[00:00:14] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to the Roundhouse podcast with Paul Solentrop of Wichita State University strategic communications. Thanks for listening. We appreciate your time. Our guest today is shocker baseball pitching coach Anthony Clagetta. He joins us in the midst of a busy, busy stretch for the shockers. Anthony will update us on a pitching staff that ranks 14th nationally in earned run average, 3.81 over 27 games. Anthony came to WSU along with coach Brian Green from Washington State last spring. He spent the previous four seasons at Washington State, two before that at New Mexico State. Along with Brian Green, Anthony pitched at UC Riverside. He was drafted in the 11th round by the Detroit Tigers in 2005, appeared in the big leagues with the Yankees and the Pirates in 2009. So, Anthony, we're roughly at the halfway point of the season. What are you most pleased with from a pitching perspective?
[00:01:07] Speaker B: Yeah, Paul, thanks for having us on. First off.
Well, to be honest, I think just the development, the buy in from our pitching staff has been tremendous.
The kids really care.
They really want to progress in their development and get better and challenge their craft daily.
So I've been really pleased with that and just being with the other coaches as well, coach overcash and his input and they're buying into him and his help mechanically.
And Emilio here with the analytics as well, learning from that aspect. So there's all different areas of how they've been approaching this, but really pleased with the developments, with their craft, with their demeanor, with their mental game and all that up to this point.
[00:01:55] Speaker A: Is there an area of emphasis, something that's really on your mind as you think about the remaining 30, 40 so games of the season?
[00:02:03] Speaker B: Yeah, there's a bunch of things we obviously still need to get better at. You know, we talk about those things daily, but we'd still like to see the walks go down. I think that's always an important number to limit the free bases. From that aspect, the walks are still a little bit too high.
Probably the HBPs as well. We can command the baseball. We do a good job of pitching in when we need to, but we could still do better from that aspect. And then we're always just challenging our players and our pitchers to control the run game and making sure that any team that we may play potentially to likes to run, likes to do some stuff from a skill perspective.
It's being able to do the other aspects as a pitcher too, and control the run game and pfps and stuff of that nature. So those are some main goals that we're really working on still.
[00:02:55] Speaker A: So the shockers are at 4.2 walks per nine innings. According to the NCAA stats. That's number 93 nationally. Where would you like to be at? What's kind of an ideal realistic number?
[00:03:07] Speaker B: Yeah, we'd always like to get around that. Maybe three and a half walks, I guess, per nine.
Obviously, you'd probably like to have even less than that. But there are times we talk about understanding when you potentially may walk a guy or what is a competitive walk.
The walks that hurt us are the four pitch walks, the non mentality walks. There are competitive walks at times. There are times when a batter seeing it well and he does an eight to ten pitch at bat, and you end up walking the guy well. At least it was competitive.
Or sometimes situationally, there might be times when a walk may potentially occur, but we got to get away from those other walks that are non competitive.
It's part of the mental game type of thing where you're not using your breath or you're speeding yourself up. If we can limit those, we probably put ourselves in a much better shape.
But, yeah, those. That's one number that we'd like to obviously get down and, you know, if we can get down to that three range and three walks per nine. And the other thing about that ball is, you know, it is kind of pitcher to pitch or two. You know, you get a guy like Brady Hamilton, he's going to be around the zone a lot. He's not going to walk really anybody, but there is times when he's too much mental pitching in the middle of the plate and he can get hit around a little bit. So I'm not going to say that walks, you know, he needs to have more walks, but can he command the baseball better and be more to the corner and utilize some of his stuff like that? And he has the capabilities to do that, and that's something we're working out with him. Caden favors is another one that his command is so good. He's a tremendous strike thrower and his walks are really low, but it, if he's too much in the middle of the plate at times, he can potentially get hit a little bit. So there's certain guys that, I'm not going to say that need to have more walks or walks become part of their game, but they just have different stuff and different type of command, and they can work the corners a little bit more. If that adds a walk or two every couple outings, then maybe the hits go down and the weak contact rises and stuff of that nature that can be part of their game, too.
[00:05:21] Speaker A: Shockers. Are 7th nationally in hits allowed per nine innings, 7.20. They're number 27 in WHIP, 1.27 WHIP walks plus hits divided by innings pitched essentially tells us how successfully people, pitchers limit people from reaching base.
What stat do you like the best or what stat says best tells the story of a staff's success?
[00:05:47] Speaker B: Well, it's hard to just pinpoint one, but, you know, you did mention the batting average against.
We are really pleased with that, and there's a lot of things that come with that. First thing comes to mind is what a tremendous job our defense does. You know, our infielders. Coach Green does a tremendous job with the, with the infielders and we do a really good job in the dugout of positioning guys, and it's only getting better. You know, Jordan Rogers at second base has kind of just turned into a second baseman at, during the fall and has done a tremendous job. Our young freshman shortstops and Cam Durnan and Darnell Parker and Cam Johnson really at third base. All three of those guys are doing a good job and they're getting better. Cam Durnan's turned himself into tremendous shortstop defensively. So batting average against, for pitchers, obviously, you know, our guys getting to balls and, and making plays and sometimes making tough plays into routine plays and so they're getting much better. And then have to talk about the catchers.
Mo and Alex and coach overcash working with them, have just done a phenomenal job. You talk about catchers that really care about their pitchers and their pitching staff. It's those two guys. They've done a really good job and, and even Logan Kresky, who has an opportunity, but being in the bullpen and his demeanor down there, too, helping out the pitchers, but the catchers really help with that batting average against just in the sense of understanding location. Our pitchers have done a much better job of understanding how to command locate pitch ability.
And that that's doing is basically, you know, guy look at guys like Tyler Dobbs with really low batting average. Gans well, he's got movement, he's got command. He's got three pitches that he can throw, throwing any count in any situation. So some of these guys are really doing a good job with their craft. Obviously, Tommy Lepore has a tremendous arm from a velocity standpoint, but he's done a great job of adding to his stuff as well as far as off speed, and that has lowered his batting average against.
So guys are doing a really good job again, of just working their craft. And so I'd say that batting average against is a really stat that's kind of eye opening to us, but it good doesn't come from just stuff or just doesn't come from just command. You know, there's so many elements that go into that, and it's really a team pitching stat in kind of my eyes. So I want to make sure everyone's rewarded on that.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: I'm glad you mentioned the catchers and framing pitches because I think that's such an interesting area of the game. It's hard for the, you know, for the naked eye from the press box or the stands, we can kind of tell, yeah, they're moving their glove around down there trying to help out the pitcher. I don't know that we have a sense of how important or how effective that is. I know there were stats last year that Mauricio Mian was one of the best in the nation at framing pitches. Tell us about that aspect of the game from your perspective.
[00:08:46] Speaker B: Yeah, it's a really fun one to get deep into. Coach overcatch does a tremendous job of giving that feedback to our catchers.
It's pretty incredible nowadays with the technology and we, we have trackman in our facility here, but you can get all that data. You can get what percentages of catchers basically keep strike strikes? That's kind of the big one, right? You don't want to lose strikes. And that has the ability to be able to, quote unquote frame, but keep strike strikes in the way, the movement of the glove and the presentation to the umpire, those are a big stat. And then obviously stealing strikes, know the ability to do that. And umpires are getting much better nowadays with all the data out there and all the feedback that they get and understanding the zone and the strike zone, and they put a lot of time and effort and work into that. So they want to make sure that the zone is the zone. You know, I think maybe back in the day, a ball off that is caught really well or a ball down that's caught really well typically is going to be called a strike a lot of times. And there's, it's a little bit different this year, I would say. Now our catchers are still doing a tremendous job of receiving, keeping strike strikes, and even still in pitches at times. And Alex and Moe are actually different in the sense of receiving and framework.
Right, wrong and different. They both do a great job of it. You know, and there's, there's some l, there's some elements that umpires go into a game, too, of like, do they like guys that have a big movement behind the dish as a catcher and, and moving the glove a lot to frame the baseball or just be really quiet and not much movement. And there's two different philosophies, and some umpires like it, some guys don't. But, you know, umpires do their homework as well. And the other piece, too is the communication with the umpires. Our catchers do a great job. They have personality. So when you can communicate with an umpire and talk to them about certain pitches or the zone or, you know, am I presenting the ball right? And just communication there, that's how our catchers help our pitchers get more strikes and again, keep the strike strikes.
[00:11:06] Speaker A: When I've talked to players, hitters and pitchers about, you know, their season, about how maybe they've improved, a lot of them have talked about building trust with the coaches so that you can really get some instruction and really get good feedback. So this baseball staff you had, I think, around 30 new shockers to work with. How did you go about developing those relationships where you can really work with them, have a tough conversation, and they're open to improving. Open to instruction.
[00:11:33] Speaker B: I'm really glad you asked this question because I think it's the most important, most precious, probably thing of our development so far. And it really started from the beginning. And the beginning of the culture that coach Green instills in this program and trickles right to those pitchers is that, you know, our staff is so close, our coaching staff is so close that our players can go to anybody and talk about anything and talk. And specifically, if you talk about pitching well, we want our pitchers to go to coach Green and talk about hitting and what they see from that aspect. We want the pitchers to go to coach over cash and give the other part of the pitching and some catching stuff and so on and so forth. And the way the culture was built in the beginning, from day one in the fall from coach Green is continuing to carry on. And it presses us as coaching staffs every day.
A pitcher can come to me and really want to break things down and learn and soak in as much information.
I mean, that's what we're talking about. That's what we're talking about as a coaching staff. That's, you know, like, and that was kind of in the beginning, too, with Kaden favors is, you know, kind of filling us out, kind of filling me out as a pitching coach and just seeing, hey, you know, what can this coach bring to my game to help me get to the next level? And, and it took a little bit of time. But the relationship got to a point where we're talking every day, we're talking every day about pitching. We're talking about, especially right now in the season, how to approach a certain lineup and how the ins and outs of what his stuff and his craft can do to be executed, to get a lot, you know, to have a successful outing.
And really, that's just, that is really just trusting the coaching staff going and even pitch calling and stuff of that nature to where they trust the preparation that we have as a coaching staff and how we go into a game and making sure that we're prepared and all that stuff.
Again, our guys have just been instilled from day one by coach Green's philosophy and his coaching staff's philosophy and what this program is about and has gotten to the point where we're in a really good spot. Our players, they laugh with us, they joke with us, they respect us, they ask us questions, and they play really tough baseball brand of baseball. It's just really enjoyable to watch, and I couldn't be more pleased as a pitching coach that our pitchers are just carrying that on. And it's a great culture that they have right now. They're close knit from favors as a senior to some of the freshmen, especially some of the freshmen who have really good seasons. It's just a really good spot.
[00:14:28] Speaker A: So I was over here yesterday to set up this appointment, and you were in your office with a pitcher. You were on a phone. I don't know whose phone it was, but you were looking at him pitching and having a discussion about what's this look like? How do I improve all that kind of stuff? It appeared to me this was kind of a casual, impromptu conversation. It wasn't in the classroom. It wasn't during really scheduled practice time. Is that where improvement really happens these days? You can just do it kind of on the fly and those type of settings?
[00:14:55] Speaker B: It really is a big piece of it. Absolutely. The open door policy that we have as a coaching staff just means that, hey, guys, you got something to talk about, you know, on or off the field. But in my case, a lot of guys come in and they want to talk pitching, and there's, there's different ways to approach it. We're strategic about that as a coaching staff, you know, do you want to go close the door? Do you want it to be open?
Sometimes the office versus on the field even matters just from that setting. So our guys do a good job of coming in, and when they need to talk, they knock on the door and they communicate and they want to come in.
But yeah, even that setting yesterday was just one of our freshman pitchers who's actually rehabbing from Tommy John and he's working his way back and wanted to break down some video and that's all part of development piece, too. Even though he's not pitching this year, those guys feel comfortable to come in and talk and want to break things down and just get better. So, you know, as a coach, you know, you have to do office work and there's administrative work and stuff of that nature. But we're very happy to put down the computer. When a guy wants to come in and talk baseball. That's probably the highlight of our day.
[00:16:05] Speaker A: So when I talk to some people who know much more about pitching than I do, what should I talk to Anthony Clagett about? All of them mentioned those guys out on the mound seem really fearless. And it's been interesting because you've mentioned Tyler Dobbs, here's a freshman. We talk about a guy like Nate Adler who did not pitch hardly at all last season for the shockers, and they go out there and appear to be just really confident and composed on the mound. How did you go about getting that out of this pitching staff?
[00:16:33] Speaker B: That actually means a lot, and I know that means a lot to this coaching staff. When you can talk highly about toughness or being fearless, it's just. It puts a smile on our face because that is what we want our guys to be. We want our guys to be competitive. We want our guys to be tough. It's a very hard thing to have a brand of, and we feel like this team is. And you're right, you know, and some people will say that, you know, typically it's the freshman that get overwhelmed and when the lights come on, it becomes too big of a spotlight. And that is the case. But at times, but we have guys like Tyler Dobbs and Tommy Lepore and Brady Hamilton and go down the row. Even Drew Iverson has done a great job of freshmen that have just said, you know what? I'm going to come in and compete because I can't. Because I'm good enough. And they carry a little chip on their shoulder that way. But I would also mention that you mentioned, like Adler and even Kaden favors. You know, there's plenty of times when guys see a senior year or even junior year in a big draft and they. They can get a little bit of that deer in the headlight look at times, too. And so we've been really pleased with those upperclassmen who have kind of taken on the same thing as far as being tough and fearless and actually had a good conversation with Shane Dennis in Jacksonville. And it was kind of right after, it was the next day, actually, after we had that Auburn game where we had, I think it was like 16 walks, and obviously as a pitching coach, you're pulling your hair out. But I was talking with Shane and Shane kind of just said, hey, man, what did you talk to the pitchers about after? And basically I just said, you know what? This isn't going to be the Wichita state brand of pitching. There's too much honor and there's too much culture and there's too much history in this, in this program. And specifically even with, you know, the pitching and Brent Chemnitz and how his guys were always tough and the demeanor that they had when they went out to the mound and, and so that's good. We're going to carry that on. We're going to carry that on here, too.
And that's what this, you know, Wichita State's about. So it was a heavy conversation. I was talking to Shane about. They said, oh, that's pretty good, man. That's, and you're right. That is what, when they wear that shocker across the chest and that brand across their chest, we're going to be tough. And so, you know, it is really good to hear that people see that we want us to, that's what we want to be about. And again, our guys are pretty consistent with their body language and their demeanor and their competitiveness and going out there, and that's a big piece to the success as well. And we want to make sure we continue that.
[00:19:20] Speaker A: So you figured out, I talked to Shane. He was one of the guys I talked to that was, yeah, I can't keep anything from you describe teaching the change up. When I've talked to some pitchers this year for doing stories, several of them mentioned really improving that pitch. I always hear it described as that's the toughest one to master. How do you go about teaching that pitch?
[00:19:40] Speaker B: Well, first thing I got to say is coach Green has done a tremendous job of instilling that into me and saying, hey, we need to always have changeups. It's the pitch that hitters hate the most.
It is. The pitch can be the equalizer. So it's fun talking to coach Green about that from that perspective as well. But, you know, there's certain grips that we, that we attack with in the fall and pretty standard grips, to be honest. But it gets really detailed in the understanding of a couple things. One is guys change up is a feel pitch. Like, you have to have good feel for it.
So there's pitchers individually that sometimes struggle with feel. So maybe that's the way you attack the certain grip to maybe their feel becomes more.
They understand it more with certain type of grip, with maybe seams utilizing the seams or two seam or four seam grip, but there's more seams in their fingers or finger pressure. So there's a lot of things that we dive into when we really break down the change up, but it's specific to the individual of their feel, of their hand size is a big deal, their finger length. There's a lot of, you know, I get big into this. You know, I actually really enjoy messing around with pitch grips and fingers, finger pressure and stuff of that nature for our guys. And so the changeups, one of those like, you gotta figure out what is best from a grip standpoint, finger pressure, you know, certain, certain areas of the hand at release points, talking about the hand position and the hand speed at release. So there's a lot of things that go into it.
Been really happy with some of the guys, like Kaden favors. I mean, he didn't have a changeup. He had a split that was actually okay. But we were saying, let's try to develop a traditional change up for you. And he really took that on during the fall, and it's continued to get better and better. And at times in an outing, it might be his best pitch, which is he's done a lot of work into that, you know, and there's some other guys, too, even Tommy Lepore, who, being a freshman and how powerful his stuff is, he's got a good changeup and he works on his change up daily. So there's a lot of development pieces that go into it. I would say that our throwing program and the way we organize it, there's certain elements in that, that we attack the change up and try to create as much arm speed with it. But again, that's another one that helps develop feel for our guys and understanding of what the change up needs to be. So there's a lot of elements that go into it, but it pretty much starts in day one. And I kind of ask the pitchers and say, hey, who wants to be a starter? Who wants to be a starting pitcher? And, you know, 99% of them raise their hand except for the lefty lefty specialist or the righty righty specialist. And but even then, sometimes they'll raise their hand. But I said then you need to have a change up. It's really important. If you don't have a changeup, you probably can't start. So they take that to heart, too, and we go attack it and, you know, it's hit or miss, I guess. But we've had pretty good success with developing some change ups, especially with guys that have had, have not had one before and then guys who have had one before coming in, whether it be a freshman or a Juco transfer or something like that.
Then we just kind of refine it maybe a little bit or try to add something to it. We use some metrics behind it, too, like Caleb Anderson and Tyler Dobbs. Those are two guys that had pretty decent and change ups coming in, but we just kind of played around with them a little bit more to even get them better. And they've become really, really, really good pitches for those two guys.
[00:23:24] Speaker A: The shocker hitters are really successful. Getting hit by pitches and trotting down to first base, that's a good offensive strategy. And so that whole thing is about, about a lot, but part of it is who's going to control that sliver of plate? You know, the inside portion of the plate. That's a big deal. Is the pitcher going to win that battle? Is the hitter going to win that battle? So you're a pitching coach. How do you talk to your guys about that part of real estate? And we need to control that to, you know, to pitch effectively.
[00:23:56] Speaker B: Yeah, it's great hearing in the fall. And again, that's another coach Green and the hitting coaches, their philosophy and they're not going to move their ground, you know, and when teams want to pitch in, if they're going to miss a little bit, then we're going to wear the HVP and it's going to be tough. And from a pitching standpoint, we don't, we don't always look or I don't always talk a lot about, you know, if we face a hitting team, opposing hitting team, and if they have a lot of hpps and because the really thing is, is if we need to pitch in, we're going to pitch in. That's just a mere fact of it. I mean, if you have to pitch in because that's where the hole is and that's where a hitter can get exposed, then we're gonna have to pitch in. And it's just part of the craft that you kind of develop in the fall. And, you know, if there's sometimes when I'm looking at a team for the weekend and I know we need to pitch in. I might relay that to maybe one of the starting pitchers or the two, you know, a couple of starting pitchers and say, hey, guys, you need to work on this week. And we've already worked on it, but you need to work on it even more pitching in and maybe they get some more reps.
So, you know, the HBPs, we love them. We love it culturally. And in the dugout, our pitchers get fired up when our hitters take an HPP because they know how they were taking them in the fall.
So it's a culture thing as well. But from the pitching standpoint, again, we're just going to pitch to the holes. Those are just things that we've worked on. And if, you know, most of our guys have really good pitch ability so they can move the fastball to both sides of the plate and we're going to pitch where we need to. So our hbps probably could get a little bit better. I think we have. Let's see, we got 29.
Feels like a lot more, but our guys do a pretty good job of pitching in when necessary.
[00:25:44] Speaker A: So take us into the dugout conversation. Let's say you're in the fifth or 6th inning, so maybe pitcher is entering a little bit of a danger zone.
Maybe the leadoff guy gets on.
What's the conversation like in the dugout? What are you looking for? Who are you talking with? How's that whole thing unfold before you make a decision?
[00:26:07] Speaker B: Well, a lot of factors. Obviously, coach Green and myself relay back and forth information.
We always pride ourselves on trying to be ahead, never of never get caught red handed, whether it's, you know, be late to getting a reliever warmed up or anything of that nature. So there's communication that goes right on, you know, right away with some of those things. And if we're pitching well, usually coach Green's like, hey, man, we got a one hitter going. You do whatever you need to do or, you know, sometimes they'll have a suggestion and we see eye to eye and we talk about it. It's a great relationship. It really is. And then I talk to coach overcash as well at times and see what he thinks.
But it's really important that we're ahead of it. We're prepared going into a game or into a series based on matchups.
Raleigh again, it's another prideful thing of going in prepared from a scouting report standpoint and understanding your matchups because then when the time comes, you're already ahead of it and you can get that guy ready. You can get him prepared and you're not behind. And that's the, that's the main thing. Never, never be behind on that stuff. So. But it's fun to communicate sometimes, even for myself. When I got four or five things in my head about matchups and I'm talking to a coach, maybe I'm just kind of talking to myself and talking it out and, you know, their understanding of what we're at, too, and they may come have something that comes to light and it's just really want to make sure that we're prepared. That's the biggest thing that I can say about that. And we do a really good job with that. We're really happy. I will turn on the other side, though, and talk about, like, Kaden favors. I gotta say, he is a competitive, competitive guy. And there's times like the 6th inning, he comes, he might come in and there's two guys down there warmed up. I've talked to coach Green and favors might pop in, you know, after the third out, coming down the steps. Okay, coach, I got this. I'm not coming out. I got this. And he's done that a couple times. And, you know, we look at everything, but sometimes you look in a guy's eyes and he can kind of really, you know, persuade, I'd say your decision at times because of the understanding of how much they want it. And it's a good thing to have, you know, those guys, we've had a couple guys do that and just feel, well, they're in the moment and they feel the competitiveness and say, coach, this is my game. And so there's conversations about that as well.
[00:28:40] Speaker A: That's exactly what I was going to ask. That would be fun to talk about. How often you've got the scouting report, the preparation, the numbers, all those kind of things. How often do you find yourself lobbying?
I know he's gone to two full counts, but this kid's got it. How often do you let that be part of the decision?
[00:28:58] Speaker B: It's, everything is in play.
Kind of like to put it that way, because, you know, you could even go so far as the new school, old school stuff, you know, with all the analytics, and I'm sitting right here with, you know, ten different stats as well. You know, as far as splits go, we have technology that can really go down to anything from hard contact, ball put in play, contact, swing and miss contact. So there's matchups, right? And you look as much as you want to and what you can.
I kind of dive into it quite a bit from a preparation standpoint, but when the game comes and you're just in the moment, you have all that stuff in mind. But, you know, take a look at the flow of the game. Take a look at the mentality that the kid has. Take a look at, you know, just his demeanor, his everything, everything about it. And the eyes go different, too. As a pitching coach, you know, sometimes you're looking at the mechanics and understanding. There's a lower half breaking down a little bit, so the arm's working hard.
There's stress pitches that we talk about, you know, how many innings of stress pitches that go into that as well. So there is a lot that is to take into account from that standpoint. But we look at everything we really do, and it's, you know, this is another one is like sometimes, and we've had this happen, but sometimes a guy knows when it's last pitches and he fist pumps and he's fired up and he spends all that energy and it's like, okay, we need to put somebody else in. And that's, you know, there's things that, those are taken into account as well, but we like looking at all of it from a preparation standpoint. Then once you're in the game, it's, it's a lot of feel.
[00:30:43] Speaker A: You mentioned the playing, the matchups, lefty righty, that kind of thing. You do that a lot. What guides you? How are you making those kind of decisions?
[00:30:52] Speaker B: We actually, it's another thing. We start in the fall.
We do our own stats for left handed, right handed. There's batting average against with the splits.
We also, I like to look at just on base percentage left versus right, because that takes into account walks in HBP as well. So there's a lot of data that goes into that, you know, and the data kind of tells a lot of the story.
You also look into the opposing hitters and see, okay, what are their splits? You know, what are their right handed versus left handed? Some guys have some reverse splits, you know, typical the game of baseball. They'll tell you that a left on left matchup is, is usually the best one, but some, for whatever reason, and you try to dive into it. But sometimes those right handed hitters, I'm sorry, those left handed hitters hit left handed better. And you may look at the data and you're like, oh, actually, a right handed pitcher is better. And then you kind of figure out the holes and what type of pitches are getting that guy out. But I like this. We, as a coaching staff really enjoy looking at that data.
And again, the splits are going to really tell a story. Coach Green talks a lot about that, too. On the hitting side is, you know, it maybe can even tell you what certain pitches they don't really have or it's third for them, you know, then you can really tell that the breaking ball is the second pitch versus the change up. And so from our guy, our standpoint, I try to dive in as much just to prepare them. Basically what we tell our guys is that, hey, you work on your craft, you really perfect your craft. And when you come into a ballgame it is because we want you to execute your craft. That's all we say that your stuff against this hitter is the best matchup that we have. And we're always going to put you in a position to be successful. And that's the preparation that we have. And that's why, you know, some guys come into a ballgame out of the bullpen for certain reasons. Like even look at Jeremiah Arnett came in on Sunday. I'm sorry. I guess it was Saturday for one batter and it was the 6th inning and he's only had one outing all year. But he came in to face that batter because his stuff matches up really well with him and he ended up getting the fly ball to center field and then he came out of the game. So there's just certain things like that that are taken into account that we prepare for. We ask our guys just to go really compete, really compete with your craft.
Give yourself the best chance to be successful.
[00:33:26] Speaker A: So a lot of success stories on this pitching staff. Nate Adler might be the most interesting one to me. Andover kid. Last year he threw 3.2 innings as a junior.
Now he's got five saves. He's thrown over 14 innings, one earned run, 16 strikeouts, six walks. Describe Nate's progression.
[00:33:48] Speaker B: Nate is such a good guy, obviously tremendously talented in the classroom as well. He's really smart guy.
But Nate was great right in the beginning of the year.
It was actually at the end of summer. We got a chance to really develop a relationship on the pitching end and talk a lot. He was here early, starting to work out and do stuff of that nature, you know, doing it all on his own. But once the fall hit, we already were talking about long toss and foundation of pitching and certain things. And he was a guy that just kind of said, you know what, it's my last year and I'm just new coaching staff. Okay, I'm on board. Let's see what. Let's see what we got. And he was just really go with the flow type of guy.
We used to give him a little bit of a ration at times because we used to say, man, Nate, you're a little too negative at times, man, you got to smile more. You got to be more positive. And he'd laugh it off and, but what's funny about that is the pitchers kind of took that on as well, and they said, come on, Nate. Come on, Grandpa, you gotta, you gotta be, you gotta be, you know, smiling more and more, enjoyment of life and all that. And he really has, I see him smile all the time. He's, he's enjoying, obviously, he's had a really successful year so far, and that helps, but he's enjoying it. He's a really competitive guy when he gets out there, really poised, you know, very, very monitored demeanor. And the poise is, it really shows his age. And that's why he pitches at the back end for us and, but really happy for his success so far. You know, even he's been really just used as kind of that closer role right now. And if the matchup is right, that's typically what he's going to do for us. He'll probably start to pitch more here, you know, probably quite a bit more coming up. You know, he's, he is a guy that you gotta monitor a little bit as far as his workload, but he, he does a tremendous job when he comes in and really proud for his success. He deserves it all. He really does. I mean, he's, he's just a guy who's been pretty even kill and works at his craft and just go be competitive with it. So it's fun, fun to watch a.
[00:35:57] Speaker A: Pitch that has been, that's been a nice story. All right, last question. We'll let you get back to work. Who's the big league pitcher that you most often recommend? Your guys check out or emulate or pay attention to his, his work ethic, his style of pitching.
[00:36:12] Speaker B: Man, that's great. I'd like to use some of the more old time pitchers, but most of our guys don't know who they are, so that's, but we actually, it's funny you bring that up because we do try to have our pitchers kind of look at a certain big leaguer. It can be sometimes mechanical, it can be stuff. Sometimes it can even be like talking to some guys about their mentality and their presence. And so you look at certain guys that maybe have the same type of energy and look at those guys to work on their craft. It really is. And like Jacob de Grom, always been a big fan of him to kind, kind of, of show our guys some stuff.
Some of our pitchers like this, you know, Spencer Strider, he's kind of a newer guy out there with really good stuff that our guys try to mimic a little bit.
You know, I was a big fan of showing some of our guys, like Nolan Ryan. I mean, what are we talking about from a toughness standpoint and just seeing the demeanor and presence and all that. And so some of our guys, I've shown a couple of our guys some videos of him and, but I'll tell you one thing, too. What's fun about it is our guys like and enjoy baseball. It's got, it's actually a kind of a thing nowadays where a lot of these guys, high school kids or even some juco kids, they don't even watch baseball anymore, you know, and it's, we don't, we want to make sure we recruit the guys that do watch baseball, enjoy baseball. And it's kind of for reasons like this, too, like I want to be able to say, hey, go watch this game. These two pitchers are matching up and it's going to be awesome. Or go watch this guy. You know, I want you to his front side or how his house, the backside and his rotation work. I want you to see that. And we're going to try to mimic that. So there. Our guys love to watch the game.
They will even sometimes come to me like you saw the other day, but they'll come to me and say, hey, coach, I was watching this video of this big league pitcher and what do you think? Is it? It's similar to what I do, all kinds of things. And so, you know, it's fun to coach these guys with the understanding of that they're ball players, that they love the game of baseball. And it's cool that our guys try to mimic some of those big leaguers. And who wouldn't? That's, to be honest, that's how I grew up, too. I was in the backyard playing wiffle ball and I was mimicking Dennis Eckersley and then Dave Stewart and then Bob Welch and then Nolan Ryan.
So those kind of are just fun stuff, but they're also really a part of development and it's just another way of teaching, too. So it's great to see those guys mimic those big leaders.
[00:38:59] Speaker A: Okay. It's a busy week for Shocker baseball. We are recording this on Tuesday, the Shockers play Oklahoma. Tuesday night, Kansas visits X Stadium on Wednesday. Both those games are at X Stadium Stadium. The Shockers go to South Florida over the weekend, then they're back in Wichita. They play Oklahoma State downtown at Riverfront Stadium on April 9 and then wrap up that busy stretch with a trip to Kansas State. Anthony Clagett, thanks for your time.
[00:39:24] Speaker B: Thank you very much. Go shocks.
Hi, this is Rick Niuma, president of Wichita State University. Check out the latest episode of the Forward together podcast. Each episode, I sit down with different guests from Shocker Nation to celebrate the vision and mission of Wichita State University. Listen wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:40:13] Speaker C: Thank you for listening to the Roundhouse podcast, courtesy of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. We encourage you to rate, review and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts. You can find more Roundhouse
[email protected]. Dot Bradshaw into Wingate.
[00:40:29] Speaker A: Wingate's going to dribble it a couple.
[00:40:31] Speaker C: Of times and throws it in the hands of Kuznets. Threw it away. Kuznet to Ryan Martin for the dog. The shockers are going to the sweet 16.
It's all over. The shockers up. Seven, 3 seconds, two. Jeffer by Smith is no good. Wichita state to the sweet 16.
