Pro Throwing Drill To Develop A Balanced Power Base

Drill is set up for righthanders. For lefties, the foot work is opposite.

A pro drill to help you develop your power base and balance that I recommend for you to practice is the three hop and throw drill. It's done on flat ground and consists of starting in the pitcher's knee up, power position with the hand in the glove holding the ball with a fastball grip above the raised left knee. You maintain that position as you hop on your right foot (perpendicular) three successive times along an imaginary line toward your target, and throwing at the target after the 3rd and last hop. Try to maintain the same distance between hops (see if you handle a distance of 2ft hops to start out with).

Clint Eastwood's new baseball movie, 'Trouble With The Curve'

would hope they offered modern prescriptives to hitting the curve like TAT, Tapping, or even the Taiwan LL drill for overcoming the fear of being hit by a pitch. Guess we'll see Sept 28th when the movie is released. Should be interesting to see Eastwood in the role of a baseball scout.

Notice: Private Instruction Available In Off Season Only...Seeking A Return To Professional Baseball

1. Del Pittman
2. PB Box 2347
3. Whitney, TX 76692
4. (817) 607-8156
   combat_hitting@yahoo.com
5. info@combathitting.com
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7. OBJECTIVE
   
   A position in Scouting and/or Player Development
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   SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
   
   Good leadership and communication skills with a thorough knowledge of baseball and a working knowledge of Dynamic Sports Vision, Bio-Mechanics, Kinesiology, Anatomy and Physiology. Have a reputation of being an analytical thinker, easy to work with, and objectively subjective.
   
   EXPERIENCE
10. 
    
11. 1989-1990  Associate Scout Kansas City Royals
12. 1991-1996  Associate Scout Milwaukee Brewers
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14. Primary task was to evaluate amateur position players and pitchers to determine their OFP and provide scouting reports.
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16. EDUCATION
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18. TVCC Ontario, OR 1971-72
19. CJC     Cisco, TX 1973-1974  AA Degree
20. Angelo State  San Angelo, TX  BA Degree  Secondary Teaching Certificate
21. 1987 Pro Baseball Scout School   Anaheim, CA                      Certificate
22. 2009 SMWW  Baseball GM and Scout  Portland, OR           Certificate
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26. Available on request

Yankees Outfield Prospect, Mason Williams

Mason Williams

Born: 08/21/1991

Birthplace: Winter Garden, FL

Height: 6' 0"

Weight: 150

Bats: L

Throws: R

Stats page: http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=OF&sid=t586&t=p_pbp&pid=592863

Recently, an article on Yankees’ farmhand, Mason Williams, by a baseball writer caught my eye when someone decided to include the word “phenom” to his article’s title. That buzz word generally sparks an interest in a player from fans that love the game. Well, as a former scout, I’m no different.

My Mason Williams research concluded that he’s well on his way to being a 5 tool player. He does have good speed, a decent arm, can cover the outfield like a deer, has better than average eye-hand coordination to be a consistent, good contact hitter, but a phenom must be able to drive the ball. Can he drive the ball? Not yet. The Yankees acknowledge that his power is not there yet, but they project that it will be.

2009 High School video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yk1V9yD9uMM

2011 Staten Island video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKIw1jlPrGg

From looking at his 2011 video, it looks like the Yankees’ player development people, i.e., his minor league manager, hitting coach, and roving minor league hitting instructor, will be continuing to change his “swinging gate” swing into a power swing by firming up his front side and adding torque. Kevin Long, Yankees’ hitting coach, might even encourage Mason to model Curtis Granderson’s slightly over exaggerated front shoulder down and in stride combination to emphasize to Williams the need for him to stay closed longer.

I’d suggest some cross sport training with a torque and dynamic linking mechanical movement similar to power hitters. Pitchers have done something similar with Dr. Tom House’s football throwing drills to help improve their mechanics. I’ve been using shot and discus power position dry throws(w/o implements) for years with success with hitters. The hitters get a muscle memory feel for coiling during their stride and landing phase and the dynamic linking occurring while uncoiling(like individual firecrackers going off one by one in sequence) after their launching phase begins in their swing.

As a side note that’s related to torque. Scouts have unique terminology that's occasionally used among their organization’s scouts. Sometimes, we’d say suspects for prospects and zeros, NP’s, or blobs for no prospects, etc. Years ago after seeing Christopher Walken in a Saturday Night Live skit saying “It needs more cowbell”, I started saying “needs more cowbell” when I saw a hitter with less than a 5 on his power. No, I never wrote it on an actual scouting report that was turned in. I knew better, but for some reason that old thought of missing torque/needs more cowbell popped into my head during my analysis of Mason Williams. That being said, even if he doesn’t ever become the power hitter the Yankees hope for, he will be an exceptionally good player on the Yankees’ major league roster one day. 

 http://nyyuniverse.com/prospect-spotlight/yankees-prospect-mason-williams/