Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 12, 2008
Ryan's Plan

Evan Grant details Nolan Ryan's plan for rebuilding the Texas pitching staff:

Among Ryan's suggestions:

• More live batting practice. It was incorporated in the minor leagues at the start of the regular season. Ryan wants more in spring training, too, something now-deposed pitching coach Mark Connor and bullpen coach Dom Chiti resisted last spring for the major league pitchers. Ryan believes batting practice helps build stamina.

• More sprinting: The system is stocked with power pitchers. Sprinting helps create more explosiveness than long jogs.

• Expanding limits: He doesn't favor abandoning pitch counts for minor leaguers. But he does want pitch counts to be more individually tailored. If a pitcher is closing in on his limit when he finishes one inning, it's more likely he'll be sent out to start the next inning and pitch right up to his limit rather than taking a seat early.

• Most importantly, Ryan wants to instill a genuine feeling of fearlessness among Rangers pitchers.

"There is a mind-set you have to develop with these young kids," Ryan said. "They have to believe they can be successful in Arlington. They have to know they are capable of throwing more pitches and working through trouble. We are trying to push them so they'll know they can push themselves when things arise in the big leagues."

I hope it works.

Hat tip, Lone Star Ball.


Posted by David Pinto at 05:37 PM | Pitchers | TrackBack (0)
Comments

And always remember, if a batter charges the mound, get him in a headlock and pound him.

Posted by: rbj at October 12, 2008 06:59 PM
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