[00:00:14] Speaker A: Hello. Welcome to the Roundhouse Podcast with Paul Sullentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. Thank you very much for listening. We appreciate your time. Our guest is Wichita State baseball assistant coach catching coach Colin Wilber. Colin joined the staff in August. He. He comes to Wichita State from Sonoma State University, an NCAA Division 2 school in California. Recently he also coached at Sacramento City College and in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization.
Colin Cott collegiately at Christopher Newport University and at the apprentice school where he studied pipe fitting. And I can't wait to talk about that later in the podcast. So stick with us, Colin. Why take the job at Wichita State?
[00:00:55] Speaker B: Yeah, so, I mean, after this past year, Sonoma State actually dropped all athletics two weeks before we started our season. So I knew I was going to be on the job hunt and was really hoping for an opportunity like this.
You know, kind of waiting around for a couple of months just hoping something would happen and then just got lucky enough that that BG was calling around looking for a catching guy. And my name came up a lot, quick conversation and pretty quickly clicked and felt good on both sides. And yeah, now we're here.
[00:01:31] Speaker A: It feels like a turning point in a young person's career where you, you were locked in, you wanted to stay in baseball.
[00:01:36] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, for sure.
You know, after I left the Pirates organization, just, you know, professional baseball can be a hard lifestyle. Coaching, playing, all of it.
I was coaching in North Carolina.
My now wife is. Was in California. So it was just like, how long are we, how long are we going to do this? So made the move out to California, got in was Sac City and then Sonoma State, but then was kind of hoping to make a jump to the Division 1 level and see where it went.
[00:02:07] Speaker A: Why did you get into coaching as a career?
[00:02:10] Speaker B: Honestly, when I got done playing, I thought that I would have zero interest in coaching.
And then I actually hurt my ankle playing pickup basketball the weekend after I got done playing and my old travel ball coach roped me into coaching with him and helping him out. And then the same thing with my old high school coach and just really quickly fell in love with it. And I hated pipe fitting, so that was a pretty easy decision.
And yeah, you know, after a year of doing it at the high school level and travel ball just was like, I need to go all in on this. And I loved it. So it was an easy choice, really.
[00:02:51] Speaker A: So what was your hesitancy about getting into coaching and then what flipped the switch?
[00:02:56] Speaker B: I don't think I was really hesitant. It was just probably something I hadn't even really considered, you know, just the abundance of information and social media and all the things that are out there now. Like there's, there's really no excuse, if you're willing to put in the work, to find good information to give to players. And this isn't a shot at coaches I had or anything, but I just don't think I had really realized how much there was out there to give and to learn. And yeah, I think I just fell in love with that process of just trying to get better and learn more.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: So you came up, played at smaller schools, coached at smaller schools, coached in high school, which is a different path than we might find with a lot of assistant coaches at a Division 1.
How has that shaped your coaching style?
[00:03:46] Speaker B: Yeah, I honestly think it's been like the biggest blessing for my coaching career.
You know, I coach catchers almost exclusively now. I help with the hitters, but catching is really the passion.
When I got done playing and I, you know, naturally you're the catcher, you played catcher your whole life, so they stick you with catchers. And I realized really quickly that I knew nothing about how to coach catchers. I had just got stuck back there one day and, you know, you got a good arm and you throw people out and no one's really going to say anything to you, you know, as long as you're a good dude and good teammate. And yeah, I mean, it just stuck out like how little information that I could actually give to the players and I just like desperately wanted to learn more about it.
[00:04:31] Speaker A: Who are your coaching mentors?
[00:04:36] Speaker B: That's a good question. I would say Jerry Weinstein is a big one. Sacramento City College legend.
He's been in professional baseball for like 40 something years or something stupid like that. And just the model for the things that we're talking about as far as like continuing to get better and just learning every day. I would say he's probably the biggest one.
[00:04:56] Speaker A: You mentioned coaching catchers. Is that a position that kind of got the last choice for years and years and now is becoming more prominent as far as we need, we need somebody on staff who can really help these guys.
[00:05:08] Speaker B: Yeah, 100%. I think it, it always has been in a lot of ways. I think still is. There's not many schools who are hiring a guy like me as this third assistant. You know, I think normally they hire him in a player development, director of operations role and, and sneak them onto the field to work with their catchers, but I think it's pretty rare that you see, you know, a Third assistant that's dedicated just to catching.
[00:05:34] Speaker A: So you worked with Henry Davis. He was the top pick in the 2021 major league draft. You worked with him while you were in the Pirates organization. What stands out about working with Henry Davis? He made his big league debut in 2023 with the Pirates.
[00:05:47] Speaker B: Yeah, Henry was like, you think about, like, mentality and, like, not crazy in a bad way, but, like, obsessed. You think about, like, a Kobe Bryant type of mentality. You hear all those videos and stuff, and that was Henry Davis, like, to a T. He was extremely intelligent. Wanted so bad to be good, not just for himself, but for his teammates. And I honestly think it rubbed people the wrong way at times, but I think when you really got down to just understand him and his path and his drive, like, it was really just all out of. He wanted to be the best. He wanted the Pirates to be the best. So I learned a lot from my time with Henry. For sure.
[00:06:31] Speaker A: A lot of people would describe catchers as kind of a crazy person's position. You're back there, you're taking a lot of. A lot of beatings from pitches, all that. All that kind of stuff. Maybe don't get a whole lot of credit or attention back there.
Why play catcher? What was. What was it? What made you a catcher?
[00:06:48] Speaker B: Yeah, for me.
Well, really, I just got stuck back there. It wasn't. Wasn't much of a conversation when I initially started.
I think I was around 11 or 12 and, you know, was playing short, third pitching, whatever.
And then we had a couple of our catchers get hurt in a tournament or whatever, and I got stuck back there and just never left.
But, yeah, I think I just, you know, I think naturally I'm pretty selfless and, you know, care about my teammates and was always, you know, maybe not categorized as, like, this big vocal leader, but like a guy who just did the right things and.
And set the right example, and not necessarily with the voice, but, you know, just doing the right things. So I think that was kind of a natural transition for me.
[00:07:33] Speaker A: So most conversations with catchers, you get to the phrase, I'm involved in every play, and I. And I enjoy being busy. Was that part of the appeal for you?
[00:07:42] Speaker B: I think so. Maybe not even consciously, but I think, you know, you just. It's fun to be really invested in every pitch.
You know, I would go play summer ball or whatever in college and randomly get stuck in the outfield or third base or first base, and it was like, man, this is freaking boring. You know, like, it's just Catching, you're so dialed in and you have to be. And you know, I think it made separating offense and defense a whole lot easier because you, you just really don't have any choice. You got to get locked in for, for not only yourself, but for your teammates and for the team.
[00:08:19] Speaker A: When the pitcher was struggling, did you have a go to phrase or philosophy that you would say after you walked out to the mound in a tough spot?
[00:08:27] Speaker B: I think more often than not it was just trying to keep it light hearted and you know, try to get him to crack a smile and you know, I think very rarely does like the go out there and really give it to him and get on him hard, really work because you know, more often than not like a lot of these guys are their biggest critics, you know, so more than anything it's kind of a pat on the back and try to make him laugh and let's go get this guy.
[00:08:56] Speaker A: There are cameras everywhere in almost every baseball park of any substance around this country. A lot of cameras. Video analytics. How has that changed the catching position?
[00:09:06] Speaker B: Oh, I mean it's changed it dramatically.
You know, thinking about the last 10, 15 years and catching, especially with the analytics and being able to quantify pitch framing now, I mean clearly you watch any big league game now, it's changed everything. There's guys on a knee, guys trying to move the ball and move it aggressively and quickly.
It's changed everything. And you know, I never saw video myself catch one time and now like our guys see it every day. And it's probably like our main resource as far as coaching is the video and how it matches up to what the metrics and the data say describe.
[00:09:48] Speaker A: The importance of pitch framing. How real is it in winning baseball games?
[00:09:54] Speaker B: I mean, it's huge. I mean you just think about, you know, even in the course of one at bat, you know, going, you know, you get an 00 borderline pitch and you make it 01 versus 1 0. You know, you take the 11 and make it 12 versus 21 or you end in at bat with a strike three. And I mean it's just, it's a battle literally for every pitch and you don't know which one is going to be, you know, the big one that can really swing the game. So it's, it's really just, it's, it's such a bigger demand on catchers now than I feel like it was when I was playing. You know, if you, you caught the ball and you blocked it and you threw guys out and you were A good dude. Like, you know, no one was really going to say anything to you, but now it's, it's a battle for every single pitch. Absolutely.
[00:10:43] Speaker A: And when did that start to change? 10 years ago, 15 years ago? I feel like I've been hearing about it for a while.
[00:10:48] Speaker B: I want to say about 10 years ago was when pitch framing really started to get quantified. But I think teams and specifically like major league organizations viewed it as something like we could just buy this guy that does this really well versus, you know, actually trying to develop it. And now I think it's something that, you know, most of the organizations in baseball do really well and are like really care about it. So it's been cool to see and just like the amount of catching coaches that have emerged from this like new birth of catching, you know, where it's become very different, it's like cool. And it's exciting to see the guys who come here that are really excited to like get better at catching versus I feel like even when I played or probably even still for some of these guys now it felt like a burden to have to work on catching, like, oh, we're going to go block and get beat up. But now it's like, it's fun and it's a skill.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: Has the video and the emphasis on pitch framing, has that changed the job descriptions? Are you looking for different skills, different athletic abilities than maybe you were 20 years ago?
[00:11:58] Speaker B: I don't think so. I think, you know, for the most part you're still looking for guys that can swing, that can hit. Obviously that's, that's probably the biggest part, looking for guys that can hit, guys that are athletic.
You know, I don't think you see as many of like the really stiff, big bodied guys behind the plate as much as you did probably in the past where you could kind of hide them back there. For lack of a better term.
I think it's become really athletic. It's very similar to like a shortstop or a center fielder. Like that kind of guy is the guy that you want back there. But I also think you can see like vast differences. We have Finn who's 64 and Dom who's 59 and both can do things really well and do it differently, but you know, produce the same result.
[00:12:46] Speaker A: Do you ever anger umpires who say, I know what you're trying to do and I'm not falling for that strike stealing stuff?
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Yeah, I've heard it a bunch. You know, I used to post a lot on social media. I haven't Done as much of it as I'd like to in my time here, but I want to get back into it. And I used to fight those battles with people and umpires and all that stuff.
I think the reality is like, they know what we're doing and, you know, sometimes it's, most of the time it still works and it's, you know, we're trying to do our job and they have to do their job.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: If I'm a dad of a young catcher listening to this, do you have a short course, two or three tips on how do I help my son or daughter steal some strikes?
[00:13:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I would say a lot of, you know, well, first, like get in a good stance, mess around with all the different stances, explore the knee down stuff, but really get good at being stable. Being low to the ground and working from below the ball and catching it on the way up is probably the biggest thing. But I would say the second biggest thing is just be open to it and try it.
I think the start is what stops most people. It's like, well, I don't know where I'm going to get to if I start going down this path. And it's like, no, just go, just start. Just start somewhere and you'll find your way. There's a lot of good information out there from, from good catching people, Instagram, Twitter and all that. There's a lot of good information out.
[00:14:20] Speaker A: There now and they should follow Colin Wilbur on social media to get. That'd be a good place, good place to start.
So this ability that we have now to measure catching skills, teach these skills, has that made the defensive side of the position more important?
[00:14:37] Speaker B: Yeah, I don't, I don't know that it's necessarily more important, but there is definitely like an, a higher expectation. I think it's, in reality, it's always been this important. We just probably didn't know as much as we did, you know, 15, 20 years ago. As far as, you know, we literally have a probability of every pitch being called a strike and you know, at a percentage and you know, it's so I think it's just more under the microscope now and wasn't as much so back then.
[00:15:10] Speaker A: So let's say you go to a baseball showcase for recruiting or maybe you've got five videos of potential catchers. What characteristics are you looking for that would, that would lead you to say this, this guy can turn into a pretty good framing or strike stealing kind of guy.
[00:15:27] Speaker B: Yeah, it's tough because, you know, I think those things can emerge from you know, I've seen a lot of big transformations. Whether it's they have never done a knee down stance or they were coached this way. They have to be on two feet, they weren't allowed to move the ball and do all these things. And that can be a really good thing where they haven't had this coaching and now they're really excited to jump into it and can catch onto it really quickly and it can go the other way where maybe they're really into it and maybe just not going about it the right way and that can help.
So I'd say more than anything, just like athleticism, you know, the ability to get in and out of positions quickly and efficiently and being able to throw and hit. For me, I feel like I can teach the rest of it.
[00:16:22] Speaker A: Four catchers on the Wichita State roster, all of them new to the program. Ethan Gonzalez, Max Coffer, Finn Kayala. Am I pronouncing that right?
[00:16:30] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:16:31] Speaker A: And Dominic Archilla. Give us a brief scatter report on each of the shocker catchers.
[00:16:36] Speaker B: Yeah so Max transfer from Texas A and M in South Carolina.
Really smart dude.
He is such an interesting personality.
He is every bit the, the meathead, you know, jokester that he looks like he would be but also like such an intelligent dude and very driven. Really works hard and really just excited to see where this year takes him as far as gonzo like crazy numbers at blinn last year.
Has worked really hard this fall defensively very new to a lot of the stuff that we're teaching here as far as the catching side and I think we've just scratched the surface from what we can see from him. I would say very same, very similar for Finn.
You know Finn got the hit by pitch to the hand a couple months ago so really he's been out and really his only been able to catch, you know, sparingly and now he's kind of into doing bullpens. But more than anything it's like trying to keep his frickin hand out of the way and not let anything get worse. But yeah, really just excited to see him in, in game action and see what it looks like. But definitely a ton of potential there.
And then Dom very similar to Ethan where it was like I think he came in, never been on a knee, never really been taught much of anything from a catching standpoint and has just done nothing but get better.
We're really excited about him and just the progress he's made. He's coming out of his shell a little bit. He's pretty Quiet dude, similar to me, honestly. So it's just been fun to watch him grow and continue to get better.
[00:18:20] Speaker A: Earlier this fall, you put out a call on social media for bullpen catchers. I was skeptical. I didn't think there's any way. There was a critical mass of people walking around this campus who, one, had the catching skills and two, wanted to devote all the time to it. You got a lot of response. Tell us about the one ad for bullpen catchers and how that all turned out.
[00:18:39] Speaker B: Yeah, well, it started with we were banged up on the catching side. You know, Finn went down with the. With the hand, and, you know, you get one more guy hurt, and now you're down to two catchers. And we're trying to inter squad, and we got, you know, 15 pitchers who've got to warm up to go into the game, and we just didn't have the bodies to do it.
So getting a bullpen catcher was. Was crucial for us. And, yeah, honestly, I did not expect to have as many people who reached back out as. As happened. So it was pretty cool to just see the amount of people that wanted to be involved.
[00:19:15] Speaker A: How many roughly responded?
[00:19:17] Speaker B: I want to say, yeah, probably 15 to 20. Yeah, it honestly got to be too much where I was, like, trying to set up tryouts and all this, and I had to kind of just cut it off.
But, yeah, we've got four guys.
One JoJo, who's here every day, Cam, who's pretty much here every day, and then Trevor and Hawk, who are both here whenever they can be, you know, with their class and work schedules. But they've been awesome. They're. They're really on top of the communication with me and being here as often as they can. And, yeah, it's a very thankless job and a lot of times not very fun, but I think they just love being out here. It's really cool to see.
[00:19:57] Speaker A: And Jojo Nieves. Jojo has made a big impression. Tell us. Tell us a little bit about his backstory and what he's done in his short time as a shocker catcher.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, JoJo's a rock star. He showed up day one.
I had kind of already got some background information from his last coach at Mac U that he was going to be a stud and going to be perfect for it. And then, yeah, not 30 minutes into him showing up, he was like, sweeping turf pellets out of the dugout, and we were like, hadn't seen him catch yet, but this is the guy because, you know, that's just what you look for is guys that come in and do right away and are looking for ways to help. And that's him to a T for sure.
[00:20:38] Speaker A: Okay, I know people have been waiting for the apprentice school segment. The apprentice school educates shipbuilders. Was this a potential career choice for you?
[00:20:47] Speaker B: Yeah, honestly. So after my two years at Christopher Newport, I felt like I was just kind of stuck and, you know, I was doing computer science and, you know, really for.
Just did that because it was like, well, I'm smart, been good at school, so this seems like a good thing. I'll make money after I'm done. And hated it.
You know, my sophomore year, baseball was the first time I had been like the everyday starter and just really struggled offensively, which led to some struggles mentally and just kind of felt like I needed to change.
Apprentice school is basically in my hometown, same as Christopher Newport is.
[00:21:29] Speaker A: Newport News, Virginia.
[00:21:30] Speaker B: Newport News, Virginia. Yep. And it's.
Yeah, it was just another way for me to get back into baseball and try a change of scenery. I didn't really want to know what I wanted to do as far as school or career or anything like that. So it was like, well, I can go make money and work at this shipbuilding company and, you know, play baseball on top of it. So I figured, why not? Let's go try.
[00:21:54] Speaker A: It sounds like the start to an NCIS episode where young baseball players found murdered at the, at the apprentice school working on a ship. And then it just goes in all kinds of directions from there. That's, that's very interesting.
Favorite professional baseball team?
[00:22:11] Speaker B: You know, I'm in Portugal. Like there's still some love for the Pirates there for sure. Rooting for those guys and those players. But I grew up a Tigers fan, so I gotta say Tigers there.
[00:22:22] Speaker A: And how'd you get hooked up with the Tigers?
[00:22:24] Speaker B: My dad's from Michigan, so been a die hard Detroit everything my entire life.
[00:22:30] Speaker A: Do you have a favorite professional baseball player?
[00:22:33] Speaker B: I would say it's a tie between Yadier Molina, who kind of came on as I was growing up and like Pudge Rodriguez, which he was with the Tigers for a while. So between those two guys, those are good choices.
[00:22:44] Speaker A: You should have said Andy Dirks, former Shocker who played for the Detroit Tigers and now does some some broadcasting for them.
[00:23:07] Speaker B: 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.
[00:23:37] Speaker A: Who is the player you most often cite as an example? Send your players videos and say, hey, check this guy out. He does these things really well.
[00:23:45] Speaker B: Yeah, there's, there's probably a list of, you know, three to five that I wear the guys out with. Patrick Bailey is, you know, probably the easy one to point to. He's been the best pitch framer, you know, for the past three, four, five years.
[00:24:01] Speaker A: And he plays for the Giants. San Francisco Giants.
[00:24:03] Speaker B: San Francisco Giants.
Yeah. Just really good pitch framer. Alejandro Kirk is another guy I really like to send. He's, you know, not the, the best athlete if you've seen him at all 59270 or something like that.
But like elite pitch framer, elite blocker, above average thrower, like really impressive. Dylan Dingler from the Tigers, another guy, very similar above average in all three facets there. Jose Trevino had kind of a down year metrically this year, but you know, over the past few years, one of the best pitch framers and blockers. So another guy I really like to look at.
[00:24:42] Speaker A: What is the, the book, the movie, the podcast that you would recommend all the fans out there?
[00:24:47] Speaker B: Yeah, I think my, the favorite book I've ever listened to. I'm a big audiobook guy and podcast guy, so I don't do a ton of reading, but we'll go with audiobook is it takes what it takes. I'm trying to remember the guy's name. Trevor Moad, I believe is his name. He was a mental performance coach basically, like personal to Russell Wilson. Worked at IMG and a couple other places.
Alabama, Georgia, as like a mental performance guy. Really good.
[00:25:20] Speaker A: Yes. Andy Staples and Trevor Moad.
O a W A D. It takes what it takes.
[00:25:26] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:25:27] Speaker A: What did you like about that book?
[00:25:29] Speaker B: I think it's. So he talks a lot about.
It's. It's. He's a mental performance guy.
You know, I think it takes. I think we in the mental performance space, like probably 10, 15 years ago was trying to shift everything into like you have to be super positive all the time and almost like sort of the sense of like fake positivity. And I think he takes it to where it's like thinking about everything is. It just is what it is. It's neutral. And you can't do anything about the past but learn from it and think about what you're going to do to solve whatever problem is at hand. So just thinking about everything as kind of a matter of fact, rather than trying to get too high or too low or fill yourself with fake positivity. It's just, this is what it is, and this is what I'm going to do about it.
[00:26:19] Speaker A: Colin Wilber, assistant baseball coach, catching coach at Wichita State. Colin, thanks for your time.
[00:26:25] Speaker B: Thank you.
[00:26:40] Speaker A: Thank you for listening to the Roundhouse Podcast courtesy of Wichita State University Strategic Communications.
We encourage you to rate, review and subscribe.
[00:26:49] Speaker B: Wherever you get your podcasts, you can.
[00:26:52] Speaker A: Find more roundhouse
[email protected] Rick Freeling on.
[00:26:56] Speaker C: Deck for the Blue jays.
[00:26:58] Speaker B: They'll have two cracks to get that runner home from second with one out here in the bottom of the 12th.
[00:27:03] Speaker C: The run at second, the tying run in the ball game.
Fastball line to center, base hit. Jim Oddly charges it on the hop. They're sending him home. Here comes the throw. It is in time. He's out. He's out to play on a sensational throw by Jim Oddly. One hop, right on the money and Steve Bruns is dead at home plate. And now there are two down. Shocker. Fans, you may look at that Saturday afternoon, that one play, that might be the play to get you the championship ring. What a throw, Mike. It's the big show in Rosenblatt Stadium. He came up throwing and he threw a strike down Main Street.
