By Jonathan Massey –
I’ll never forget where I was the moment Colin told me he was going to the big leagues. It was a Saturday in early June, and I was in the middle of working the BRAT station. It took almost everything I had not to scream with excitement when I read the text. See, Colin was one of the first minor league guys that I had the privilege of working with who had made his debut. It was surreal.
A couple of months later in August, he sent me a text, and when I read it, my heart sank. He told me his arm was bothering him and he was unsure what to do. Colin is a tough guy and didn’t often complain about his arm, so I knew that this was serious. At the same time though, he was halfway across the country, so him coming in for a “tune-up” session wasn’t exactly an option.
So, I did what I do when I’m perplexed… I asked him questions. The first one was, “What’s going on?”. He proceeded to tell me that, in a short time in the big leagues (about fifty games or so), he had pitched in about thirty games and had been hot, but then didn’t pitch in another five to ten. So there were about ten or so games in which he hadn’t at least been fully warmed up and ready to go in. I quickly saw where this conversation was going. I stepped in and said, “Colin, last time I checked, relievers who are only available every third day are a dime a dozen.” Then I asked another question, “When’s the last time you used either your connection ball or Durathro™ sock?”.
He kind of stumbled through, but basically said he had not used them since some point during spring training. Mind you, this is now the middle of August, so he had gone almost four and a half months without using two of the tools we used the entire off-season. As you can probably imagine, I was a little irritated at this, but I kept it together and said, “Alright Colin, for the next week can you please throw a little bit with your connection ball and sock?”.
He said, “Yes, I can do that.”
“Awesome,” I said, “Just keep me in the loop on how it’s going, and if it’s not better in a week, we’ll need to think about getting an MRI or something.”
About a week after this, I get a video from Colin… It was him pitching in a game. I open it up and it’s him throwing and he hits 97mph (which I know to be the hardest he’s ever thrown a baseball). I quickly write back, “Your arm is feeling pretty good, huh?”.
He responds with, “Actually, the best it has felt all season.”
I said, “Weird how that works. You get back to doing what you were supposed to be doing and your arm feels the best and you throw the hardest… Weird.”
The mistake Colin made is a mistake I see tons of players make… They think that mechanics are a checkbox. Like “check” my mechanics are good and I don’t have to worry about them anymore, which couldn’t be further from the truth. The truth is that as human beings, every day we wake up we are slightly different from the day before. Some days we wake up and tend to move more efficiently; other days we’ll wake up and move less efficiently. That’s why we have to use our training tools or drills regularly so that we encourage ourselves to move more efficiently on a more regular basis. Don’t get me wrong, getting hitters out is important and should be a primary focus of your in-season plan, but so is maintaining arm health and durability.
So, as we begin to transition to in-season, don’t make the same mistake Colin made and think that your mechanics are a simple checkbox. Continue to use the tools and the drills that helped you this off-season.
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