The year is winding down, the holidays have passed, and 2017 is on the horizon.
In the last three months I have explored to different parts of the country in hopes of continuing my career in baseball. Each step has been different, and going forward to 2017 I am sure there will be even more travel going forward.
When we left off, I was done with my season in the USPBL and hoping that in the offseason a team that saw me pitch during the season would call me up for spring training. I will get to my training further down in the post, but first I want to mention the 2016 world series that the Cubs won in seven games.
One random day when I was listening to MLB Radio, they had Torii Hunter on the radio discussing his career, what he saw from baseball so far, and what he was doing now thast he was done playing. He has retired, been watching his son play, and generally relaxing after a long major league career. One of his quotes that I thought about was how baseball is a collection of short stories. Each time you play, each pitch, everywhere you go is a different part of the short stories that you are writing as part of a career. I have written a few short stories so far in my journey, and I am glad that I have been actively recording my short stories to help the next generation of ball player.
Back to the World Series. The stage was set with Game 7 between Chicago and Cleveland. One starter was a guy who throws in the 80s, multiple offspeed, and someone who is a diamond in the rough as far as velocity and success goes. The recent surge in velocity has made guys like Hendricks anomalies for some reason, even though he can locate all his pitches. The other was Kluber, and the announcer made the comment that “Six years ago at 25 he was a minor leaguer with a career 6.00 ERA”. Another guyu who fits this bill is Andrew Miller, someone who had no success as a starter, and now is the most dominat relief pitcher in the major leagues. I thought how it was nice that in all three of these guys cases they had someone within the organization that was pulling for them to succeed. There was someone or multiple people within the organizations that said no let him figure it he will be fine.
After the World Series was over it was November, and I had a few workouts lined up. The first took me to Chillicothe, OH. A place that I was sort of familiar with from my Prospect League days, however I never made a trip to play the Paints. The short story is that this was a showcase for younger kids. The Red Sox scout Tim Martin, who I had met before in January 2016, was hosting and told me that I was welcome to attend. There were also a few other teams scouts there, who I networked with, sent emails giving them most of my information, and promptly never heard from again. There is no obligation for them to respond to me, but a simple thanks would be enough to acknowledge that I sent them information.
When I arrived at the requested time of 9:00 am I figured it would be like most workouts where the position guys do everything then the pitchers throw their 10 pitches and call it a day. I was sort of right, I threw that afternoon. I was doing my regular warm up when I was summoned to the game mound and the workout was paused. As I am writing this I realized I may have already wrote about this experience, but it is a good short story nonetheless. In summation, the workout went okay, and opened up different opportunities for me.
The next scheduled workout again was after the World Series for the Cubs specifically. It was for Tim Adkins, another scout that I met in January 2016. This tryout, workout, meet and greet, whatever you would like to call it, was at Marshall Universities practice field. The story behind the practice field is that they use it for practice and midweek games, then play their conference games at another stadium. The field was turf infield and in decent shape from what I could tell, and it would be a great field for most schools. When I was heading to Huntington, WV, there was a heavy fog the entire time. I was thinking that they may have us throw indoors rather than hang in the fog, and it was a similar situation to Chillicothe. I asked what time do we arrive, was told an early morning time, then sat and waited around for a few hours to throw in the afternoon. it gave me time to think about my warmup, visualize the pitches I was going to throw, and generally get a fell for the situation. This workout also went pretty good, I thought I was better than my earlier November trip, better than my previous January trip, and generally good overall for the Cubs. Also, I made some new friends still in college that think I’m cool. So I’ve got that going for me.
My latest workout was again for the Red Sox. This time Tim wanted his boss, or someone higher up in the organization, to meet me and say hello. There I was again, Portsmouth, OH. the last time I was here I was rocking the #7 and playing 3B for Lindsey Wilson College. We played the local Shawnee State bears, at their place for a conference weekend. There were some familiar sites when I rolled into town, I remember the restaurants we went to, however my workout was actually in West Portsmouth. Somewhere I had never heard of and the town of West Portsmouth was basically a large trailer park, with this really nice baseball facility in the middle. I rolled in before the workout began, and workout is the word I use but it was really a bullpen with eyes on you. This time it was three Red Sox guys, six pitchers, and about eight position guys. It was hard for the position guys because it was only a tunnel to hit in. You can find out some good info about hitters from the cage work, but mainly just watching their swing etc so when you see them in the season you know what to look for.
I was chosen last for my bullpen, and that made me happy because I wanted to be the last one to leave an impression on the scouts. The other colleges guys all looked good to me, but they were in a tricky spot because fall ball had just ended a couple weeks ago. I doubt many of them were throwing consistently because of it. Similar to the Huntington, WV workout, it was more for the Red Sox to see the guys in person, gauge them, and then when the season rolls around they know what to expect. One of the aspiring pitchers was a fellow named Derek Moore. I had met Derek before, as he attended Shawnee State University, he is now a senior. He is a good pitcher, similar to Hendricks, as he does not flash the radar gun but the man can pitch. He does not walk guys, has command of multiple pitches, and is a proven pitcher with is track record. I do hope he gets a shot at the next level as he has proven he knows what he is doing.
Before my bullpen I went to an old stomping ground. Shawnee State University field, where I asked the NAIA to grant me energy. Then I drove across the river to ask my old Kentucky home to grant me energy. After collecting the energy and vibes, I went on to my workout.
My bullpen was about 20-25 pitches I would say, I even threw out of my new windup which I hardly ever do. It was a fun experience for me to throw again, it being December and all, and basically throwing year round up[ to this point. it is good to know that my body is adjusting to throwing a lot, and that now I can take a small break before season next year. I do not know where the season will be just yet, but last year I didn’t know where my season would be until a week before spring training started. When the scouts ask me about why I am here or what happened I go with honesty, that I was trying new things, trying to make it work, and was under performing. Ohio and West Virginia are hot beds for professional tryouts.
With the Braves I thought I pitched well enough to return and earn a spot. The Rockies took a chance on me and I let them down. I under performed at the end of the spring, was never able to right the ship. I was all over the place, and my mission when I went to Joliet was to not be all over the place. That lead me to become too hittable. Then I go to the USPBL, have a bad outing, lose some confidence, and get sidelined for the end of the season. All of these factors have been taken into consideration when I have been working in the off season. It is all part of the larger picture of continuing my career. I hand crafted a strike zone for myself rather than throwing into an empty net. I will always have a target to aim at and visualize a hitter.
To this point in 2016 I have had a wild ride to say the least. I’ve been a part of three teams, been throwing a lot more into the off season than normal, and trying a few new pitch grips that will bring me more success in 2017. The problem I’m going to run into is that I haven’t had any success up to this point. The good news there is that I have played with guys that couldn’t get people out in A ball, stuck with it, the organization gave them more opportunity, and now they finished the season in AA.
That matters to scouts and organizations, and I ca not blame them for thinking that way. All I can do is keep showing up, showing that I am making improvements, and remind them that I am learning to be a pitcher in my third year. Then when I get another shot, relax, perform and don’t squander another opportunity. I have some leads on what to do that help, networking with other coaches, learning as much as I can going into the new year for pitching. All of that is nice but it comes down to me executing pitches when I am on the mound. I am trying to remember what it felt like when I first started in the GCL and I went out with nothing to prove, threw it as hard as I could, and called it a day.
I am not to the point where I am considering myself too old or not capable. I am scratching the surface of my abilities in my third year. The numbers don’t lie about my failures so far, but I can say that I’ve learned from them. My ability is different now then it was two months ago. I tell the scouts that if this was school I’d be in my junior year, and the strides someone can make from their freshman to junior year are large. The unknown factor is the most frustrating part of not being part of a team. I’ll go to workouts, then a few days later I will receive a call from a random number. To me it is always a farm director on the other side of the phone waiting to tell me that they are sending me the details of a spring training invite. It is usually a telemarketer of some sort, but my heart rate goes up nonetheless. Just today I received a call from a Massachusetts number and my hear rate went up, it was about some credit card offer.
That is who I am, I get overly enthusiastic about how a workout went, and then when nothing happens it is always a bummer. I know how baseball guys operate, it can be slow going, but being the squeaky wheel so far has gotten me the workouts as well as the opportunity to be seen. I know some guys that do not get that luxury that I have had. The lingering question in my mind is always if I have done enough work for the day. in this social media age I can look up what guys are doing and who knows maybe I am doing more than them, maybe not, but I never think I do enough.
Thank you everyone for the support in 2016 and I look forward to updating my journey into 2017.
A Baseball Blog 
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