Long Beach State University Athletics
Dirtbags Teach Pitching
5/26/2006 12:00:00 AM | General
Dirtbag Pitching Teaches How To's The Long Beach State pitching philosophy is fairly simple. Throw strikes and the rest will take care of itself. It may not sound like rocket science, but it's something that college baseball players often have a hard time grasping. Under pitching coach Troy Buckley and head coach Mike Weathers, the 49ers have grasped it. "I've really learned a lot about pitching philosophy and not trying to do too much," said junior right-hander Jared Hughes, Long Beach State's ace this season. "Coach Buckley started teaching me about pitching, when to miss, where to miss, not to let guys hit the ball on 0-and-2 counts, throwing first-pitch strikes. Instead of trying to throw balls by guys like I used to I'm more of a pitcher now." Since Buckley joined the 49ers' staff in 2001, the pitchers have posted ERAs of 3.54 or lower every season but his first. Their 2.54 mark last season was the best in the nation. In a game with aluminum bats and an offensive mentality, that's almost unheard of. "There's no magic recipe," Buckley said. "My mentality is maybe a little bit different in that if you can't pitch with your fastball then you can't be successful. "We all want to win, but you can't avoid contact if you want to have a chance to win. Most college hitters can hit the fastball, but you have to build a delivery that's capable of delivering the fastball where you want it. "The philosophy is to build a delivery that can build power, extension, and downhill angle, and along with that, deception. Those four things are what I'm trying to give each and every one of our guys." In each of the last three major league drafts a 49er pitcher has gone in the first two rounds. Left-handers Abe Alvarez (second round, 2003) and Jason Vargas (second, 2004) have reached the majors with the Red Sox and Marlins, respectively.
Padres single-A left-hander Cesar Ramos (first) led a bumper crop of six pitchers drafted last year, a group that includes right-hander Brian Anderson, who's serving as the closer at single-A San Jose (Giants) right now. "It starts with the coaches," said Anderson, who has 11 saves and a 1.29 ERA in 17 games. "Troy Buckley obviously, from my point of view, has been one of the best pitching coaches I've ever come across. He goes about the game the right way." Anderson said that during spring training, General Manager Brian Sabean told all the Giants' pitchers that they needed to throw more fastballs for strikes and quit leaning so heavily on their breaking pitches. For Anderson, that wasn't new advice. "Using your fastball to get the first-pitch strike is the biggest thing," Anderson said. "Being able to command it on both sides of the plate will move you up (in the system)." Buckley said he tries to instill an aggressive mentality in all of his pitchers. "It's about controlling the strike zone," Buckley said. "Trust it and throw it, and you can't control anything else. You can't control the batter hitting it, the defense behind you, the umpire's call, any of it. If you worry about those things you're taking energy away from what helps you." This year hasn't been easy, though, as the 49ers only had Hughes (8-3, 3.27 ERA) returning as an experienced starter. Junior college transfer Andrew Carpenter (7-3, 2.93) has also come up big, but the rest of the staff has been hampered by the growing pains of eight freshmen and sophomores. "These other guys are really young," Buckley said. "The information that I have for them, they're not quite ready for it. I really have to step back and simplify things for them. The key as a teacher is to adapt to your pupil." The 49ers have a 3.47 team ERA this season, but their 319 strikeouts are the fewest a staff has compiled under Buckley. Still, both Buckley and Weathers have been impressed with the youngsters' growth over the course of the season. "All in all, I think they've gotten better," Weathers said. "The only thing that's come close to the past is the combo of Carpenter and Hughes. Those two guys give you the chance to win the weekend (three-game series). You can't expect to win every game." Yet the 49ers (29-24, 12-6) still have a shot at the Big West title if they can sweep three games from No. 2-ranked Cal State Fullerton (40-13, 15-3), starting tonight at 6:30 at Blair Field.
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