Competing Without Your Best

Hello Passion for Pitching Family!!!

So we are currently on a five game win streak.  Much more fun playing out in front of the bunch then playing tug-o-war and five hundred baseball.  During the streak we have done an amazing job as a team to simply compete.  Every AB, every inning, we have been right where we need to be with our focus.  No matter if we are down during a certain part of the game or playing out ahead, we have done a very solid job of playing until the bell sounds.

Yesterday (July 29th) we had a young left handed pitcher go out to the mound.  From the start he was having trouble commanding his fastball and working ahead of hitters.  There were times where he would throw a ball in the dirt, then a ball way up in the zone and then a perfect strike.  He basically had no feel for what was going on out there. 

But here is the thing...

when you are a pitcher there are going to be all sorts of different feelings you have when you are on the mound.  Some days you are going to feel amazing and nothing will bother you.  Some days you will feel horrible the entire game and you are just going to have to deal with it the best you can.  Some days you will feel amazing and then all of a sudden in the middle of the game you lose feeling.  Some days it will be the opposite, where you start out feeling horrible but then little by little you gain that feeling place back and you roll through the rest of the game.

No matter what the situation is you MUST be able to compete without your best.  That is exactly what our left handed pitcher did last night.  He was able to battle, not get too discouraged where he was unable to make pitches when he needed to.  There were specific times where he knew he needed to get a little extra focus to get out of a jam and he dug down deep and made it happen.  This is something that is not always easy to learn or to deal with for young professional pitchers, but it is a huge part of their makeup and will allow them to play at higher levels and increase their chances of becoming big leaguers some day.  Very rarely will a pitcher feel absolutely perfect on the mound.  We want to strive for that but not let it discourage us or beat us up if we don't get that each time out. 

Ok, all for now...just a friendly reminder from your friend here at Passion for Pitching.  Hope all is well and happy pitching!!!