, at the airport.

Thankfully we are not waking up at 6am for the first day but I’m sure it will be coming later in the week. I sound like I don’t know much, which is true, but I’m ready to get back to practicing everyday.

Orlando In Three Days

Only three more days until I return to Florida for another month of baseball. The two week break I had at home seemed to fly by but I am also ready to get back to playing. I haven’t done much over the mini vacation but yesterday I threw a bullpen to make sure I still knew what I was doing.

During my bullpen, it was great to have actual instruction and have an extra set of eyes on me that could help. I was immediately making adjustments to my grips and hand position on the ball which will, hopefully, make my pitches have more movement. Another positive that I took away from the bullpen was that my arm is staying healthy because I was pain free throughout. I had a week or so when I was in Orlando during the season when my hand was feeling numb 24/7 but that went away.

Anyways, just wanted to write a quick update of what I have been doing, and I’m looking forward to documenting the instructional league experience over the next month.