If you want to play at a high level, you have to watch professional or college baseball. It baffles me to hear that players who aspire to be the best don’t watch the best. Like many kids, I fell in love with baseball by watching Major League Baseball because I admired the best of the best. My love for watching the game evolved with my baseball IQ, going from admiring to mimicking to analyzing.
I grew up watching the Boston Red Sox, since my t-ball team was the Red Sox, and the Washington Nationals once they came to town. Dustin Pedroia and Ryan Zimmerman were my favorite players in the league. I even had metal lunch pails with their faces on them to collect my baseball memorabilia. Both players were absolute studs but they grabbed my attention for different reasons.
Pedroia was an undersized middle infielder who took the world by storm winning Rookie of the Year and MVP in back to back years, leading his team to the World Series. I loved his grittiness and the impact he had on a winning team. On the other hand, Zimmerman was developing into the face of a new franchise, setting his mark early in his career at a stadium only 20 minutes from where I lived. I admired both of them and since they were on different teams, I got to watch twice the baseball with that spirit. They helped drive my passion to play baseball at such a young age.
As I got into my early high school days, my pure admiration for players started to shift into thinking about how I could be like them. Bryce Harper was my guy when he broke into the league around my 8th grade year. His passion, grittiness and hair-on-fire intensity paired with his elite talent made me want to figure out how I could do what he did. I tried to replicate his intensity and tendencies at the plate, mimicking his stance, the intensity of his swing and even rocking with one batting glove just because he did it. I wanted to find the things he did well and incorporate them into my game. He was the beginning of me wanting to analyze major leaguers to aid in how I played.
I really laid into the analysis during high school and college as I dedicated myself more to pitching. When Max Scherzer signed with the Nationals, I had easy access to watch the best pitcher of the time work every five days. At face value, people would watch him for his elite competitiveness and his nasty pitches, but I wanted to learn more. I watched his sequencing, his approach, how he held runners, when he’d empty the tank and everything else I could pick up.
To learn from the best, you have to watch with a sense of curiosity that digs deeper than what the average fan pays attention to. By flipping on the television, you have a front row seat to watch the best movers. These are the players with elite pitches, that make elite plays and have elite swings. How are these players so damn good? There are so many nuances to pick up on in an MLB game. The action of the game doesn’t tell the entire story.
How do they prepare? Watch their first step on defense, their approaches in the field and at the plate, their between pitch routine. How do they create their focus? How do they make in-game adjustments? Watch the catcher’s pre-pitch movements and set up. Watch the adjustments the fielders make based on the hitter or the game situation and how they communicate. Watch the hitter’s preparation in the on-deck circle. Watch how long the pitcher holds with runners on base to keep the base runner uncomfortable.
If you play baseball but think it’s too boring to watch, you just don’t know what you’re looking for. There’s a massive learning opportunity in watching a game. You don’t have to pay for a lesson or work with a coach to gain this information. It stems from your curiosity in figuring out how you can take what the best of the best do and apply it to your own skill set.
Painting Corners Blog 