The Pitchers Page

Are Baseball Pitchers Smart or What?

One thing that has become abundantly clear to me is that the majority of students working out at the Pitching Ace Academy, are good or outstanding scholastic students. Whether they are in middle school or high school, their grades are usually way above the average. And their favorite subjects are math and science. Every now and then there is a player with a great interest in the arts and humanities, but mainly it is math or science that they enjoy and do well at the most.

Being a good student is exactly right because the first thing college scouts look at is the GPA. The reason for this is that scouts want to know that if they are going to spend as much time as they do with their ball players, they want to know that the player will be around for all four years, and not lose them because they could not keep up academically.

For a pitcher this works out well, because in order to be a pitcher, that is, an effective winning pitcher, the pitcher has to be smart in the first place. The amount of material he has to know and remember, from the pitching delivery, to adjusting from game to game, sometimes from pitch to pitch; adjusting from batter to batter, even from time at bat to time at bat, for the hitter he is facing, to do all that and still pitch the game, is imperative. Without a good memory, a pitcher would be left in the dark much of the time and ultimately not as effective a pitcher as he might otherwise be.

So, what is the news, you ask? The news is that pitchers are smart people. I dare say, pitchers have above average intelligence. Unlike what Ted Williams is famous for having said, “Pitchers are the dumbest guys on the field.”

Not so Ted.

Besides, what do you say about Babe Ruth who began his career as a pitcher. Babe was a pitcher who set a major league record 28 post season innings without giving up a run, with the Boston Red Sox, only to be eclipsed by New York Yankees’ pitchers, Whitey Ford and Mariano Rivera.

After being such a great pitcher, Babe Ruth became the greatest hitter in major league baseball history. I’d like to know how Ted Williams would have answered to that.

 

We Teach the Major League Pitching Form

Developing the Next Generation of Pitchers

Our Pitchers Learn To:

Prevent Arm Injury
Increase Velocity
Throw Consistent Strikes
Change Speeds
Handle Mental Aspects

For Pitchers of All Ages

 

"He knows what he is doing and knows how to teach it."
--- Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd, former MLB pitcher

 

""Skip Murray is an outstanding baseball pitching coach, working with my 10 year-old son. During the off-season, he worked very patiently with him for a 2 month period, carefully and persistently teaching each successive technique until the whole pitching process became second nature to him. The improvement in my son's pitching is striking. Not only did he add another 8 mph on his velocity(from 46 to 54), but he now uses his whole body in his wind-up and delivery. Skip has a calm, patient, easy-going manner which makes him easy for kids (and adults) of all ages to relate to, but he's more than just a nice guy. If you want to see results, and you want the learning process to be fun, then sign up with "The Professor"...aka Skip Murray...Thanks Skip!"

--- R Raiter, Winthrop, MA, April 2009