The Real Voices of the Game Productions

The Draft and FA

Fundamentals Lost ... Baserunning

Max velo- No one cares how hard you throw ball 4

CJ Abrams

Frye, Pujols, Miggy, The Thrill

RESPECT

Quality pitches and ABS

Rickwood Field, Piper Davis and Buck O'Neil

Branch Rickey and Rex Bowan

Gary Tuck, Bobby Ramos, and Pitch Framing

Bob Boone

Toe the Rubber: Player Development for All Ages Hip Mobility and it's importance The seven primal movements are foundational movement patterns that are essential for human physical function and fitness. These movements form the basis of many exercises and activities in strength training and functional fitness. They are: Comparing and Contrasting the Seven Primal Movement Patterns and Their Importance in Baseball Pitching Delivery

1. Squat Importance in Pitching: The squat is crucial for building leg strength, which contributes to the power and stability needed during the pitching motion. A pitcher must generate force from the lower body to drive off the mound and deliver the ball with velocity and accuracy.

2. Lunge Importance in Pitching: Lunges enhance balance, coordination, and strength in the lower body, which are essential for the pitcher's stride towards the plate. This movement mimics the forward motion of the pitching delivery.

3. Push Importance in Pitching: While the push movement is not directly involved in the pitching delivery, it is vital for developing upper body strength, particularly in the shoulders and chest. This strength supports the pitching arm and contributes to overall arm stability.

4. Pull Importance in Pitching: Pull movements are crucial for developing the back and shoulder muscles, which play a significant role in the deceleration phase of the pitching motion. Strong pulling muscles help prevent injuries and enhance arm stability.

5. Hinge Importance in Pitching: The hinge movement is crucial for developing posterior chain strength, particularly in the hamstrings and glutes. These muscles are vital for generating power from the lower body during the pitching motion.

6. Rotate Importance in Pitching: Rotation is a core component of the pitching delivery. Effective pitching requires strong and coordinated rotational movements of the torso to generate velocity and control.

7. Gait Importance in Pitching: A pitcher's gait, particularly during the stride towards the plate, is crucial for maintaining balance and generating momentum. Proper gait mechanics ensure a smooth and efficient delivery.

Return from injury: Enhancing Focus on Repeatable Delivery through Verbal Cues In the context of a major injury, it is common for the focus to shift towards how the arm or shoulder feels. This change in focus can occur before, during, and after the injury, as well as throughout the rehabilitation process. It is important to note that once an individual is cleared to resume activities like throwing bullpens, the emphasis should shift towards achieving a repeatable delivery. This entails redirecting attention away from the arm and towards implementing verbal cues that highlight proper body mechanics and movement patterns during the delivery. To enhance clarity and optimize performance, it is beneficial to establish verbal triggers that draw attention to key aspects of the delivery process. Examples of such cues could include directives like "center of gravity past the front hip," "upper body parallel to the ground," "knee up, ball out," or other personalized prompts tailored to the individual's needs. By emphasizing the importance of repeatable delivery through targeted verbal cues, athletes can cultivate a focused mindset that prioritizes proper movement patterns and overall body mechanics. This shift in attention can lead to improved performance outcomes and reduced reliance on monitoring the sensations in the arm or shoulder. I had the pleasure of spending one afternoon with this young man. He drove in from out of town. He competed this year for a major D1 program. After spending some time with him talking about feel and being part of the process, performing drills specifically designed for him, he threw a bullpen and upon completion stated, “That is the best I have felt in three years.” From my vantage point the ball was exploding out of his hand with a nice free rhythmic repeatable delivery. Now the goal is to transfer this positive feeling of effortlessly repeating the delivery in game situations. Breaking through the “try harder mentality”

The people you meet

Dizzy, Pee Wee and Dad

Old and New School

JR Richards

Junior

Edgar Martinez

Dan Wilson and Yadi

Sweet Lou

Catchers, Coaching Influences, and David Justice

International Baseball, WBC, and the Draft combine

The trade and Rollie

MLB record and Morrow

The back-to back-to back WS Championships

Adjustments

Carew

Bob Gibson

Ted Kubiak

Are destroying talent?

Aaron Judge's otherworldly season is beyond Ruthian

Is this what it was like to watch Babe Ruth play every day?

“He's able to go on historical runs, MVP-type runs, otherworldly-type runs,”

In his career, Ruth had seasons of 60, 59, 54 and 54. He hit 40 or more in six other years. In that sense, Judge has some catching up to do.

In '27, Ruth went on two 51-game tears that make you check your work three and four times when you're done, to make sure the numbers are right because it feels like they couldn't possibly be right.

Now let's take a look at Aaron Judge's 51 games

There's a word for that: Ruthian.

Or maybe it should be Judgian.

“He's in that company all the time now,” Yankees manager Aaron Boone says. “It's incredible what he's doing, it really is. Kind of a ho-hum 2-for-4 [Sunday] with one off the batter's eye. He's in those conversations now all the time with Gehrig and Ruth and whatever superlative you can find. He keeps putting himself in those conversations.”

Twice? In his career, Ruth had seasons of 60, 59, 54 and 54. He hit 40 or more in six other years. In that sense, Judge has some catching up to do.

This is what it had to be like in 1927, in 1921, in 1930.

Ruth 12 seasons 100 RBI's 170 .393 16 of 17 .300+

2,500 games 1330 K's. 60'K's per

Gehrig 13 seaons 100+RBI. 7 seasons 150+ RBI. 185. 12 seasons in a row .300+

2,164 games 2,130 consequtive games avg 152 games per 17 seasons 790 K's 46 K's per season

Judge 919 games avg 111 games 9 seasons 1131 K's 125 K's per

One season .311. 2 seasons 100+ RBI.

Christian Scott. 6'4 215 Bigger Stronger Faster

With Christian Scott pitching the finest game of his young career and cruising, Mendoza went and got him after he retired the first two batters in the sixth inning. Scott, pitching on four days' rest for the first time in his career (and scheduled to pitch against the Rockies in four days on Saturday) was at 77 pitches after throwing 99 in Washington last week.

Said Mendoza: “It's a tough spot. The kid's too important.”

Yanks NY Post

When you go from having the best record in baseball immediately into a tailspin by losing 15 of 20 games, there figure to be plenty of factors. And the Yankees have had plenty since their reversal began in mid-June.

But nothing has been more stark than the disaster the starting rotation has turned into, going from the best in the majors to the worst, seemingly overnight.

Over their last 20 games, they rank dead-last in ERA at 6.96 and have allowed 2.23 home runs per nine innings — the highest rate in MLB. And while starters went a combined 35-13 in those first 72 games, they've been 3-13 since.

“Guys are gonna go through things,'' pitching coach Matt Blake said during the just-completed homestand. “You just hope four of them don't go through it at the same time and we've had some of that lately.”

And even Aaron Judge and Juan Soto have shown they're mortals at times. Judge's current 2-for-20 slide is nothing to be alarmed about, nor is the fact that Soto is 11-for-56 with four extra-base hits in his last 17 games, but no one outside of Ben Rice has been able to pick up the slack and it's not realistic to think he can produce at a high rate as the league adjusts to him.

Dodgers Connecting the Dots Miller / Buehlet / Wrobleski

Miller

“It was just great to see him out there and doing his thing,” Roberts said. “I know he expects a lot of himself, even being his first outing. I thought there were some good throws in there, some things we have to clean up as far as the consistency of the throw. But to have him out there and give us a chance to win was big.”

Getting Miller back was significant for the Dodgers. He's one of the most promising young pitchers in the game and will have a major role in October, barring another injury

It's important to note that his command was an issue in the latter two starts. More worrying, however, is the fact that he also lost some velocity after averaging 98.8 miles per hour with his fastball in the first game. He lost 0.8 mph on his heater and 1.2 mph off his sinker, respectively. The loss of command in addition to diminished velocity are tell-tale signs of an injury, so this isn't an all too shocking development. Miller was previously sidelined in early 2023 with "mild shoulder soreness," which impacted his MiLB start.

Buehler

“It sucks to feel kind of invaluable, or like you're hampering your team,” Buehler said after Tuesday's start. “At the end of the day, we really like our team and want to be ready for the end of the year. And I'm going to do whatever I need to do to feel like I can help our team at the end of the year, and do everything in my power to be valuable enough to be on those rosters.”

“You only get a finite number of throws to try and fix some things and work on some things without putting yourself in harm's way for your next start or taking away bullets for the next start and so on,” said Dodgers assistant pitching coach Connor McGuiness. “It's a tricky process. But if there's any guy I would bet on to figure this out, he's the guy I would bet on

The Athletic Richard Fits

When you look at right-hander Richard Fitts, who was one of the prospects acquired in the Alex Verdugo trade, what would you like him to continue to improve on at Triple A and what's stood out so far about him?

He's bought in really well to the programming and to the staff and is willing to make adjustments and push himself. That's been great to have a kid that works that hard. He's built a lot of relationships and trust here already. It's pretty simple. When he sits 95-plus, he's a really good pitcher that can be a rotation piece for a major-league club and for the Boston Red Sox. When he's operating at 95 and below, he tends to get hit a little harder and becomes someone who is not as impactful in the long term. So the velocity consistency, the velocity gains, the velocity improvement, which has happened, has been the focus and will continue to be the focus.

Pitching better than ever ?

Sat: games 98 pitchers 54 % ERA 4.00 Sun 40%

TJ recovery

2-8 5.45 ERA Kopech

All Star. Elly de la Cruz

2023 13 44 144 .235 .710

2024 15 39 121 .247 .804

Ohtani Giving up pitching ?

What makes that idea so tough to stomach is that Ohtani truly is a lights-out pitcher. Between 2021 and 2024, Ohtani started 74 games for the Los Angeles Angels and posted an ERA of 2.84.

Ohtani put up ridiculous numbers at the plate last season, too

44 HR 95 RBI 161 K's .304

In fact, Ohtani's performance at the plate has been so consistently devastating that there's now a legitimate argument to be had that the finest two-way player since Babe Ruth should follow in the footsteps of the Bambino by making the most radical adjustment of his career—and abandoning pitching altogether

100 RBI 1x 87 K's -plate discipline

481 innings in 5 years

Useful idiots

Instinks

The Finley Drill

Joe Maddon and the "Show Me Generation"

Data = Sameness

Jose Iglesias

The Aluminum Chair

All-Star Game

Front Porch Society

The unintended consequences of the NIL and Portal on the MLB Draft

Importance of different roles

what baseball taught me

Those before me ...

Swing adjustments

A new world defensively

Missy Combs

NIL

Pros who have impacted her

The importance of Jeff Frye

The hypocrisy behind the sticky tack

Swing and Miss

Be aware to become unaware

Players who sacrificedfor our country

The War

Lifting -what to do and what not to do

Tracking-pepper-eye exercises

Dry swings in the 8 zones

Mobility over lifting

What he'd do with Tanner

A way to teach diving for a ball

4 keys- eyes on ball, center mass, direction, posture

Be athletic- work hard to make it easy