"THE ULTIMATE PITCHER'S AND CATCHER'S PLATE" Depth Chart Features "Because I know they can throw 100 mph," said manager Ned Yost. "Show me that you can produce a little feel and touch and command of the baseball." That is what Yost and pitching coach Mike Maddux are looking for from Brewers pitchers during the first week of Spring Training. It's a tactic Yost borrowed from pitching-rich Atlanta, where he spent a dozen years as a coach alongside pitching coach Leo Mazzone. Maddux's brother is Greg, who wo
n three of his four Cy Young Awards as a Brave, and Mike is now instructing Brewers pitchers to dial back during their early mound sessions. The idea is that a pitcher can be more effective by hitting his spots with less than 100 percent velocity than by firing fastballs over the heart of home plate. "That's something I've never learned before," said Turnbow, who signed as a free agent from the Angels' organization. "Before, my idea was, 'The harder, the better.' You have to really trust that when you scale back, it might be even better. You're not fighting your body as much. Maybe I'll throw harder and be able to hit my spots better. Who knows?" The Brewers have a new gadget in camp to help Turnbow and other pitchers visualize those spots. It's called "the ultimate pitcher's and catcher's plate," a patent-pending product dreamed up by a quartet of high school coaches in Georgia. As baseball gadgets go, it is a simple one: a black-hued home plate flanked on either side by five-inch wide white strips. The white covers 2.5 inches of the plate and 2.5 inches off, and bright orange strips improve visibility from the pitcher's mound. "If you can't command that pitch, you're going to get hit," said Brewers right-hander Ben Hendrickson, who learned that lesson the hard way during a difficult 2004. "Doesn't matter if you are in the Majors or not." That is not a breakthrough in the science of pitching. Coaches everywhere tell kids that to be successful, you have to work the outside and inside corners. The gadget is designed to give pitchers and catchers a better visual in order to execute. "Command is something t
hat you really can't teach, but you can improve it," Maddux said. "You can't teach Greg Maddux command or Roger Clemens command, just like you can't teach a Turnbow or a Capellan fastball. But we can get better, and that's all we're trying to do." Brewers pitchers combined for a 4.24 ERA in 2004, ninth in the 16-team National League. Implementing Maddux's "command-first" mantra, they issued 476 walks, third-best in the league, while ranking fifth with 1,098 strikeouts. Yost thinks the staff can get better, and he is responsible for bringing the new training tool to Maryvale Baseball Park. Yost received a call during the offseason from Danny Pralgo, who coached Yost's son, Ned III, in the highly successful East Cobb Baseball Program during the mid 1990s. Pralgo and three of his former teammates came up with the idea for the "pitcher's plate." Yost moved his family back to Georgia during the offseason so his youngest son, Andrew, could play baseball year-round. It was there that the Brewers' skipper agreed to meet with Pralgo and his pitching coach of the past 11 years, Terry Bellah, whom Pralgo calls "the mastermind behind this." "I told him, 'There's so many gimmicks out there, Danny, that it's hard to [imagine] that it's anything worthwhile,'" Yost said. "But I looked at it, and it's very simple. It's something that I thought was very useful." Said Pralgo: "I kind of turned to my buddy and said, 'We may have something here.'" Pralgo and his partners formed BPHL Sports and sold 200 of the gadgets before the first shipment came from the manufacturer in December. By now, about 800 have been sold through word of mouth and positive feedback from the American Baseball Coaches Association National Convention last month, where the device was chosen as a top new product. Most of the sales have gone to youth programs and universities. According to Pralgo, 10 of the top 25 Division I collegiate programs have invested in the plates, and some youth programs have permanently installed them in Atlanta-area
bullpens. "It's all about creating good habits early," Pralgo said. "The early response has been outstanding, because this is something that can be used as high as the Major Leagues, but it's also something a dad can throw down in the yard." The philosophy has been working for Pralgo's East Cobb team. The squad won the 2004 Pony League World Series and was named USA Sports Rankings' No. 1 team in the country. "The reason that they can beat the powerhouse teams like Mexico and Japan ... [is that] his pitchers could command the low-and-away strike, while the other teams can't," Yost said. "As a Major League staff, we're trying to do the same." The plate weighs 1.6 pounds and is made of the same material in motorcycle helmets. It is portable, but durable enough to take a beating and sturdy enough to stay in place outdoors or indoors. "We used to lay towels down on either side of the plate, or draw lines," Pralgo said. "Every coach has concocted their own system. This way is more visual, and it just backs up what every coach is trying to teach. "The reality is that the hitters are so good and their bat speed is so fast, if you throw it down the middle it's going to get turned on. You can't survive down the middle." Pralgo believes the lessons can benefit Major Leaguers as much as Little Leaguers. "This is what we demand from kids who are 13 and 14 years old," Pralgo said. "If we can demand it of them, why can't the big guys demand it from their players? You'll only get away with throwing it as hard as you can down the middle for so long." For hard-throwers like Turnbow, that is all he has ever known. "A lot of guys know only one speed," bullpen coach Billy Castro said. "You get guys up from the minor leagues who think they have to throw harder in the Major Leagues. But if you can locate your fastball and change speeds, that's it." Said Turnbow: "I have to learn that it's quality over velocity." Adam McCalvy is a reporter for MLB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of M
ajor League Baseball or its clubs.
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02/22/2005 6:04 PM ET
Brewers focus on location
Milwaukee using plate designed by high school coaches
By Adam McCalvy / MLB.com
The Brewers are using a device which frames the outside of the plate for pitchers. (BPHL Sports)
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