Three Keys to Curating a Pitching Staff’s Success

• By Grant Young

The art of pitching contains many components that could spell the difference between seeing success and getting shelled.

Because so much goes into pitching, coaches can get overwhelmed by what to focus on when teaching their baseball pitching lessons to their players. Every coach seems to have a different approach on how to improve their pitching staff and will conjure different claims about the reason for their team’s low ERA. With so much information and insight already out in the world, how are coaches supposed to find the right tools to suit their needs?

Luckily, coaches like Fred Corral are always a safe bet to learn from. 

Coach Corral is currently a pitching coach in the Cincinnati Reds organization, a position he started in 2022. Before that, Coach Corral served as a pitching coach in Division 1 for nearly two decades at schools like the University of Tennessee, the University of Georgia, and the University of Missouri. 

In 2019, Corral led Missouri to become one of the premier pitching staffs in college baseball. The Tigers’ collective 3.24 ERA put them 5th NCAA, while their 7.35 hits per 9 IP were 8th. And three years running, their pitching staff broke the program’s single-season record in strikeouts, K'ing up 559 total batters. 

As of 2019, 86 former players of Coach Corral's tutelage have signed pro baseball contracts; all of whom benefitted from Coach Corral’s simple, streamlined, and effective coaching techniques. 

Coach Corral’s philosophy relies on three keys: Command, Bullpen Options, and Pitching Delivery. We have pulled the most pertinent bits of wisdom from his ‘My Big 3: Simplify Command, Bullpen Variations, & Reading The Delivery’ course to help you on your way to crafting the coaching lessons that will lead you to wins. 

Introduction

Coach Corral believes that one of the most important aspects of simplifying command is mastering catch-play. 

He doesn’t just mean the catch one plays in the bullpen right before entering a game. Rather, he talks about how pregame catch and the catch that’s played during any part of practice is integral to building a pitcher’s ability to command their fastball on the mound; especially because pitchers can't throw off of a mount every day, given the strain that doing so would have on their arm. 

Another fantastic lesson that Coach Corral imparts is that, when he is teaching his pitchers how to command the ball on the mound, he wants them to start this process by perfecting what he calls the “box” in the strike zone. 

According to Coach Corral, this “box” is the middle third, bottom half of the strike zone. He believes that if his pitchers can learn to command this portion of the strike zone, then learning how to throw the ball at every other part of the zone will come from that. 

This makes a lot of sense, given how this is typically where a catcher will set up their glove and is a great place for pitchers to aim their offspeed and breaking balls when trying to throw them for strikes. 

Group Visualization Work

Going off the previous point about pitchers not being able to throw off of a mound every day because of arm health, a fantastic way that Coach Corral used to bypass this is by employing visualization.

By having his pitchers practice visualization on a daily basis, Coach Corral has them seeing themselves succeeding on the mound, executing pitches, and dominating opposing lineups—all without having to throw a single pitch. 

Specifically, Coach Corral notes that it’s beneficial to do this exercise as part of a group because it forces players to hold each other accountable. While practicing visualization in the morning or at night is a great time to do so, nobody is going to know if a player decided to blow it off. 

But if the whole staff commits to doing it for 3-5 minutes at the start of every practice (and truly visualizes success, rather than lets their mind wander) the benefits will quickly become apparent. 

Coach Corral also notes how this practice will help his pitchers in all facets of life. Visualization isn’t just a great tool for succeeding on the mound. If a person envisions themselves achieving whatever they want in life and then puts the work into making it happen, the results usually go in their favor. 

MidPoint Balance 

Coach Corral’s pitching strategy isn’t confined to visualization. He also details some mechanical points that all pitching coaches should be focused on when helping to develop their pitchers. 

The most important one for him is called midpoint balance. This is when the pitcher’s front foot reaches the ground, and they begin accelerating to the final portion of their throw.  

What’s important to know about this position is that, as the name suggests, pitchers must remain balanced in this position, as it pertains to their lower body. Many, many young pitchers tend to lift their back leg off of the mound before they reach this midpoint position, which will be detrimental to their fastball velocity. 

It’s also imperative that the arm is on time when the pitcher reaches this position, as well. This means that the pitcher’s arm is at what’s close to a 90-degree angle once their foot reaches the ground. If their arm is still trying to reach this point, it means their upper body is firing too far behind their lower body. This presents a serious risk of arm injury as the pitcher continues to age. 

Being aware of these various techniques and mechanical methods should be the pillar of any pitching coach’s methods. And if they do so, they can expect zeroes to start appearing on the scoreboard.