Improving Command–The Final Fifty

As a high school and college pitcher, I was often told that I was “effectively wild.” Over a 7-inning game, it wasn’t out of the ordinary for me to walk three to five batters–which in baseball isn’t considered very good. However, being slightly erratic, batters were often a little more off-balance. Being “effectively wild” did probably contribute to more strikeouts, but my wildness was most likely a liability.

In my bullpen workouts, one of my primary concerns is to improve command. This weekend I purchased a nice pitching net with a four-zoned strike zone.

For the next four weeks–or my next 16 bullpen sessions–I will only be throwing fastballs from 45-50 feet at about 3/4 velocity. Because I’m throwing pretty lightly, I’m generally throwing about 100 pitches per day. My focus is on maintaining a consistent, repeatable delivery. To track my progress, I will be tallying my final fifty pitches. The first ten I will simply tally the # of strikes. Then in five groups of seven pitches, I will attempt to hit the 1) high outside corner, 2) high inside corner, 3) low inside corner, 4) low outside corner, and 5) general strike zone.

Today I got started late and so only got to the 10 pitches–and only 5 were strikes. A long way still to go.

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