John From Albany - Interview with Syracuse Pitching Coach Steve Schrenk - Part 2

 

Before the Syracuse Mets took on the Buffalo Bisons on August 20th, I got the opportunity to talk to Pitching Coach Steve Schrenk.  

Today's it's part two of the interview as we continue getting Steve's input on some of Syracuse's pitchers.  

JFA: Andrew Mitchell –

Steve Schrenk: He’s with the big-league club doing some throwing right now.  Rehabbing, Next week, he’ll be back. 

JFA: Tom Hackimer –

Steve Schrenk: Very unique, special, competitiveness goes a long way, don’t be deceived by his size, the angels that he throws is something different.  The hitters are telling us that they don’t see it – they don’t pick it up, they get bad swings, I think he’ll go as far as he wants to go.  As far as the hitters are going to let him go, he’s got the stuff, his velocity is starting to come up, very intuitive with his body and how it works and what pitches he wants to throw, and he makes adjustments, you don’t often see side-armers throw that hard from down there, - think he was up to 94 last night, pretty neat to see.

JFA: Why do you think the pitching staff has done so well these last few weeks?

Steve Schrenk: I think with getting some different guys come in and they are getting comfortable with me as well. It takes a little time when you have a new pitching coach come in.  But they’re working hard.  They are doing everything they need to do off the field like weights, and getting all their workouts in, intensity and the focus has been the big difference, I think we are attacking the strike zone a lot better with our stuff, and we’re trusting it, the team has always scored runs for us, we’ve been the Achilles heel and it’s time for us to carry the team for a little bit.  Talent helps, we’ve improved our arms and we’ve got some guys healthy, and that always helps and we are not losing too many guys to the big leagues.

At the end of the day it’s about developing, it’s about making sure guys are ready for the big league team, of course I want to win here, I want to win every time we step on the field, but I understand that our main job and our main goal is sure they ready to win for the Mets because they need to win there, that’s what’s important.

JFA: What do you think of Mike Marshall’s Philosophy – he always wanted people pitching from wind up – didn’t want pitchers throwing a slider – wanted pitchers to throw everyday – what do you think about that philosophy

Steve Schrenk: I really didn’t know his philosophy because I really wasn’t around him that much to know – but I also think there’s not one set way to do it – we have to take in as much information as we can and we have to evolve as coaches, players and humans, The game is evolving and we need to evolve along with it.  Yes, there were ways we did things a long time ago, did they work – yes some of them worked – did we learn by failure on some of them, yes, but I like to say that guys are individualized – somebody might throw 25 pitches before a game – some guys night throw 10.  Whatever works best for them – Do we need to throw more?  Long toss has always been important, We have the Plyo-balls now, we have dryline, we have different things that we use for guys to get ready so we may not have to throw as much long toss because we are doing other stuff – so one things always seems like it takes place for the other. I’m not going to say what he did was wrong, I’m not going to say what he dis was right.  It’s his philosophy.  It’s something that he wanted to go with.  It worked for him probably but that doesn’t mean it’s going to work for the next guy.  I like to be individualized with guys but also have a common core of how we are going to use our body and how it works. 

We have more information to see how it works.  We can see what works and what doesn’t work and we have video and we have analytics, Where before we just had our eye.  Then we had the trial process and go through things.  Now we can go through things quicker.  I think that the biggest thing about the data that people misunderstand, now instead of me having to go back and wait 3 or 4 outings to make an adjustment, I can make the adjustment as I have the data to back up what I see –

JFA: And you can get the players to buy in…

Steve Schrenk: Because I have the verification.  I always say subjectively – objectively – how are we going to look at this – and there’s two ways to look at it.  When you have them both it works perfectly.

JFA: You have pitcher and they are struggling in an inning, is it a feel thing, is it a number that you look at, where you want them to try to work through the inning, and you want to have them try to figure out how to get out of those situations, or do you say let’s take him out because he just doesn’t have it today.  How do you make that call?

Steve Schrenk: I think you take all the factors in. Does he have a pitch count that day?  Where’s he at? How does he look? Is he maintaining his velocity?  Is he having to work really hard?  We have to watch that stuff because there is a chance to far and injuring them or pushing someone so that mentally they get stronger from it.  Someone once told me that there’s no peaks if you don’t have valleys, I think that’s the same thing in pitching and in everything else in life. You have to have a little bit of a valley in order to get to a peak.  So, we let them go through it.  We let them struggle.  Of course, the fans are like, get him out.  But we are here to develop.  We want to win as bad as anybody but I think you have to let them go through some stuff.  I’d rather have them fail here than fail in the big leagues.

You want a player that wants to get out of a tough inning – not come out of a tough inning – not hand you the ball and say I’m done.  I think that’s where you have to build that.  That’s an internal thing – a heart and mind thing.  I always tell my guys to finish your work.  Whatever you start, you have to finish.  Don’t rely on someone to finish your work.  If you can do that every time out, that’s perfect.

JFA: Thank you very much for your time. Great job getting the pitching on track here – good luck going forward.   

To read Part one of the interview, click here.