How I lowered my ERA from 6.18 to 2.03 From One Season to the Next

Todays newsletter is sponsored by:

Grady's Pitching School provides high-quality and durable pitching training and development tools. 

You can order your plyo weighted ball training set here, or if you prefer plyos with seams, sets are available here.  

Coaches, teams, and facilities can now order directly at a discounted price. 

Open the order form here to order plyos, resistance bands, 9-hole pitching targets, and genuine leather practice baseballs.

Last season doesn’t determine what you will do next season.

My junior year I had a 6.18 ERA in 83 innings.

My senior year I had a 2.03 ERA in 115 innings.

There were 3 things I believe changed:

1. I pitched to my strengths

2. I avoided the big inning

3. I was stronger mentally 

1. I pitched to my strengths

In order to maximize your current skill set, you have to pitch to what you do well.

You can't try and be a pitcher you aren’t.

Don't get this confused with not developing and improving as a player.

But to be your best right now, you have to understand what it is you do well.

For me it was pounding the strike zone and creating weak contact.

I wasn't a strikeout pitcher and when I tried to be, I would fall behind and get hit.

To strikeout more batters I needed to improve my stuff, not to try and make them miss every pitch I threw.

As a crafty lefty, my strength was in doing less.

I needed to change speeds frequently and frustrate batters with my pitchability and frankly, my lack of velocity.

When I did this my performance sky rocketed. I made it a goal to see how few of pitches I could throw each inning.

Remember, pitch to your strengths while also working to develop your skill set.

2. I avoided the big inning

In 2013 (junior year) I gave up 3 runs or more in an inning 10 times!

That was 12% of my innings.

In 2014 (senior year) I gave up 3 runs or more in an inning 6 times.

That was 5% of my innings.

Truth be told, I didn't pitch as bad as the numbers would tell you my junior year.

I pitched into the 7th inning in half of my starts.

What killed me was giving up the 3+ run inning and it usually being at the end of my outing.

Something else I did my senior year was developed a trick pickoff play.

I always had a very good pickoff move, but that year we developed a play that helped me get out of jams late in the game.

To do the play there had to be runners on 1st and 2nd.

As I would catch the ball from the catcher and walk up the mound, the 1st basemen and I would give each other a sign to signal the play was on.

He would be playing back behind the runner as usual, but as I would lift my leg to pitch, he would break towards the bag and I would pick.

Because this play would only work one time a game, we would save it for late in the game when I was in a jam.

It proved to work many times including in the A10 tournament game against Dayton. Click here to check it out.

I won’t pretend this is the main reason my ERA was as low as it was, but there’s no doubt it saved me some runs.

3. I was stronger mentally

It always took me time to get used to the level I was playing at. Freshman year at South Mountain CC started off rough before settling in.

Junior year at George Mason was rough before settling in my senior year.

I felt completely locked in and focused on who I was and what I needed to be successful my senior year.

Junior year I was distracted by results most of the year. Especially after a bad outing.

Senior year I focused more on my process. I knew if my process was good I was in the best position possible to succeed.

I was confident and focused on the moment every game.

I had an aggressive mindset and I didn't care who was in the batters box. I was going to attack the zone with my best stuff.

Another big part of that year was the book, “The Mental ABC’s of Pitching”. I read a chapter every single day. Usually I would pick a topic that had to do with what I felt I needed in that moment.

I highly recommend this book to all pitchers.

Couple other things to note between the 2 seasons.

My junior year we were told 2 weeks into the season we weren't eligible for the conference tournament because we were changing conferences the following season.

Our performance plummeted as a result, finishing the season 18-35.

Just like winning and playing well is contagious, so is losing!

Jump ahead to my senior year, we finished 34-22, won the Atlantic 10 tournament and played in the Rice Regional.

The next couple of months are going to be vital to your success this upcoming season.

Show up game one ready to go.

That's all for today.

See you next week!

Whenever you are ready, there are 3 ways I can help you: 

1. Remote Training: a personalized throwing and lifting program built for you and your goals.

2. In-Person Training: Work with me in Phoenix, Arizona. Personalized training program to help you reach your goals. Trackman and edgertronic for bullpen sessions.

3. Pitch Design "U" Course: A complete blueprint for developing nasty pitches and optimizing how you use your stuff. 3+ hours of easy to follow video lessons.