[00:00:14] Speaker A: Hello.
[00:00:14] Speaker B: Welcome to the Roundhouse Podcast with Paul Sullentrop of Wichita State University Strategic Communications. Thank you very much for listening. We appreciate your time. Jason Foster is our guest today. Jason is Wichita State baseball's pitching strategist and director of analytics. He's here to talk. With the early days of practice going on, the Shockers got started about a week ago out at X Stadium. Jason joined the coaching staff last fall after spending the previous four years at Tread Athletics, which is a sports development facility in Charlotte. He played at Wright State and Iowa from 2015 to 2019, coached at Wright State. Jason is a native of Grove City, Ohio, which is a suburb of Columbus. So, Jason, I think fans are growing more and more familiar with analytics, their role in the sport. But it's probably helpful to explain how what you do fits within a coaching staff. Give us your job description at Wichita State.
[00:01:09] Speaker A: Yeah, so pitching strategist, director of analytics. So that's kind of what the game is turning into. Everyone has all the technology, all the tools now. So my kind of hybrid role is to be able to take those tools and relate them to, you know, the coaches, the players and see how, how much better we can develop these guys and just take all the guesswork out of it. So you got all your, you know, your Trackman, your Rapsodo, your Hawkeye, your Kenatrax, motion capture, all that stuff. There's high speed cameras everywhere. There's, you know, dozens of cameras on the field. So my role is to kind of make sure we're utilizing those tools correctly and giving that information to the coaches, players in a digestible way as best I can.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: So you have the Brent Chemnitz performance lab here, which is above the, I guess what people would think of as the first baseline grandstand.
You have, as you mentioned, a lot of cameras, computers, all kinds of things. Give people just a short idea about the technology, the amount of technology that a college baseball program would use these days.
[00:02:15] Speaker A: Yeah, so just in that lab, and this is becoming pretty standard. You know, if you don't have all these tools, you're kind of falling behind, especially at the college level. But basically, for our pitching lab, if you're, say, throwing a bullpen, everything about that is being tracked. So the ball flight, we have trackman, we have edertronic cameras. Those are going to spit out, you know, over 100 metrics about what that ball is doing, what your hand's doing, anything you can imagine. If there's a question you have about what that ball is doing in the air, out of the hand into the glove, there's an answer to it.
And same with the motion capture. So there's a motion capture program we use called Kinetrax that is, I believe, eight or nine cameras that surround the pitching mound. And same with the ball flight. If your body is moving at all, it's going to spit out about 100 metrics. You know, how fast you're moving, the angle of all your joints, how much stress is on, you know, hip, shoulder, forearm, wrist, all that stuff. So it's pretty cool to have access to all of this and be able to utilize it with our players.
But, yeah, that's definitely the direction the game is going. If you're. If you're falling behind and you don't have these tools or you don't have people that know how to use and explain these tools, then it feels like you're guessing. This pretty much takes all of the guesswork out of it.
[00:03:39] Speaker B: What percentage of new players, transfers, junior college transfers, high school seniors coming in as a freshman. What percentage of them are now totally comfortable, totally used to using this kind of technology? And how many of them show up here and say, this is the first time I've ever gone through this kind of analysis?
[00:03:58] Speaker A: Yeah, I would say 95% of them have never been on this stuff before. They've never been on trackman consistently. Ken attracts consistently, you know, used an Editronic camera consistently. But that's. It's cool that they have access to this stuff. But, you know, my job and the coach's job is for them to have access to it and for them to have a basic understanding of what it is. Not so much that it kind of confuses them and they're confused about what they're doing. And, you know, basically, if they're trying to get better, they're not confusing the metrics or getting lost in it all. So that's kind of an important job of mine, is to understand it well enough to put it in an easily digestible way to the players so that I'm not confusing them or making them think about things they shouldn't be thinking about.
So, yeah, most of them have never been on any of it before. But we're doing classes, we're meeting weekly, kind of teaching them the basics of it so they can help apply that to their own game.
[00:04:56] Speaker B: So you start in a classroom setting and then you can break it down, go more individual as the season rolls on.
[00:05:02] Speaker A: Yeah, throughout the fall, we've been holding classroom sessions. Like once a week we'll go maybe a Half hour. And we'll, you know, turn the projector on, bring up, you know, video and data of guys and just kind of explain to them, you know, why their fastball may play a certain way or why their curveball make work, may work better against righties than lefties or whatever it is.
There's an answer to it. And we want guys to know these things so that they can feel more comfortable, more confident out in the mountain.
Ultimately focus more on competing than all of the little details of all the technology and stuff.
[00:05:36] Speaker B: Who are the pitchers you use as an example? Maybe in that classroom setting where you say this guy was.
He was this pitcher when we started working with him. He did these things and now he is successful.
[00:05:50] Speaker A: Yeah, I use. I use our guys a lot as examples just because all fall, like I said, we have all the cameras, we have all the data. If a guy threw a bullpen, if a guy, you know, threw live, we have, you know, at least four angles of it. And we have ball flight metrics on everything. So there's not anything that happens on the field or in the pitching lab that isn't tracked, stored and that we can't go back and look at later on. So I use our guys as examples mostly. Sometimes I'll use other college guys as comparisons or some big league guys as comparisons.
You know, let's say this big leaguer does this really well, so does one of our college guys. And we try to use that comp to, you know, just as a visual for them to see like what their stuff or what their movement could be or what their, you know, body type could be. But yeah, I try to use our guys as examples the most. Just so you know, I think that sticks with them a little bit better.
[00:06:43] Speaker B: Why did you get into coaching?
[00:06:45] Speaker A: I got into coaching, so I was. I was an athlete growing up. I played football, basketball, baseball, all that. And then baseball is actually my least favorite sport. And then I kind of realized late in high school that this was the only sport I could probably play at the Division 1 level.
I always threw hard.
I was a shortstop, I was a good defender. I couldn't really hit super well. So I knew if I wanted to play college baseball, pitching was kind of my best shot. And I always say that I got into coaching because I wanted to be the coach I never had, especially at a younger age.
I was always a really good athlete. You know, I was always, you know, throwing the hardest on the team. I could run fastest, jump highest, all that. So just kind of a good athlete. But I feel Like, I never really figured out the skill of a lot of the game.
For example, I mean, I was 85 to 88. I think I touched 88 one time in high school. So in today's game, that would probably get me maybe a D3 look. But yeah, I was pretty much 86 to 90 my whole college career.
I threw fastball, change up the first four years of college because I could never figure out how to throw a breaking ball. So, I mean, I didn't figure out how to throw a slider until I was a red shirt junior. So my fourth year in college, so just things like that, I always felt like I had a lot of potential, but I never really learned the development side or, you know, that skill of the game. So I always, like in today's game, if you don't have a good breaking ball, you can be taught one in, you know, one minute of a bullpen session. Just because with the technology and all this, you have all the answers. You have the video, you have the data, you have the movement. There's no, like, guessing anymore. So I always say I kind of got into coaching to be that development type coach that I never had growing up.
[00:08:35] Speaker B: Who are your coaching role models?
[00:08:38] Speaker A: There's a lot.
Yeah, I've been fortunate to be around a ton of good coaches coming from Wright State, so played at Wright State for four years and then coached at two.
I think every coach I ever had went on to, you know, to pro ball, to the big leagues, or to a Power 4 conference.
I mean, just to name a few. I mean, Justin Parker's at Mississippi State, you got Jeff Mercer at Indiana, Greg LoveLady went to UCF Purdue.
Matt Talarico's director with the Yankees, Nate Metzger's with the Cubs. That was all at Wright State. So, I mean, I've been fortunate to have a lot of really, really good coaches and to be able to learn from them.
And then even with Iowa, I mean, with Iowa, I had Desi Druschel, he's with the Yankees now.
Who else? We got Joe Migliaccio, Yankees.
Marlin's director of hitting.
Tom Gorzlani was a big leaguer for a while. And then obviously Rick Heller and Marty have been winning there for, you know, forever. So all of those guys, I mean, I've been really fortunate to have a really good kind of coaching tree around me. Really good role models.
Robin Lund, another one with the Tigers, director of pitching. But yeah, I wouldn't say I have like one specific guy that I look up to, but all of Those guys, I kind of took parts of their coaching, how they went about things, how they carried themselves, how they talked to their athletes.
And I learned a ton from all of those guys. And like I said, I've been really fortunate to be around a really good group of coaches and mentors that I learned a lot from.
[00:10:14] Speaker B: Rick Heller is a name Shocker fans would recognize. He was a coach at Northern Iowa for many years before ending up at the University of Iowa. So as you are considering going into coaching, how do you decide on this?
You know, statistics analysis, math based part is what I want to do as opposed to what we might think of as more of the traditional on field coaching.
[00:10:37] Speaker A: Yeah, and I think that traditional on field coach is kind of turning into a hybrid between the feel guy, you know, the leader, the guy that has played the game for a long time, coached for a long time, and kind of has a feel for the game. But those guys now are getting up to speed with the analytics side too.
Like I said earlier, there's not really anything that can't be figured out anymore.
I want to say like 10 or 15 years ago, when the analytics department started and the driveline baseballs and those players in the game started trying to figure the game out, they've come a long way and I don't think there's a single question about a player, about the game that hasn't really been answered. If a guy, if you want a guy to throw harder, you can, you can figure that out. If you want a guy to throw different pitches, you can figure that out. If a hitter, if you need to change his swing, you're not guessing anymore. You have a million different data points you can look at and correlations that, you know, trends that show this type of stuff works and this type of stuff doesn't work as much based on player type.
So like I said, that traditional role is kind of turning into, you know, an all encompassing, you know, a coach that knows all of that stuff. They have the feel, they have the knowledge of analytics, they know how to digest it and they can relay that to the player effectively. And some players, they don't need much of it. Some players are really heavy into it, they want a lot of it. So again, having the feel of knowing who you're talking to and who needs what is a. Is a big part of the game. But. But yeah, I think, I don't think there's really a true, like traditional coach that rejects all analytics. And I don't think there's a true coach that is only analytical and doesn't care about the feel of the game anymore, at least at, you know, the highest levels of college and professional baseball. So I think being really good at both and kind of, you know, being kind of in that hybrid role is what's happening more and more now.
[00:12:33] Speaker B: So if the information and the ability to know what's going on has become more widespread, more universal, where do you find the edge now?
[00:12:44] Speaker A: That's the trick. There's always more information out there. There's always coaches trying new things and organizations, schools, all the facilities that are out there, they're always trying to figure out the next big trend or the next thing that's going to change the game.
Being up to speed on that is important. And knowing how to filter out the stuff that's a little gimmicky or not super important versus the stuff that's actually working on the field.
I think having a really good filter for that stuff is very important.
But yeah, I think the best you can do right now is just to be up to speed on everything and yeah, know how to coach each individual player. You can't coach every guy the same. Every guy's not going to want to look at his video and you know, track man metrics every game. And there's some guys that are going to want to look at it all the time, every day.
And also knowing, you know, how they can, you know, benefit from that versus a guy that's maybe looking at it too much, too little. But yeah, I think having a really good filter for that stuff is kind of paramount at this point.
[00:13:47] Speaker B: So this kind of job is often described as a conduit. You've got all this information on your computers, your video, and then you've got to give that to an athlete in a way that they understand it and can make use of it.
How do you describe your job as a conduit?
[00:14:04] Speaker A: Yeah, it's a lot of that stuff. I have all the information available.
If a player has a question on anything, I can explain it to him in words or I can sit him down and we can look at video metrics, slow mo video, high speed, all that stuff. So it's being able to relay that stuff to the other coaches if they need it, if they want it. And I think it just, it speeds up the process of coaching.
Like I said, it takes the guesswork out. You don't have to go spend months trying to develop a change up or a slider anymore. You can look at a guy, see what adjustments you want to make based on data points and Inflection points that work in game. And then you can go and change that guy's arsenal or his delivery or even mental game, how he focuses his routine on the mound. You can change that to things that, you know, work the majority of the time versus, you know, guessing what may or may not work and spending months on something. So, yeah, just being able to relay, digest, and kind of filter out good versus bad information is really important, especially at the highest levels of the game.
[00:15:15] Speaker B: How much time do you spend thinking about and learning?
Billy takes information in this way. He's a visual learner.
Sam is a different kind of learner. How important is that to your job and how do you go about deciphering all of that?
[00:15:31] Speaker A: Yeah, I think that's something that's really important to figure out early in the fall. You know, when you first meet guys, you first sit down, talk to them. You have team meetings, you have individual meetings. You ask all those questions. You see if they've had access to this stuff in the past. You ask if they want access to it. Some guys have good enough feel that they know I shouldn't be looking at this too much because then I start thinking about it in the game instead of thinking about competing and getting the batter out. And some guys, the more information they take in, the more comfortable they feel about going and getting the batter out. So I think meeting guys early on, it's really important to figure that stuff out just by having a conversation with them. And then you can kind of figure it out on your own, too, just by the type of questions guys ask.
Some guys won't ask you a single question about their fastball spin rate the entire fall. And then some guys will come up to you twice a week and really want that information. It's kind of, as a coach, you have to decipher if it's worth giving that information to that guy or telling him that, hey, maybe we don't want to worry about this, or this is why that isn't important and you don't have to worry about it or. Yeah, that is a good question, and let's go sit down and talk about it and figure it out. So learning guys and learning who they are and figuring out which information they need to improve their game and ultimately feel more comfortable on the field is big.
[00:16:50] Speaker B: So Moneyball was kind of. This signaled, I guess, the merging of the two worlds. The old school baseball guy who had to be at the games was watching and maybe just had an idea or a feel about what a pitcher might do. And then you had this new age where video and all these analytics are becoming more and more accessible. How did that movie kind of show that blending beginning to start?
[00:17:12] Speaker A: Yeah, so that movie was a really good example of kind of what the game is evolving into and has evolved into. So basically, I like to think of it as the guys with a really good feel and a lot of experience in the game. You know, the coaches, the managers that have been around for decades, they have actually sat down with the newer, younger, basically computer nerds who are interested in baseball but may not have, you know, too much skin in the game, but they have sat down over the last few years, 15 plus years, and have been able to put numbers to everything and really figure out the game and figure out what works. Like, sometimes I like to think of it as like a math equation. Like there's an answer to the problem that you're trying to figure out. You just, you have to be able to find that answer. And when you can put numbers and video and data and analytics and all that stuff, when you can put numbers to it, it speeds that process up, you know, tenfold. So, yeah, it's not like the game is turning into a bunch of guys with computers. You know, the guys with feel and experience are still extremely valuable, especially in communicating to the players.
And players are, you know, nine times out of 10, are going to want to listen to a guy that can speak that language too, that can talk like a baseball guy, talk like a baseball player. But it's important to be able to use the information and, you know, all the computers and screens and all the stuff that's around now, it's important to be able to use that to speed up the process of learning, coaching and, you know, figuring out the answers that you need to make the player better that will ultimately lead to winning more. So, yeah, that movie just really good example of what the game is turning into. And, you know, I forget the guy's name in the movie, but, you know, kind of like the sidekick, I think it was Jonah Hill.
[00:18:59] Speaker B: Right.
[00:19:00] Speaker A: I mean, he wasn't a baseball guy, but he was able to figure a lot of things out that helped win baseball games.
And using, I think it's Billy Beane, he was able to relay that information to him, which he could then relay that information to the player as a baseball coach and not just a guy that shows up out of nowhere with a computer and is telling you you're playing the game the wrong way. So, yeah, being able to kind of marry those two worlds has really, you know, push the game so far forward so quickly, and I don't see it slowing down anytime soon. I mean, I think the game has evolved more in the last 10 years than it probably did in the previous hundred.
So it's ongoing, it's still happening, it's not going to go anywhere.
And yeah, you look at the teams with, you know, the most money, the biggest analytical departments, the biggest focus on development, you know, the college and pro level, those are the teams that are in the World Series or in Omaha every single year. So if you're ignoring it, you're going to get left behind if you don't know how to using it. If you don't know how to use it, you're kind of slowly getting left behind. So, yeah, I think ultimately it's good for the game as long as you still have those baseball guys there that are able to relay that information effectively.
[00:20:14] Speaker B: Is there an analytics tool that you would say, all right, this is the first step we use with most pitchers. This is kind of the low hanging fruit. If we can fix this, we can get them really on a good path and then we continue improving what would fit into that category.
[00:20:31] Speaker A: Low hanging fruit.
It's tough calling this a low hanging fruit because it's expensive. But I would say a trackman unit is almost a must. I mean, I don't know how many schools have one now. I would say at least, you know, 70% of schools have one. But if you have something as simple as a trackman unit, that's becoming, you know, basically a necessity requirement by conferences now you can look at a guy's arsenal and, you know, figure out what he needs to be better at if his stuff is going to play better versus righties or lefties, you can basically look at how a guy pitches and figure out what needs work. And if you're well versed on things like inflection points, like what velocity works on what pitch and what movement makes a pitch play up, and so on and so forth. You can speed that process up of developing a big league arsenal over the course of a couple bullpens instead of years of development and kind of guessing how to get things to move a certain way or get velocity up and this and that. So trackman is something that we pretty much use on a daily basis, especially on the pitching side of things. But yeah, I think it's almost invaluable. You got to have one of those.
[00:21:46] Speaker B: And give us a brief description of trackman.
[00:21:48] Speaker A: Yeah, Trackman is the device that. So it's mounted on just about every stadium and There's a mobile unit that you can carry around and use for bullpens, but it basically measures every ball flight metric you can think of. How the ball is moving, how fast it's spinning, what direction it's spinning.
It's. I mean, if it's spits out a CSV report, which is basically an Excel file that just has thousands of numbers on it, most of them you never look at, but there's a couple dozen on there that you would look at constantly if you're trying to really nail down a guy's pitch shapes and arsenal. So yeah, that's kind of the basic rundown of what a trackman unit does.
[00:22:27] Speaker B: So how do you think about approaching a pitcher who, boy, I've thrown hard all my life and I've struck out a bunch of guys.
But you've got data that says, well, you need to throw your change up a little bit more often. How do you kind of finesse that to get that in his brain so he can be more effective?
[00:22:43] Speaker A: Yeah, I think if you have a guy like that, say a high schooler coming up and you know, say he threw 80% fastballs in high school and he was a big time recruit and he's always had success with that.
A good example is we know now at the big league level, I think fastballs have been trending down for years. I think they're only used 46 or 47% of the time now versus 10 years ago. I think that number was 60%.
But we know now, based off all the numbers, analytics and just using the fastball as an example, that it's the worst pitch in baseball. It has the highest batting average, the highest slugging, the highest on base percentage against.
So even if a guy has an elite fastball, which not many do, like that's a great tool to have. But especially with, you know, scouting reports and everything everyone has nowadays, you know, there's synergy, there's true media, there's all this stuff that you have everyone's information.
If you know a guy throws the fastball 80% of the time, you can just sit fastball and he's that that pitch isn't going to perform as well as it did in high school. So that's just an example of how you know you can use numbers to your advantage.
If a guy has an elite fastball, it's kind of a hack because not many guys do. Again, it's the worst pitch in baseball and it's not really close, but if a guy is able to throw 1, 60, 70% of the time and have success, then great. But the other 30, 40% of the time you're going to be able to, need to. You need to be able to mix effectively, you know, mix one or two breaking balls in the zone, mix at least, you know, one type of change up, cutter off speed, pitch in the zone.
So you can use kind of the data analytics to show that guy, you know, these are the trends, these are what's happening. And then you can ask the hitters too. I mean, if you're playing scrimmages all fall and a guy wants to throw 80% fastballs, especially at the D1 level, it's probably not going to work out great and he'll kind of slowly begin to realize that he can't just be a fastball guy anymore.
But yeah, that's just a good example of how using numbers and, you know, scouting reports and all that can help convince guys that they may actually need to make some changes.
[00:24:48] Speaker B: I think it's always so interesting because baseball seems to reward velocity almost above anything else up until you reach a point where it doesn't anymore. And that's what we're talking about.
Do you let a pitcher figure that out on his own, fail and come and ask for help? Or are you kind of trying to shepherd them gently toward that realization in.
[00:25:13] Speaker A: Terms of just velocity?
[00:25:14] Speaker B: Right. Just reaching the point where, oh yeah, I could blow everybody away up until this point. Now I can't. I've got to figure out some other ways to get people out.
[00:25:22] Speaker A: Yeah, I think it's important to make them aware of that information early. And if they're receptive to it, then great, you can start right away on, you know, game planning. How do I pitch now versus how I pitched in high school or how do I pitch now versus how I pitched last year? If they're receptive to it, then great, you can get to work right away.
You may still have the information that this guy's fastball is really good and it plays, but that doesn't negate the importance of the rest of the arsenal and the command side of things and, you know, pitching and the run game and fielding bunts and all that. It doesn't negate all of that stuff. But if a guy isn't receptive to it, then that's also, you know, his choice.
And if it works out in his favor, then great, it works out for everybody. But more than likely he'll have to kind of figure out the hard way. And then that's when the guys come to you like hey, like I had so much success the last year or when I was in high school and now I'm not anymore. Like, what's going on? Like, I've never failed like this before and now I'm kind of stuck. You know, everyone's the best player on their team in high school, and then when you get in college, you're playing with 20, 25 other pitchers that were also the best pitcher on their team. So once they realize they're not kind of top dog or, you know, they're not where they think they were, maybe they've been, you know, they've gone through some adversity and experienced some failure for the first time, then that's when they kind of come to you, like, hey, I'm starting to understand that I'm not as good as I thought I was or my stuff isn't as good as I thought it was. How can we make it better? And that's when you kind of dive in and go to work on fixing all those things. But. But yeah, it's a different process for everyone. Some guys love it, some guys, it takes a while. But if you want to be successful, then eventually you're going to have to gradually improve.
[00:27:07] Speaker B: How often do you close the computer and look at a pitcher and say, hey, the simple approach is best for you. Just go out there, throw strikes, work ahead, keep the ball down.
[00:27:17] Speaker A: Pretty often I say it's half and half. I mean, some guys, if they actually have good stuff and it works out in game, then you don't want to over complicate things. You don't want to take a guy who's had success with what he has now and has in the past and try to change it just for the sake of some numbers.
Because that's when things can start to spiral. Especially if a pitcher is really good at being who he is.
Just plus feel for himself, plus feel for the game, plus feel for competing and he has success. Maybe his average fastball can be average or maybe his, you know, below average breaking ball can play up because he can throw it at any count and he can, you know, mix it left, right, up, down, throw it both sides of the plate, whatever. So that's how you can kind of, I call it overcoming average. Like if you have an average arsenal or average metrics across the board, that stuff can play up based on what type of competitor you are, how good your command is, how good your feel for the game is. So you got to be aware of that stuff too. You can't just go changing everything Just for the sake of what it says on a trackman reporter, what some guy on Twitter's analytics department said. So yeah, having some feel for that is important. And ultimately competing in games and winning is the goal. So you want to always be trending in that direction. You don't want to be the guy that's just constantly, you know, tweaking and messing with things just, you know, for the sake of it.
[00:28:45] Speaker B: What's the job of a pitching strategist during a game? Are you in the dugout? Are you in the bullpen? Are you up in the press box?
[00:28:52] Speaker A: I'll be in the bullpen this year. I believe I would say strategist. So I'm obviously helping guys in the bullpen get ready for the game. You know, based off situation outs. The scouting report is going to be huge. We actually just built our scouting report out a whole new one last week. So being able to relay that information not only to the players but to coach Clagett who's in the dugout, you know, calling pitches or the catcher calling pitches, just figuring out the best way to get guys out and win the game and making sure the players and coaches are on the same page with that information.
A good example is pitching to your strengths versus pitching to the hitters weaknesses.
If your strength is a fastball up and in. But the hitter scouting report says he hits fast fouls up and in, you know, he slugs, you know, over a thousand off that, then maybe we have to go against, you know, we have to decide do we want to throw our best stuff or throw his or stuff. So just kind of strategizing, figuring that stuff out and like I said, making sure everyone's aware of that information so we can go out there and compete with the best game plan possible instead of just kind of going out there and winging it.
[00:30:05] Speaker B: Brady Hamilton is a name that Shocker fans are going to be familiar with. He's back for the third season. He started 24 games over his time at Wichita State. Had a really good summer in the Cape Cod league. Describe working with Brady and what you've seen from him so far.
[00:30:19] Speaker A: Yeah, Brady's awesome. Obviously one of our few returners on this team. Ton of transfers, juco guys. So he's been able to. He's been a really good leader for this team. He's been with coach Green and coach Clagett so he kind of knows their personalities, knows what they like and don't like.
So he's been a great guy for all these newcomers to look up to.
Really, really fun to work with too. He's, I mean, he's a hard worker. He sets a good example for other guys.
And yeah, he's always trying to improve his game.
I don't think anyone's, you know, happy with where they're at. I mean, unless. Unless you're a big league all star. There's stuff to work on. But him especially, he's always looking for ways to get better, looking for ways to improve his routines, his mental game, his development approach, you know, from week to week.
But yeah, he's been great to work with and a really good, really good guy to have around, especially with the amount of newcomers we have.
[00:31:15] Speaker B: Ethan Rogers is a freshman lefty from Lone Jack, Missouri. He was drafted in the 18th round by default Detroit last spring. Take us through Ethan's adjustment to the college game.
[00:31:26] Speaker A: Yeah, Ethan's adjustment early on in the fall, you could, I mean, you could tell he was a freshman. He was kind of new, figuring things out.
Showed a lot of, you know, promise, a lot of talent. And he's a guy that he could be really, really good this year, maybe it's in the next two or three years. But he's got, he's got a ton of potential. He's a really good kid. He's got a great head on his shoulders. You know, he goes about things the right way. He's a hard worker.
He does all the intangible stuff correctly.
And Brady Hamilton is actually a great example of someone that Ethan looks up to again.
Brady's always trying to help the new guys out, especially young guys. With Ethan being the only freshman on the team, it can be a little bit tough. But I think it helps him knowing that he's not the only newcomer.
He's got 15 new pitchers that are also trying to figure out this system and how Coach Clagett works and how I work and yeah, he's shown a lot of promise this fall and into his lives this winter. And he'll be a good guy to keep an eye on come this spring.
[00:32:30] Speaker B: Brock Eddy is another name Shocker fans might recognize. His brother Liam pitched at Wichita State. Brock is a junior transfer from Blinn College in Texas. Describe Brock's pitching skills.
[00:32:42] Speaker A: Yeah, Brock's awesome too. I wouldn't say he's, you know, the most vocal guy on earth like a Brady Hamilton, but he leads by example. He's a good guy for, you know, guys to look up to and talk to.
Obviously having experience in the upper levels of college baseball, you know, Power four Conference.
He's Been around high level competition before and not all of the guys on our staff can say that. We have a lot of guys that had a ton of success at the JUCO level. Again, I think we had a top five JUCO recruiting class, but not all of those guys came from Power 4 conferences and were, you know, facing real Power 4 high level hitters, you know, for an entire year.
So Brock, Brock knows what it looks like.
He knows what, you know, good pitching and good hitting looks like and he knows how to prepare, you know, like a professional. And he's been a really fun guy to coach as well. He's always hungry to get better. He's always looking to improve things, whether it's the mental side of things or the development piece. But yeah, Brock's been a joy to coach and I think he's going to be, he's going to be a really important piece of our staff this spring.
[00:33:49] Speaker B: And he had been at Arizona State before going to Blinn and then coming to Wichita State. Another returner, Carson Richard will be a big piece of the shocker bullpen. Tell us about Carson.
[00:34:00] Speaker A: Yeah, Carson's awesome. So he's been here for couple years now. He kind of struggled, but he's made some really, he's made some really big jumps this fall.
The fastball's improved, the curveball's improved. He's added two new pitches that has made him a lot more competitive.
And I think last year he's. You look at him, you know, you watch all his film and he's a guy that's like, man, this guy could be really good. But he hasn't really figured it out yet. And I think this fall and this winter he really started to figure some things out. So I think, I think he's going to be a guy that's going to be a huge piece to the back end of our bullpen.
Had a good fall. I mean, he's regularly in the mid-90s with a pretty big curve ball and again, two new pitches that I think he's going to be throwing probably 40, 50 plus percent of the time. So he's kind of reinvented himself this year and yeah, he's going to make some waves this spring for sure.
[00:34:54] Speaker B: So we went through a lot of the obvious names. Give the fans a name or two that might kind of come out of the, come out of the shadows a little bit and be a contributor early in the season.
[00:35:03] Speaker A: Yeah, on the pitching side, I mean, with so many new guys, it's hard to tell like who's Going to be the guy come springtime just because you've. At least I have and I'm sure Coach Clagett, when recruiting has seen some of these guys, but it's hard to see what's going to happen like when the, the lights turn on. But I'm really excited to see guys, you know, Ryan Morrison, Mitch Johnson, some of our, you know, back end bullpen guys. I'm really excited to see, you know, how they do come springtime. And then on the hitting side, it's going to be really exciting. We have a lot of really good juco transfers.
You know, we got Jason Jones, Jack Quick, Gus is back and healthy again.
[00:35:43] Speaker B: Katon Gustafson, one of the returners.
[00:35:45] Speaker A: Yep, he was, he was injured most of the fall so I personally didn't get to see him a lot. But he started, you know, hitting in live abs. He's full go now and he's been really exciting to watch. I think he's, he's an improved product of what he was last year as well as, you know, a lot of the guys. But there's again a lot of newcomers on the pitching and hitting side.
Going to be a lot of new starters in the field, a lot of new names in the bullpen and you know, in the weekend rotation. But we have, we have a lot of guys that I think are going to be pleasant surprises for the fans.
[00:36:15] Speaker B: Who's your favorite baseball team?
[00:36:17] Speaker A: That's a tough question. When I was growing up, it was the Guardians. I was a huge Guardians fan. But honestly, since working in baseball, I haven't followed a team super closely.
With my time at Wright State and then my time at tread, I kind of just followed my guys, the guys I worked with a lot. So I don't really have a favorite team anymore.
I more so just kind of keep up with my guys, you know, watching them, see how they're doing and yeah, following up on the guys I've worked with over the years.
[00:36:46] Speaker B: Who was 12 year old Jason Foster's favorite baseball player?
[00:36:50] Speaker A: There was a lot. This is a name no one's gonna know, but Matt Lawton was actually my favorite player for a while. He was a, he was an outfielder. He was the first home run I ever saw on tv, so it kind of stuck with me. But there was a lot of really good guys on, you know, that old Indians team, you know, the Casey Blakes, the Grady Sizemores.
David Wells was a big name. I don't remember if he was an Indians guy or a Yankees guy.
Bob Wickman, I believe he was on the Indians, but. But yeah, big, big Indians fan, I'd say in like the early 2000s. Followed them a lot.
[00:37:24] Speaker B: Yeah, very heads up mentioning Casey Blake, who of course is a former former Shocker. Do you have a book, a podcast or movie you would recommend people check out?
[00:37:34] Speaker A: Podcast? Probably not that the fans would be interested in, but I'm big on, you know, anatomy type development podcast. I think Eric Cressy has a really good podcast. Jake Torre and Just Fly have a really good podcast on kind of athletic development.
One of my favorite books to kind of read through with the guys is, you know, the classic Heads up Baseball.
But yeah, I think those are, those are some of the ones that I kind of go through on a yearly basis.
[00:38:02] Speaker B: Who is the best hitter you faced as a college pitcher?
[00:38:06] Speaker A: Best hitter? Really good question. I'm terrible with names. I'm sure there's a lot of guys I'm leaving out. But most memorable for me would probably be my sophomore year at Clemson. So I was playing at right. I was playing with Wright State. We were at Clemson opening weekend.
I think it was like a tie ball game or we were up one or something and bases loaded, one out. I'm out there pitching and Seth Beer, who was a first rounder, big lefty, I mean tremendous hitter. I think he was an all American the year before as a freshman. But striking him out was like a big memory for me. I remember that kind of we took two of three from Clemson that opening weekend, which is a big deal for a small time, not small time baseball program but just small mid major like Wright State. So Seth Beard, that was probably one of my most memorable matchups I faced throughout college.
[00:38:59] Speaker B: Taking two out of three at Clemson would be a big deal for almost any baseball program.
Wichita State baseball is on the practice field. The Shockers open the season on football. February 13th versus Northern Colorado. That's the four game series at X Stadium. Jason, thank you for your time.
[00:39:15] Speaker A: Thank you very much.
[00:39:30] Speaker B: Thank you for listening to the Roundhouse podcast courtesy of Wichita State University Strategic Communications.
We encourage you to rate, review and.
[00:39:38] Speaker C: Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
[00:39:41] Speaker B: You can find more roundhouse
[email protected] Rick.
[00:39:45] Speaker C: Freeling on deck for the Blue jays.
They'll have two cracks to get that runner home from second with one out here in the bottom of the 12th. The run at second, the tying run in the ball game.
Fastball line to center, base hit. Jim oddly charges it on the Hopkins, sending him home. Here comes the throw. It is in time. He's out. He's out of the play. On a sensational by Jim Odley. 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.
