By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

LOS ANGELES — The study of Tommy John surgeries over the past 47 years in baseball is fascinating.

The first experimental surgery was performed by Dr. Frank Jobe on Los Angeles Dodgers’ pitcher Tommy John in September of 1974.

During a 24-year-period from 1974-1998, there were never more than 10 Tommy John surgeries performed in pro baseball on a yearly basis.

Then a dramatic increase took place over the next eight years as Tommy John surgeries jumped to 58 in 2006.

From 2006-2015, another incredible spike took place as the numbers in pro baseball jumped to an all-time record 121 in 2015, according to data tracked by writer and analyst Jon Roegele.

Since 2014, pro baseball has had over 100 Tommy John surgeries five of the last six years.

The question begs to be answered.

What has changed that has caused such a massive increase in Tommy John surgeries across all of baseball in the past 30 years?

Strikeouts At All-Time High
The highest amount of strikeouts over the past 50 years of NCAA Division I baseball took place during the 2019 season.

The 2019 NCAA Division I Strikeouts Per 9 Innings for each team was a record 8.08.

It marks the first time in history the average has eclipsed 8.00

Each of the last five years have featured strikeout numbers that have gone over 7.00.

For the previous 45 years prior to 2015 (1970-2014), only twice did strikeout totals rise over 7.00, and that was in 1998 (7.07) and 1999 (7.12).

The strikeouts per 9 innings per game for each team the last five years include:

2015: 7.02
2016: 7.17
2017: 7.54
2018: 7.88
2019: 8.08

Butch Thompson, head coach at Auburn University, feels velocity is playing a big part in baseball today.

“If you look at Major League Baseball pitchers, the velocity has gone up the past 10 years. The average Major League fastball is now 93.1 mph. The velocity of pitchers has gone up almost a half mile per hour each of these years for the last decade, and that is truly amazing.

“I’m not talking about the top fastballs in the league. This is just the average.

“College baseball seems to be mirroring this velocity increase with pitchers throwing harder and harder over the past 10 years.

“Look at pitchers in the Pac-12, ACC or SEC. Half of pitching staffs in these leagues are throwing fastballs 90 mph or above. That was unheard of a decade ago.”

More Elbow Surgeries
Thompson feels higher velocity fastballs than ever before in pro and college baseball are causing more Tommy John surgeries to elbows than ever before.

“I am blessed. The team doctor here at Auburn is Dr. James Andrews, the world’s top orthopedic surgeon when it comes to Tommy John surgery.

“He has told me that it isn’t rocket science. Kids are bigger, faster and stronger. There are different people helping pitchers throw harder than they ever have thanks to Ron Wolforth and the Texas Baseball Ranch, Driveline and Alan Jaeger, just to name a few.

“It is interesting to note that many pitchers’ bodies, forearms and shoulders are in better shape than ever. A big part of arm health is creating great scaps and shoulder health. You can train all of this stuff. But you can’t train the ulnar collateral ligament in the elbow.

“It is untrainable. So despite everything around it being stronger and more stable than ever with our throwers, you can’t throw, work or train with a weighted ball — anything — to strengthen or improve that ligament.

“Dr. Andrews has told me that we can do all of this stuff for training. But understand that any time a ball is thrown over 90 mph with an already unnatural throwing motion, the ligament in the elbow (UCL) is not built to withstand over 90 mph.

“Every time you get above that threshold of 90 mph, the ligament is in more jeopardy time and time again. The other issue is that young pitchers 11-14 are playing travel ball more than ever. Their growth plates aren’t closed up yet. These kids are throwing harder earlier in life than ever before.

“We are seeing 15 year olds throwing 90 mph now. If it is dangerous for an older pitcher with their growth plates closed who throw 90 mph, imagine how dangerous it is throwing 90 mph pitches for a 15 year old because his body hasn’t come to full maturity yet.

“Some of this damage is happening to pitchers before they get to us in college.

“It’s Russian roulette when you get above 90 mph with pitches as far as that ulnar collateral ligament or you throw too much. We know more now about arm care than we ever have and we still are having numerous arm injuries.”

Collegiate Baseball has written many stories over the years from great pitching coaches who explained not only training programs but how to keep pitches healthy.

Several stories are in this issue which explain the programs and philosophies of master pitching instructors who rarely had injuries to their hurlers, including Don Rowe of the Milwaukee Brewers, Tom Dunton of Stanford along with Johnny Sain and Leo Mazzone of the Atlanta Braves.

All four were from the same era and shared a lot of the same philosophies.

What are pitchers doing today that pitchers in the 1950’s, 60’s, 70’s and 80’s did not?

To read more of this in-depth article, purchase the May 15, 2020 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE. The pitching systems of Don Rowe, Tom Dunton as well as Johnny Sain and Leo Mazzone are explained in this edition which have kept thousands of pitchers healthy for many years.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

DAVIE, Fla. — Pat McQuaid, one of the greatest high school baseball coaches in history, has retired as the skipper at Nova High School (Davie, Fla.)

He spent 45 years as the head coach of the Titans and was the coach of Nova since 1976.

His teams won 947 games, 18 district titles, two state championships and a national title.

Few high school baseball programs in the USA have experienced more success than Nova High School.

His greatest period of success was when the Titans went 50-1 over the 2005 and 2006 seasons and No. 1 national ranking in the final Collegiate Baseball National High School poll in 2006 with a 19-0 record.

Year after year, he and his staff churned out remarkable teams that played the game the right way.

The veteran skipper was asked to share his time honored secrets of coaching with Collegiate Baseball.

“The most important thing we do is have every kid in our program practice together,” said McQuaid.

“We don’t have a freshman team. But we do have a JV team as well as a varsity squad. We have 22-23 kids on each team, and overall we have 45 kids between both teams. But we treat both teams as one in our program.

“Our JV kids practice with the varsity every day. I found out a long time ago that this was by far the best system to evaluate kids and watch them grow. When the varsity guys are taking ground balls, right next to them might be a freshman kid who is 13 or 14 years old. The varsity kid may be a high profile player who can pass along some valuable information to the young man.

“I’m not saying the young player won’t listen to the coaches. But it has a different meaning coming from one of his peers who has gone through high school baseball and knows what to expect. We have found that our young kids really pay attention to what the varsity players tell them.

“Plus, our older guys have found certain techniques which have worked for them, and they take the young guys under their wings and help them. It is a great experience for them as well.”

When McQuaid says that his JV players are treated as equals with the varsity squad, he isn’t blowing smoke.

When the varsity squad wins a state championship, every player in the program receives a ring, which includes the JV players.

When the varsity travels to a tournament in another state, the JV players come with them as games are arranged for them as well.

And get this.

The goal of the coaching staff at Nova is to make sure each and every JV player participates in at least one varsity game during the season.

“That can be a tough one, but that is our goal,” said McQuaid.

“Usually our JV team plays 18 games, which includes doubleheaders. Since we really don’t have JV coaches, our varsity staff coaches them. I am always at the game watching as I walk around here and there.”

McQuaid said his team may practice 60 minutes on defense, which includes his JV players. Prior to varsity games, his team takes 20 minutes to complete pre-game defensive situations — almost double the time of most high school teams.

“The reason we take so much time is because we have our JV guys taking infield as well. In the long run, this all pays off because kids get a lot of experience. We try to get the kids ready to play. If we find that a kid as a freshman has the aptitude to play at the varsity level, we don’t hesitate using him. All of our JV guys are welcome in the varsity locker room.

“In essence, we want our youngest players to be embraced by the older players to uphold the tradition of our program. When the young kids become older, they turn around and help the younger ones. It turns out to be a great family atmosphere.

“When we have qualified for the final four, we get a lot of our baseball alumni coming to games. After home games, one of the greatest thrills I have is seeing little kids running on the infield of our diamond and playing. I enjoy having a family atmosphere like this with our program.”

Amazing defense has been one of the hallmarks with the Nova Titans for years.

“People may find this hard to believe, but we only had three throwing errors over 32 games during a recent season,” said McQuaid.

“This isn’t unusual. We devote 60 minutes during each practice to defense. We work and work on the fundamentals of fielding and throwing with repetition. The two key areas we work on daily in practice is the double infield drill with two fungo hitters going at the same time.

“The next area we work on each practice is the five different scenarios catchers must master with their throws which gives extra throwing practice for all of our infielders to the different locations where they must throw balls during games.”

McQuaid gave a rundown on each of the five sequences:

To read more of this article, purchase the May 1, 2020 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE. McQuaid explains his five defensive sequences along with much more in this in-depth story about his system.

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

AUBURN, Ala. — Auburn Head Coach Butch Thompson has adjusted his scouting philosophy over the years as new technology has arrived.

For many years, different coaches would scout opponents either in person or through connections with other coaches on teams, in addition to utilizing every statistic they could get their hands on.

Some coaches had players personally scout opponents and had members of their coaching staff scour every newspaper they could which had information about future opponents. Any and all information was valuable.

With more games being televised over the years, recording those games that opponents played and watching every hitter and pitcher became an important advancement.

Now virtually every game has a video feed of some sort that is broadcast over the internet on all levels of college baseball.

Several years ago, Synergy Sports Technology for baseball was introduced which brought an entirely new level of scouting sophistication to the game.

Video of games at schools dissect and analyze every pitch, player, plate appearance, game situation and outcome. Then this company sorts those details and pairs it with supporting video.

This technology was one of the big reasons you now see extreme defensive shifting in college baseball just like in Major League games.

During the 2019 College World Series, one of the biggest tactical changes in college baseball was on full display as extreme shifting took place for the first time ever at this event.

Collegiate Baseball tracked each of the 28 instances of extreme defensive shifting used by teams at the event, and some interesting trends surfaced.

Not once during those 28 trips to the plate by batters did they try to hit a ball the opposite way or bunt the opposite way which would have been easy singles.

In 28 trips to the plate, only one batter got on base, and that was via a walk.

With the other 27 trips to the plate, the batter was out by striking out, grounding out or flying out.

Not one ball was hit to the opposite field by these pull hitters. Every ball was hit to the pull side.

The overwhelming data from Synergy Sports backed these extreme shifts.

“Synergy data has been huge for us,” said Thompson.

“But I don’t think it is the most important thing. Statistics capture the entire body of work by an opposing hitter. But we also want to know what opposing hitters have done with their last 20 at-bats and what tendencies they show.

“Those last 20 at-bats are probably the rhythm they are in currently. With that said, we try not to alter what our pitchers do best. Pitchers like Casey Mize and Tanner Burns bring unique skill sets to pitching. Our starters try to flip the lineup from an opponent three times. We consider that a quality start.

“The identity of the pitcher is absolutely crucial. They have to throw their game. Just because we are playing somebody else doesn’t mean they attack opposing hitters differently. We identify who the power guys are, bunters and runners will be. Pitchers need to know this important information before one of these types of players gets on first base.

“We have this overabundance of information now which pinpoints a power hitter, who will bunt and who will run. I want our pitchers to know this information as they walk into a game.

“Maybe the most important category is who is hot on the other team. Sometimes you can face a great hitter. But if he is not swinging it well those last 20 at-bats, maybe he isn’t as dangerous. When somebody is hot, they are hot.

“When somebody is on autopilot and seems to stick his bat out there and get hits, it is important to know. Knowing the hot hitter is vital to know as you go through a season.”

To read more of this in-depth story, purchase the May 1, 2020 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE. Thompson delves much more into the subject of scouting opponents. 

By LOU PAVLOVICH, JR.
Editor/Collegiate Baseball

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa — Iowa Western Head Coach Marc Rardin has always been one of the most progressive coaches in the business.

During the abbreviated 2020 college baseball season, he did something that few colleges took advantage of.

On January 9, the NCAA Baseball Rules Committee for the first time allowed the pitcher’s use of a quarterback wristband for translating pitch calling digits from a coach in the dugout.

The interpretation stated, “In order to facilitate receiving signals in an accurate and timely manner, a pitcher may wear a wristband with a signal card insert on his non-pitching wrist/forearm.

“It must be black or a solid, dark color. If the insert is not covered with a flap, it should be on the inside of the wrist to reduce any distraction to the batter. There shall not be any attachment to the pitcher’s glove.”

Prior to this ruling, the catcher has been allowed to have a quarterback wristband signal card which translated numbers from the coach for the pitch and location. The catcher then put down the finger or fingers and location for the pitch for the pitcher on the mound.

Rardin jumped at the chance to have his pitchers receive the non-pickable digits from a coach in the dugout.

Because the pitcher and catcher now received the digits from the coach in the dugout at the same time, there was no need for the catcher to give any pitching signs to the pitcher!

Therefore, coaches didn’t have to worry about catcher signs being picked with opponent runners on second or any time for that matter.

An extra benefit is that it speeds up games as well.

Rardin, who has led the Reivers to three NJCAA Division I national titles in 2010, 2012 and 2014, saw an opportunity for his pitchers and catchers to be more efficient with the rule change since NJCAA schools utilize NCAA baseball rules.

“Here is how my thought process went on utilizing the quarterback wrist band for pitchers,” said Rardin.

“There is a company called Synergy which many NCAA Division I baseball programs use. It is an on-line technology that allows you to view pitchers, hitters, spray charts, pitcher and hitter tendencies and much more from your opponents.

“You ask for it, and it does it. We have that technology in our program, and a lot of junior college programs are utilizing it as well.

“If I subscribe, and another program utilizes it as well, the opposing team can get online and watch our stuff. We can also get on-line and watch their stuff as we are getting ready to play them.

“One of the places your camera is set is from the centerfield view toward home plate. With that specific view, what do you see? It is the catcher’s signs. You are trying to make your catcher’s signs more difficult to figure out with runners at second base. With the camera in centerfield, that changes everything since an opponent can view the catcher’s signs on every pitch when the game becomes available online with this company.

“If our opponent looks at a week’s worth of our games prior to playing us, they could easily figure out what our signs are. Then when one of their runners is at second base, they can let the hitter know what pitch is coming with a high level of certainty.

“That is what we were worried about. To prevent this from ever happening with the new rule in place, it made all the sense in the world to have our pitchers now wear the quarterback wristband which could translate numbers being given by a coach in the dugout. Instead of the numbers only being flashed to the catcher, it now went out at the same time to the pitcher and catcher.

“Therefore, the catcher never has to give any signs at all to pitchers! The chance for picking pitches is reduced substantially.

“This centerfield view video from Synergy is recorded and goes online in their system a day or so later.

“With that being said, we found that pitchers became much more efficient and were ready to throw pitches quickly between pitches. What we do now is non-pickable since the catcher doesn’t give any pitching signs.”

To read more of this article, purchase the May 1, 2020 edition of Collegiate Baseball or subscribe by CLICKING HERE. Rardin explains how quick and efficient this system is after testing it with a stopwatch with his pitchers. He also explains why pitching tempo is improved and that the defense is ready to go with the rhythm of the game being quicker, plus much more.