One week out.. In a funk

One week! That is when I will start my drive to Orlando. I am excited to start the spring training journey. However, I have been in a bit of a funk lately. 

I’m not sure what put me into this funk , but I have been feeling off for the last couple of days. My bullpen yesterdy was just okay but I know I can do better. 

I think that was has been irking me lately. Over the course of the winter and throught my bullpen I have had moments of brilliance. Pitches have been very good at times. The fact that I can’t duplicate it consistently like I could with my swing is annoying. I feel off. Not very smooth. 

Subconsciously maybe there is something going on. My brain trying to psych me out. My self talk hasn’t been the best lately but as of now I am changing it. I have two more bullpens left before I hit the road. Then I assume I will have a few in Florida before the game start. 

With that being said, in four bullpens I’m sure I can work out of a funk and be ready to go when games start. This summer I threw two bullpens and was tossed into the games. 

I’m not sure what the point of this post was, I thought it would be nice to get a concrete record of how I’m feeling before my first spring training. It is a new experience, which this whole pitching thing has been, which is making me feel uncomfortable. Lucky for me I have a good support group of family and friends that are reassuring me things will be fine. The only person I need to reassure now is myself. 

First things first , bullpen on Thursday and go from there. 

Three Week Countdown

In exactly three weeks from now I will be hanging out at the Fairfield Inn, probably asleep actually because it will be 10:44 and not 9:44.  Anyways, what that means is I have about four more bullpens until I go back, and then I’m guessing a few more before we get into games.

What I do not like, and what has probably made me edgy over the last couple days, is that I do not know what all the training I have done will amount to in the spring.  When I was hitting, I knew exactly what I needed to do to be ready for a season.  I would lift a certain way, hit every day and refine my game.  I knew that if I did those things, then I would set myself up to be in a good position for a season.

However, now that this is my first of season focusing on pitching, I’m not sure what it all means.  With hitting, I could hit two or three times a day and be fine.  With pitching, we all know that you can not go throw for an hour, then break, then go throw for another hour.  That isn’t how this works, that’s not how any of this works. I’m sure there are nervous emotions lurking somewhere because this is my first spring training, and I don’t know what to expect.  I thought about it today, and realized that with the exception of one year in the last five, I have always gone into a season not knowing what to expect.  When I was bouncing around schools, August would roll around and I would head to school.  Each school was different.  New guys, new teachers, new coaches, new town, everything new for four years.  Spring Training is just another new experience in baseball that I haven’t had yet.

In a quick recap, I graduated high school in 2009.  It is now 2015, and in that time I have called Chicago, Florida, Iowa, Indiana, Kentucky, and Florida again, a home.  In three weeks, I get to call Florida my temporary home with the start of a new adventure called Spring Training.

Superbowl 2015

Myself, along with about 115 million other Americans tuned into Super Bowl 49 on Sunday. Before the Super Bowl, the teams get two weeks to prepare and game plan.  This usually means that both teams will be looking to take away the opposing teams best offensive player, or have a certain defensive player that they will target.

Heading into the game, myself, and the other 115 million people watching could not have expected Malcolm Butler and Chris Matthews to be key contributors to the game.  One thing I have in common with these two athletes is that we were not drafted into our respective sports but were signed as free agents. I have no problem or hate towards guys that were drafted in the first round, or drafted at all for that matter.  I like Andrew Luck, I like Peyton Manning, they are good guys and good role models.  However, it is refreshing to see guys who have had a few obstacles, but ultimately made it to the highest level. Below I have put a link to each athletes story, and how they reached the bright lights of the Super Bowl.

Malcolm Butler was working at Popeye’s chicken.

http://www.providencejournal.com/sports/patriots/content/20140820-intangibles-have-helped-patriots-malcolm-butler-write-his-rags-to-riches-story.ece

Chris Matthews was a CFL player, who was selling shoes at Foot Locker when the Seahawks called.

http://blogs.seattletimes.com/seahawks/2015/02/01/seahawks-fans-asking-who-is-this-chris-matthews-guy/

It is great to see guys who went non-drafted making an impact on the highest stage. Next month at this time I will be hitting the road to spring training.  Hopefully following in the footsteps of guys like Malcolm Butler and Chris Matthews.