Last spring, Georgia Tech’s baseball team again met its end in the NCAA regional round, the 10th consecutive season that the Yellow Jackets had failed to advance past the opening weekend of the NCAA tournament.
Once again, Tech had been victimized by injuries to the pitching staff, including three that claimed pitchers expected to play leading roles. Tech coach Danny Hall doesn’t have the answer for why pitching injuries have become epidemic, particularly the dreaded elbow ligament tears that require Tommy John surgery, but he’s doing what he can to limit them.
“Someday, I’m sure we’ll get more answers on it, but it’s tricky,” he said. “And you see them get hurt left and right, whether it’s a young high-school guy, whether it’s a college guy, whether it’s guys in the pros. There’s a lot of them that get hurt.”
The Jackets have had their share. The Jackets’ sidelined pitchers last year included Jonathan Hughes, a second-round pick by Baltimore in 2015, Tristin English, whose fastball has hit 95 mph, and Jonathan King, who led the Jackets in innings pitched in 2015. Because of assorted injuries — none requiring Tommy John surgery – Tech got 30 2/3 innings out of all three. Without them, Tech’s ERA was 4.73, 158th in Division I. The Jackets walked 4.3 batters per nine innings, 198th nationally.
Hall pushed back the start of fall practice a couple of weeks to give pitchers more rest time after playing in various summer leagues. The pitching program in fall practice has also been modified, in part to limit stress on arms but also to improve performance.
“It’s more to just see, OK, is this going to work out better?” Hall said. “And I think from a health standpoint, I think all our guys are really healthy right now.”
Under the supervision of pitching coach Jason Howell, Hall has emphasized a long-toss program, having pitchers throw back and forth across 120 feet or more to develop arm strength. The practice has grown in popularity as a method of preventing arm injuries.
“You’re trying to take their health into consideration,” Howell said. “You’re trying to take into consideration that you’re trying to build strength for a season, not only from a velocity standpoint, but also ready to go 80 or 100 pitches (in a start), as well.”
Beyond the potential benefits of injury avoidance, Hall and Howell are hoping to apply methods that almost inadvertently were the foundation of one of the best individual seasons in Tech history. Last fall, Matthew Gorst was held out of scrimmages and limited to throwing fastballs as he came back from surgery to remove bone spurs from his elbow.
Finding the rehab tedious, Gorst experimented with a cut fastball. Further, throwing only fastballs, he developed better control of his fastball. In the spring, with the cutter and better control, Gorst set a school record with a 0.55 ERA and was a 12th-round pick of the Boston Red Sox, with whom he signed.
Howell has incorporated elements of Gorst’s program, particularly trying to help pitchers develop better feel for their pitches. In long-toss sessions, Howell has had pitchers focus on developing a finer touch on the ball rather than maxing out effort. The point is to help them learn their arms and mechanics.
“This year, we’re kind of doing some lobs to let it roll off the fingers to find the feel,” pitcher Ben Parr said.
Howell said that his pitchers have responded well to the program. He and Hall also have English, Hughes and King, scheduled to be at 100 percent in early January, well ahead of the season opener in mid-February. Hall has also been encouraged by freshman pitcher Xzavion Curry, who threw three no-hit innings in the first game of the team’s intrasquad series on Sunday.
As fall practice wraps up this week, the team is healthy, said Hall, who signed a five-year contract extension over the summer. To elevate the Jackets back to their previous heights, they’ll need that health to continue.
“The telltale will be, OK, let’s see what happens in January and February and into our season when we’re going,” he said.
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