WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. – The college pitching coach, to help with his charges, uses an old connection to some knowledge.
“I wanted to see if I could take a nugget to pass with these kids,” Mike Elfer said in a recent telephone interview while working at his alma mater. “Jake is at the top of his profession. I saw how much his velocity increased. I asked her, ‘What are you changing?’ “
Yes, one of Jacob Dagrom’s fellow Mets Opening Day Pitchers Club members also wants to know: what is the key to the amazing spike in his four-seam fastball velocity?
At the Palm Beach ballpark on Saturday, Degrom made his 2021 Grapefruit League debut and rode a group of fastballs, most of which he won in the Meats 6, for a pair of shutouts at speeds of 99 mph. -1 Astro’s Defeat. He allowed one hit, walked one and hit three on more than 29 pitches. The ballpark’s radar gun measured a first inning pitch at 100 mph at Yuli Gurril, although there was no second gun on site.
It served as just another work shift for DeGrom, who was officially and unshockingly served by Mets manager Luis Rojas on Saturday as the starter for the April 1 opener in Washington. His four-seamer averaged 98.6 mph last year, a remarkably fourth consecutive season the 32-year-old turned on the gas, jumping from 93.9 mph in 2016 to back to 95.1 mph in 2017. Since the birth of pitch tracking data in 2008, no other pitcher has achieved such dramatic velocities particularly highs.
“If I knew how to keep it going, I think I would try to increase it even more,” a smiling DeGrom said after his dismissal on Saturday.
The two-time National League Cy Young Award winner said: “I honestly think it’s more comfortable with my delivery. … For me, it was really learning my delivery and being able to replicate it. For me, it’s trying to stay as easy as possible on the mound. “
Pitching coach Jeremy Hefner agreed with that analysis, recently stating, “Everything you attribute to your velocity adds to his ability to repeat his delivery.”
Naturally, the specialist can repeat the delivery of someone by gifts, mental work and physical work. DeGrom checks all three boxes. Start with his confirmation. Close to Hall of Fame Marino Rivera, who the Yankees often called his best center fielder, Degrom, a college shortstop, faces a lot of easy work because of his gifts.
As Hefner said of DeGrom’s beautiful mechanics, “some of them, he knows they do naturally.”
Then go to her self-awareness of her delivery. Hefner said: “I think in general, Jake is an expert in his mechanics. He is constantly getting better.”
Degrom said on Saturday: “My first live [batting practice] And I threw my second living [this spring], I did not feel like it. And instantly, I could tell that I was a bit moved. “
Physical commitment to such delivery mastery requires the most time and effort and may incur a velocity bonus. For years now, Degrom has been throwing a mound between two starts, defying current traditional wisdom, honoring the belief system of Cy Young Award winners and Hall of Famers from a generation before.
“For practical purposes, if Tila is our office, Leo used to say, ‘If you want to work, get in your office,” MLB Network and Fox analyst, John Smoltz, said in a telephone interview. “I don’t pound the pavement.” Smoltz was referring to longtime valiant pitching coach Leo Majone, who followed the wisdom of his mentor Johnny San to uplift Smoltz, Tom Glavin and Greg Maddux, with a total of six NL Cy Young Awards (Maddux) Also won with the Cubs) and three Cooperstown Induction.
“If I pitched on Monday, I had side sessions on Wednesday and Thursday,” Smoltz said. “I will throw 10 minutes for each side session. I got acquainted with all my pitches and got involved with my mechanics.
“You felt as if you were pitching in a four-man rotation because you were a fresher. When I got out of there on that fifth day, I was helped in throwing strikes. I had to go to the mound in a repetitive way to bring back my athleticism. “
Smoltz and Degrom discussed it a few years ago.
“I explained to him what we had done and what we had done. This was clearly a different set of standards. “The premise is, any pitcher that can replicate its mechanics is an opportunity to get better over time. Jacob does so well. “
Two days after a start, Degrom throws only fastballs, usually 10 of them, on the glove side (outside of a midwife’s hip). The next day, he watches a more traditional full bullpen session.
DeGrom mentions this routine for Puffrey, and when Pelre asks DeGrom how this routine made him feel during the dogs’ days of August and September, DeGrom replies, “I’ve never felt better. “
“Starts in between the two times works for some people and probably not for others,” Hefner said. “For Jake, he definitely found the recipe to be a generation pot.”
If modern-day baseball science does not officially endorse the notion that throwing more of a mound leads to better velocity, “the mental side of finding a routine that works for you, rest in it, got something to happen Is, “said Hefner. “Baseball players are very ritualistic. The more they can stay in their daily routine, that freedom when the lights are on can help make them more athletic. “
On April 1, the lights will turn on as radar guns. Dagrom, who allows for good health, will have to work on both his personal and team goals. And if his fastball ticks some more? This will make her saga more compelling, the echoes around each begin to get more tantrums and the secrets of her success all make it more intriguing for those wanting to tap into her magic.
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