Total Reading Time: 6 minutes

Happy Monday! Fall Ball is winding down and recruiting is winding up. so I’ll make this brief - today we’re looking at key stats that will ID how good your pitching staff is, along with 4 important leadership keys.

So Let’s Go!

Table of Contents

• 4 Powerful Leadership Keys

• JOIN OUR ZOOMS

• How Good is Your Pitching - 7 Stats to Find Out

4 Powerful Leadership Keys

A lot goes into being a good leader, and while this list won’t cover everything, I’m highlighting 4 things that to me, are very powerful.

This list comes from emails I get from Clint Hurdle, George Raveling and Bill Murphy, Jr.

1. When They’re in Your Presence Do You Make Them Feel Seen and Heard? (George Raveling)

   • That’s a rare gift that can’t be faked, only felt, so make them feel it. Everyday.

2. Can I Trust You? Do You Make Me Better? Do You Care About Me? (Clint Hurdle)

   • These are the 3 questions players constantly ask themselves about whether they should follow you.

3. Know the Rule of Glass vs Mirror (Clint Hurdle)

   • When things go well, be Glass. When things go wrong, be a Mirror.

4. Transparency Beats Terror (Bill Murphy, Jr)

   • Be honest with people when they’re scared. Help them know what they’re dealing with honestly. Then lay out a plan for them to follow.

Leading is hard, but doing it for the good of your program and the people within your program gives you a consistency and you become a north star for your players to follow. Maybe it’s not these 4 keys that guide you - but you do need to identify things you believe in. REALLY believe in, then follow those things.

JOIN OUR ZOOMS

So far in our zooms we’ve heard from:

• Christian Conrad (Arizona) on “How I Watch Film to Prep Myself & My Pitchers for the Weekend”

• Megan Rhodes-Smith (Tennessee) on “Coaching Our Pitcher’s Mental Game - From Practice to Games”

• plus an Open Forum Zoom where coaches share, ask and learn

Every Zoom is open to our Zoom Members - and we’d love to have you join us! Your Zoom Membership includes all Live Zooms, Recordings of All Our Zooms, as well as access to Special Content and Special Zooms…you get all this PLUS the Weekly Newsletter!

How Good is Your Pitching - 7 Stats to Find Out

Analytics and metrics seem to rule the day. Whether you like them or not they’re super helpful in a couple of ways:

1. They can be predictive of the future

2. They’re a good way to measure progress

There are TONS of pitching analytics we can use when trying to determine how our pitchers are doing. So many in fact, it can get overwhelming.

In a recent post on baseballperformancecenter_ I found some key indicators of a pitcher’s command and how elite they might be. I love his graphics not only for the stats he mentions, but because he breaks each stat down to What It Means and Why It Matters.

While these visuals were created for MLB baseball but thanks to 643Charts I’ve added the D1 Softball numbers for each metric as well.

In many cases the Softball number is the same, or close. In the case of WHIFF’s and K% the Softball numbers are much different. I’m not sure what accounts for this, except 7 vs 9 innings, very specific pitching roles in MLB and the extreme skill difference between all the pitchers playing D1 Softball.

Looking forward to discussing these stats on our next Pitching Zoom! Until then, a BIG thank you to 643Charts! They’re by far the most accurate and most complete in the business!!

Thanks for reading this week’s Curveball Chronicles. I hope you gained some insight to help your pitchers, some encouragement, knowledge and grace.

Go make this a Great week!

Missed some previous issues? Don’t worry, I’ve got them all on my website: https://pitchingcoachcentral.com/curveball-newsletter/