Justin Verlander reveals the game that convinced him to stop throwing as hard as he could
“The whole knock on me early in my career was that I threw too many pitches. I’d throw 120 pitches, but I was only going six innings.”
“I had a game in Boston where we really needed me to get deep in the game. Our bullpen was shot. I go out the first couple innings, and I look up and I’ve got sixty-something pitches.”
“To me, the most important thing for that game was to chew innings. I was like, ‘I can’t keep this pace.’ So I ended up slowing myself down. I was throwing fastballs at 89. I threw a changeup in that game at 91 and threw a fastball at 89 in the same game.”
“I just pulled the throttle way back. I was like, ‘Man, here, hit it. Put it in play.’ All of a sudden, I was like, ‘Man, I am really able to hit my spot.’”
“I basically took that mentality and flipped it going into the next season. Let me try starting games like this and then building up as I go. If I get in trouble, I’ve always got it in my back pocket.”
“I always viewed it from the hitter’s perspective as you’re facing three different pitchers in three different at-bats, and they’re progressively getting harder to hit.”
‘26 RHP/OF Avier Carter (OH)
@wilberforce_u commit goes 5 no-hit innings in relief tallying 6 K’s + 1 BB. Athletic on the mound w/ a long stride + good extension. Good pace + controls tempo. FB T89 sat 87-88. Mixed in CB + SL w/ sharp break. #CABANC@avier_carter@Cincy_Flames
Chase Burns has taken MLB by storm since being BA's No. 12 college draft prospect in 2024. Burns' junior year at Wake Forest:
10-1, 2.70 ERA, 0.920 WHIP, 191 K, 100 IP
The righty just signed a seven-year, $105M extension with the Reds💰
🚨‘26 RHP/OF Avier Carter (OH) racks up 10 K over 4 IP. FB 86-88, T90. Mixed a tight low 80’s SL he landed arm-side and a sharp CB w/ 2-plane break that played well off the FB. Explosive mover down the mound, creates + extension that allows the stuff to play up. @wilberforce_u commit. #MineWS @avier_carter@CincyPatriot17u
CC Sabathia says he gave up a $500,000 bonus to defend a teammate, but the Yankees paid him anyway
“They put a bonus in my contract, I think I needed like 140 innings to get 500 grand extra in my bonus. We go into Tampa, and I need six innings to get this bonus. I'm in the fourth inning, cruising. I'm getting this”
“Then they threw a ball up and in at my catcher, Austin Romine. I know baseball, so I knew that shit came from the bench. Because I threw a two-seamer in and hit Jake Bauers in the hand. So they made a big stink. They throw at Austin Romine. I come out of the dugout and I'm ready to go”
“Then everybody calms me back down. Gardy comes to me. He's like, ‘Bro, don't do it.’ And I was like, ‘Just be ready to fucking fight.’ That's all I told him. So their catcher comes up the next inning and I hit him with the first pitch. I wasn't mad at him. I was mad at the situation and who called it”
“I said what I said at their bench and I walked off. When I was walking off, in the moment, I was like, ‘Fuck, I don't know if I made the right decision.’ Then everybody came in after the game and they was all fired up. That was something where, in the moment, it was the right thing to do”
“It was just a snap decision. I was just trying to show this is how you take care of your teammates. My team was young. Luis Severino was in there. Judge was young. All those dudes were young. This is how you set the standard. Don't matter about the fucking money. You go and you do what you got to do for your teammates and everything else will work out. Hal called me the next day and paid me my bonus”
This week everybody wanted to talk about what the bad things could be when you let College Baseball be the main source of elite amateur development. It’s time to highlight a good thing:
“The only other person we talked about starting was Jason DeCaro — but he’s gonna be a major leaguer, he’s got a whole career.”
North Carolina Coach Scott Forbes indicated that in good faith he couldn’t start his Ace in a win-or-go-home National Championship game no matter how badly DeCaro wanted the ball.
Forbes’ Game 2 starter wanted to pitch through an injury and Forbes removed him from the game, then had to use his closer for 5 innings effectively burning him for Game 3.
Forbes is a damn good coach and one day deserves a Natty.
“If you put your head down after a missed shot you’re coming out…Your body language kills the rest of us”
This is what REAL coaching is
Anyone can study X and O’s - It’s mentoring PEOPLE
(Via @thewinningdiff1 🎥)
Nolan McLean, 85mph Sweeper and 97mph Front Hip Sinker, Individual Pitches and Overlay.
Look at how far apart these pitches are...and where they end up. "Funneling"
When asked what characteristic ALL ELITE ATHLETES SHARE, Kobe said ‘storytelling’.
“Tell yourself, don’t listen to yourself.”
Jordan said :
“I never lost a game, I just ran out of time.”
World class athletes geniunely believe THEIR story. It becomes their IDENTITY.
Storytelling allows for extreme ownership and accountability and counteracts thoughts of being the victim.
@TJHannam10
Why staying relaxed will make you throw harder.
For most guys, an instant velo boost comes from thinking about staying relaxed until the very last second.
But a lot of people take that the wrong way.
They think relaxed means slow, and moving slow will hurt you more than help you.
That’s not what I mean.
When I say stay relaxed, think of a dead body.
Let gravity pull you down, stay loose throughout your delivery, and then at the very last second, tense as hard as you can.
There’s a viral clip of a Japanese trainer showing this.
If your arm is tense, it’s easy to push it down.
But if you stay relaxed and then tense at the last moment, it becomes almost impossible to move.
That’s the same idea I use in my delivery.
You stay relaxed, relaxed, relaxed, then at the last second you turn everything on.
It makes sense when you think about the stretch shortening cycle.
When your muscles are relaxed, you can stretch them quicker, which leads to more power output.
It’s the same reason that in a counter movement jump, if you go down quicker, you jump higher.
That’s what I’m trying to tap into in my pitching.
Two days after run-ruling then-No. 8 TCU to complete a ranked sweep, No. 1 UCLA was defeated 4-3 at home by San Diego State. Righty Alec Belardes gave the Aztecs 5.1 innings, allowing three runs on three hits and three walks. UCLA struggled with Belardes’ high-spin breaking ball.