Director of Player Development, Trevor Fitts joins the pod.

Kentucky baseball coming off a hard fought series against Tennessee. This week Director of Player Development, Trevor Fitts joins the pod.











Presented by Assured Partners.
Hosted by Darren Headrick and Darren Williams.

Episode Transcript

(00:00):
It is another edition of Behind KentuckyBaseball and we're brought to you by Assured
Partners, proud to offer frank andMove insurance. Start a frank conversation today
at www dot Assured Partners dot com. I'm Darren Hedrick alongside my broadcast partner.
He's also named Darren Darren Williams.We call him Dub, and we're
going to talk one of my favoritesubjects when it comes to baseball, that's

(00:21):
player development on this week's show becausewe have Kentucky's Director of player Development,
Trevor Fits on with us. He'snew to the staff. Welcome Trevor.
Yes, Sar, thanks for havingme. You guys are super busy and
we're glad to have you with us. I know today is I don't think
we can ever say an off dayfor the staff, but there's no midweek
game to prepare for us, sohe's able to jump on with us and

(00:43):
we're happy to have you. Teamis coming off of two and two week.
They got victories over Louisville and Tennesseethis past week, sitting at thirty
two and seven a top the SECat fifteen and three as we record number
four in d one baseball number threein the RPI. So all the important
things that you want to look atthe Wildcats are at the top right now.

(01:07):
And Trevor, when you look atthis team and the way they've gone
about their business this year, whatexcite you or stands out the most about
the team. Yeah, it's justthat whole concept of taking it one pitch
at a time, basically on bothsides. I know that's like the cliche
coach answer, but truly, whenyou look at it, it's like it's
been very process oriented. It's veryyou know, we're gonna take what the
game gives us and execute. Andthat's like, you know, somebody asking

(01:33):
right for us as he plays,like, oh, what's the record?
I was like, I've got noidea. Honestly, you know, that's
what That's the beauty of what ourteam has been accomplishing. And Coach Minshaw's
about it all the time. Butit's just, you know, we're just
focusing on us, like the otherteam doesn't matter as much. It's a
faceless opponent. And when we dothat and we execute at a high level.
You have been a part of somegreat teams when you were a pitcher

(01:53):
from Mississippi State, you got tostart in the championship series of the College
World Series. I'm not going toask you to compare teams, that's not
fair, But what are some characteristicsfrom that Mississippi State team that you see
that are similar to this Kentucky team. Maybe? Yeah, you know,
the the similarities is the same thingwe just talked about in terms of just

(02:15):
taking it. It's about us,that's all it's about. You know,
like we get we get we gotwild in the dug out when I played
we get wild and the dug outhere, and it's it's never about embarrassing
the other team. It's never aboutcalling attention to what they're doing wrong,
or it's just calling attention to whatwe're doing right and our energy and stuff
like that. And you know,that's that's the biggest similarity to me,
honestly. And then you know theteam that that I played for the win

(02:36):
to Omaha, we we did notstart off this way. We were like
three and six and sec play tostart, and then our other catcher got
hit in the hand at text Aand M and Mo took over as the
catcher and then we started rolling.But yeah, you know, it's Uh,
just one of those things when youhave special players and and then you
have the star players that are takingoff like Waldy and p today, and

(02:57):
then you have your your role players, your glue guys like Hags. Hags
is such a great glue guy,leading the dugout every day, and when
he pitches, he pitches well andthat always helps. But you know,
when your glue guys, your cultureguys are taking off and they're playing well,
it makes it a very special weekendin special Games. I'm glad you
brought that up in dub I'll letyou jump in here with this too.
The start that State had on theirway to Omaha that year. What this

(03:20):
team has been able to do tothis point, being fifteen to three,
they won eleven consecutive SEC games.Guys, that's extremely hard to do,
and this team has accomplished a lotalready. That doesn't happen, right,
Like I would think. I wastalking to Ryan Walt Smith like after one
of the games, and I waslike, dude, eleven wins in a
row does not happen, Like that'sawesome, keep it rolling, man,

(03:44):
So what would you say from yourperspective? Needs to go on now?
Because we've hit that fourteen. Youknow, we talked about it before the
season, during the season earlier.It's a sprint to fourteen. Right now,
you have four weeks plus the SECtournament, so you have five weeks
start here before it really gets real. What needs to happen from your perspective

(04:04):
in the next five weeks. Yeah, I think we just need to keep
doing what we've been doing in termsof taking it one pitch at a time.
I was round a really great coachand when I was a GA at
South Alabama, Mark Calvey, andthen one night we lost to Southern on
a Friday night, and he gotreally mad and called everybody in the locker
room and he was like, what'severybody's goals for the season? Of course,
everyone, like every player ever's like, go to o maha, we'll

(04:25):
do this. And he's like,this is where y'all got it all wrong.
You got to win the conference first, and then you win the conference
tournament, and then you go toa regional and then from there it's all
just execution luck. So, likeyou know, I mean, like making
the postseason is obviously a big dealand putt yourself in the best position,
but like for me. I've justbeen like, all right, well,
how can we take care of thispitch this game to put us in a

(04:46):
better chance to win the league.And we've we've done a pretty good job
up until this point, and it'sjust about keeping on that same track in
terms of going out there and makingthe first pitch when Amo gives steal,
take it when they give it,hit and run hit it. You know,
what's it like with you and Ammo? Because obviously you know a little
backstory about Trevor. Trevor played MississippiState, like we've talked about before,
you know, working a little inPro Bowl and coaching National Championship twenty thirteen

(05:10):
or fourteen thirteen, twenty thirteen NationalChampionship. Trevor fits is starting. Nick
Camarati, our other assistant coach,is catching like we've got battery, the
battery mates of the National Championship gameright here. What's it been like rolling
back with Amo, your former collegeteammate now working together. Yeah, it's
been great. Ammo was incredible.We had a good relationship in college.

(05:31):
You know, the National Championship startedfrom me, like, let's get one
thing straight and straightened out. Ishould not have been starting that game,
we had like three We had threebig leaguers that should have been going.
They just weren't rolling at the time, and they were like, well,
Trevor's not gonna mess the game up. And I handed it to a guy
named Chad Gerado who was a bigleaguer. I literally went like an inning
in the third and Chad finished thegame. Just so we're clear, that's

(05:54):
that was my role, but thatwas my role. People in it was
twenty seven was pretty special. Butam Ammo's great. Whenever I gave up
a hit and I got done backingup the bases, I just walked past
him and say, uh, thathad to be a middle right, and
he was like, yeah, Iwas done middle. I'm like because,
like my mentality at the time waslike, there's no way I executed the
pitch and they got a hit right, because that would mean my stuff stunk.

(06:15):
And I was like, well,I can't admit that to myself.
But Ammo has been great. Youknow, he's usually the first person in
the office and hopefully I get intheir second, but he'll come in there
with his ideas and he'll just startbouncing them off of me, not saying
I'm giving anything back, but hejust needs to spit him out. So
I get to listen to that,and he'll show me the swing breakdowns of
guys and why they're not playing well, and I'm like, oh, yeah,
I see, And half the timeI don't because he's his eyes are

(06:39):
so dialed into the mechanics and I'mjust trying to figure out what he's looking
at him and the hitters know.So we just talked about a couple of
Timesyes, and he'll be on thepodcast in one of these days. One
of these days, we'll tie himdown and Gus, Yes, he is
a baseball savant. Was he likethat in college? That's what I talked
to my my pitching coach was ButchThompson, who is now the head coach
of Opera, And I called himafter the weekend we played him and I

(07:00):
was like, man, I didnot understand how smart Ammo was when we
were playing. He was like,oh yeah, And of course Ammo went
into Coach Shompson's office like every day, just like Devin Burks does with Coach
Rozelle and all of us. Soyou know, that's that's pretty cool parallel
there. But Amo, I meanhe called all of our pitches. We
called all our pitches in college,So I mean, I knew he wasn't
an idiot for sure. You justmentioned Devin Burks, and I just want

(07:27):
to give him a shout out forthis past weekend against Tennessee catching three games
on it's public a bum hamstring.To be able to do that just speaks
volumes of the toughness and the competitivedesire that he possesses. Yeah. Absolutely,
Yeah, there's no question Devin respondsto challenges. You know, when
I first got here, i'd beenworking with some catchers and in pro ball

(07:48):
with the Tigers, you know,just because our manager was the catching coach,
news like I need help. SoI did it, and I told
him. I was like, hey, I know everyone's telling me you're the
best catcher in the league, butaccording to the numbers, I don't see
it. And he got really mad, didn't talk to me for a couple
of days. And then, youknow, as the season started and I
go up to Amo and because he'sthe catching coach, and I'm like,
hey, I think Devin's struggling withthe mitt and he's like, what do

(08:13):
you mean? And I showed himsome stuff and I was like, to
his arm side, like so awayto a writing for a writing glove side
pitcher, and uh, I waslike, he's just not winning strikes.
He's elite to his glove side,so down and into a right handed hitter,
which is where our sinkerballers are.Travis' Mason throw a lot of pitches,
and I'm like, if we canjust set him up in a better
position, if we can feed somemore balls over there on a machine,

(08:35):
he's gonna he's gonna take off.And from that point forward, I think
we were like tenth in the leaguein receiving and now we're fourth. There
you go, like Devin's work ethicwhen you put when you push him his
challenge, like he responds to everychallenge. So like whenever, whenever he
rounded third at Louisville and it wasn'tgood, and he's like, I'll be
all right, I'll be alright.I'm like, eh, if there's there's
one of four people on the team, probably that I would believe. He's

(08:56):
like, I'm gonna be alright,all right, you got it. We
can Yeah, we could laugh aboutit now. But Friday night he scored
the go ahead run against Tennessee andhe was a little more and he gave
me a hard time for saying it, but he was basically a jog coming
round third, and I think itthrew off Tennessee's defense so much that he
was trying to score that the throwwent wild and he scored. Yeah,

(09:22):
It's it's one of those things,like you know, we talked about it.
There was a time out and it'slike, all right, do we
pinch run for Devon because he's thewinning run. But it's like, all
right, we still we still wanthim behind the dish, not the fall.
He can't do it. But Devon'sjust the guy right now. So
it's like, do we want totake that away with the game coming up
with our arms. It's like,all right, well, the tying run
will score regardless, and we'll justhave to risk it. And it's like

(09:43):
we'll send him cause he was like, hey, they play super deep,
so we're probably just gonna have torisk it. And then he was like
rounding third and I'm like, allright, Coach Binch put up to stop
and he's like and I'm like,whoa, Okay, here we go.
I was like, all right,Devin, don't don't be crazy and so
he doesn't jump me about us jokingabout this. He is a quick catcher
on the basis he's what third onthe team and stolen bases right now,

(10:07):
so it's stealing. Yeah. Sohe's very athletic, can run fast,
but when you're on one leg,it's hard for anybody. So we're chatting
with Trevor Fitz, the director ofplayer development for the Kentucky Wildcats, and
I wanted to jump into your yourcoaching a little bit because just kind of
reading through your resume when you firstgot here, you've been able to mentor

(10:28):
I think, what is it thirtyguys that have made it to the pros
eight to the big leagues? Andso I guess maybe my first question for
you is when you see those guysthat reach, what set them apart from
other players, the ones that endedup in the major leagues. Yeah.
I saw this video the other daythat kind of nailed it on the head
and it was like the difference ofbeing interested in something and being obsessed,

(10:52):
And like the guys that have madeit were truly obsessed. And that's that
makes sense. It's you know whatI got to watch Justin Foski work every
day when he was a mister StateJordan Westburg, same thing, like Connor
Pilkington, all these guys. Andit's like Brendan Donovan in South Alabama.
I was just a ga, butI'm watching him and then he's like,
fits will you go hit me flyballs? Because we moved him from third

(11:13):
base to the outfield because nobody couldplay left, so he just got shot
out there. He's like sure,and I'm hitting him fly balls and CALVII
walks up to me and he's like, hey, do not move him.
I'm like, what do you mean. He's like, he's gonna play every
day, He's gonna work his taleoff in practice. You can't. You
have to hit it right to himbecause we don't need his legs wearing down
as a freshman. I'm like,all right, coach, whatever you say.
But like those guys, they justthey show up every day looking for

(11:35):
a way to get better, andthey want the coaches to hold him accountable
and and that's the ticket. Yeah. I love that we got a lot
of obsessed dudes on this team.That's right. I'm sure. How fun
is it because your job is obviouslyto coach them up When they're on the
field, sure, but also bringthem into the office, talk a little
game plan about how, Okay,Drew Lafferty, Ben Clever, how you

(11:56):
guys are going to grow into sec. Yes, what's that been like with
these guys, Yeah, it's it'sbeen good. You know. On I
get to hit. The way we'vebeen doing VP is we hit inside and
we take ground balls on the field, so I get to hit to the
left side of the infield all thetime. So like every day i walk
up to Kaius Cargatt and I'm like, what are you doing so that you're
the starting short stop next year?Mm hm important exactly, because like right

(12:20):
now grants the guy. So it'slike, how is how is Kayus gonna
get his game reps in so thathe can be prepared to play a position
next year? And it's like,those are the times he needs to he
has to take his VP. Seriously, he has to get out there and
and take ground balls on the dayswhere we're doing you know, just hitting
groups. He's got to find away to get out there. And it's
the same thing on the pitching side. It's like, all right, Cleaver,

(12:41):
you know you have you've been bangedup a little bit and you're coming
back. It's like, how areyou prepping every day? Like are you
getting enough arm care in? Areyou doing enough this? You know,
Drew, are you getting enough conditioningin? You've had a You've had some
crazy cramping things at the end ofgames, like do you have pickle juice
ready to go? Do he take? Like? Is it mustard? So
what's the answer here? So youknow, for a lot of those younger
guys, it's just helping them findthe routine because in high school it's not

(13:05):
a big deal if you miss astart or whatever, or your coaches push
you through it and like hear it. You know, every little percentage matters
in terms of you know, ifyou can be ninety two percent one day,
that's in your ninety percent, Likethat can be the difference in a
win and loss. It's just helpingthem find those ways to get back and
be better. Let's take a quicktime out and remind folks that behind Kentucky
Baseball's brought to you by Assured Partners. When the unexpected happens in business,

(13:28):
your insurance coverage is the real MVPAssured Partners and our partner Frank and Move
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Call Assured Partners today at eight fivenine, five, four three one
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(13:52):
dot com. We're chatting with Trevorfitz here on behind Kentucky Baseball and you
and I talked right after I recordedone of coach min Jones weekly radio shows.
We talked a little bit about videoand I asked you this time of
year, how much do you watchof Kentucky versus the opponent and this staff?
You guys are able to split thatup a little bit, so you

(14:13):
get every little detail from the teamand from the opponent. Yeah, we've
you know m o and and Kouziand coach Rozell. They dive in so
deep into their teams and Coachmne literallywatches every groundball he does. He watches
every groundball. So I'm sitting herelike when Coachmnch hired me, he asked
what I was going to bring andI was like, well, I'll help
the pitchers and catchers for sure,obviously, but ultimately I just want to

(14:37):
stand in the gap. That wasone of coach Thompson's things. He always
said, stand in the gap.So it's like, all right, just
kind of evaluate what everybody does well, and it's like, okay, where
can we use some help. SoI'm like watching them watch everybody else,
and I'm like, well, okay, I'll just watch our guys. I'll
watch our pictures, try to seeif I can tell if we're tip and
pitches. I'll watch Devin see ifhe's tip and pitches. And then once
I get past our guys there,then I'm like, all right, well
now I'm going to start on theirteam and see if they're tip and pitches,

(15:00):
to see if they're catchers doing somethingwrong, or every week I send
a stolen base update on the otherteam, Like when we played Alabama,
they'd only stolen four bases in leagueplay the whole year, and three of
them were TJ McCants, and threeof them were in the first inning.
So it's like, all right,if it's not the first inning and it's
not TJ McCants, they're not running. Devan just focus on catching the baseball
and making it a strike, becauseeverybody knows that's one of the things that

(15:22):
we do well on offenses, fakebreaks and that can that puts people out
of position. It gets the catcherout of position. So it's like,
how can we find ways to makesure that we're not caught off guard by
stuff like that? And that's whereI've been filling in the gaps so far.
I'm glad you mentioned that about thetipping pitches and things like that,
and w you can speak to this, both of you can. When you
get this deep into league play,there's so much video because you have so

(15:43):
many innings racked up. How importantis it for these guys to constantly be
aware of what they're doing outside ofthrowing the ball when they're on the mound.
I think we do a really goodjob and it's a testament to coach
Rozelle about self scouting your own players. Like we had a little tipping pitch
and pitches incident with me last yearin the regional and I don't know how

(16:10):
they got it. We have ourideas, but we changed it right before
that regional final and made it theadjustment right there on the flat and is
much better for that regional final.But it's little things you watch all the
time, Grant and Pete and whoevercenterfielder is Nolan right now or also part
of that you know conversation. Ifyou if you're showing the ball to the

(16:32):
second base runner, Grant Smith's gonnarun up and tell you, like he's
an abbreviated coach at this point,you know. So it's really good to
have so many eyes watching you andmaking sure you're not doing it. And
it's it's one of those things that, like, especially from a pitching perspective,
you may not even realize you're doingit because it's just you know,
bullpens. Depending on how locked inyou are, you can you know,

(16:53):
coach Rozelle can say fastball away andyou grip the ball and then you get
on the mound and you go andyou know, as pitch coaches were sitting
there watching between me and coach Rozelleand Salo and it's like, all right,
did he execute? Is his bodymoving? Well? If he's hat
the stretch? Was he below onethree? We're focusing on all these things,
and sometimes the last thing we're focusedon was, all right, well
did he change the ball coming up? Where it's a set position sitting.

(17:14):
So you know, once once weget into that mode, we get better
at it, and we have beenthe last couple of weeks. But it
you know, it can happen,and you think, watch three people watching
it at all times, you'd seeit immediately, but you just get focused
on other stuff but you miss it. But it's it's been good to to
really get into it. And that'sthe beauty of not having a midweek.
This week is a little bit moretime for self scout. I uh,
actually this morning I printed out allof the scouting reports that we do on

(17:37):
other teams. I did him onour own guys, and Coach Rozelle is
going to break that down on thebus tomorrow. And I gave AMMO I
did a skouting report on our hittershow I would do it, and I
gave Ammo all that stuff this morning, and there was some surprising things that
we didn't realize showing up on acouple guys. And it's good to see
that there are times, once youget into late April early May, where
it becomes more about the student partof student athlete because of finals. But

(18:02):
when you guys got to that pointbecause you are five six weeks into SEC
play, even though you have tofocus on your studies. Was it good
to not have that midwik game,just to take a breath and be like,
all right, let's let the bodyheel a little bit, practice,
focus on something else just for aminute, and then we'll get back to
work. I think it was thebest thing possible for us last year.

(18:22):
I think it was South Carolina theweek Yeah, South Carol at home.
We didn't have a midweek, andespecially for this team this year, it's
an opinion of me, and they'vebeen great about focusing. But the emotional
drainage that this past weekend, tworivals, two rivals, Right, you
have the biggest crowds in the historyof Kentucky crowd park like unbelievable energy all

(18:45):
weekend. You play an absolute dogfight on Sunday for three hours. Yeah,
in thirty minutes. It takes alot out of you. So a
good reset right here for a coupleof days. I think it is gonna
be great for the boys. Youknow. Obviously, a road trip's a
ton of fun. South Carolina.It's gonna be popping this weekend. It's
gonna be a fun atmosphere to playin front of and I think the boys
will be ready for it, nodoubt. It was always good for me

(19:07):
to have a little break in there. Yeah, it's it's it's been good.
You know. It gives our leafguys an extra day of rest and
everything. And you know, theother side of it that I like to
think about is like the guys thathaven't been throwing as much can get a
legit bullpen and you know, likesometimes like with Cam O'Brien, this was
like three or four weeks ago,I'll goup to coach. I'm like,
hey, his cutter's not moving likenormal, Like, can I get him

(19:30):
off the mound for like eight toten pitches on track Man just so he
can see it. Because we haveall this great technology. We've got track
Man with Edgatronic, which is acamera that's like I don't know, sixty
ten thousand dollars and it shows therelease point just right and it's like a
thousand frames per second and I'm nerdingout on it, but it's so important
because like Cam got to see andit's like, oh, I'm just staying

(19:51):
behind it a little bit more.I just need to get on the side
of it and I'm like, ifthat's what you need to do, do
it, And the next thing,you know, his cutter takes off again.
So like sometimes like Kolby Fried acouple weeks ago, it's like,
hey, let's get you up here, let's see some pitches, and then
he has like two out of thenext three or really good outing. So
it's sometimes they just need to getthat one on one coach Rozel's able to

(20:11):
coach them instead of them getting readyfor the game, and that that turns
them up another notch. And youknow, no midweek allows for that.
Glad you mentioned that because you beingwith the Tigers organization and you guys know
this full well. College baseball isnot the minor leagues because the goal is
to win the game. In theminor leagues, yeah, you want to
win, but that's not the endgoal. You want to get better and

(20:32):
get to the big leagues. Soin the college game, you want to
win, but you also have guysthat need to grow and continue developing.
So how do you strike that balanceof getting them ready to go out there
and compete and get outs and win, but also at the same time grow
as a pitcher. Yeah, youknow a lot of it comes down to
the player. You know, wepreach it all the time that like catch
play matters so much and that's howyou get better. But you know,

(20:52):
we can't always be on top ofevery single throw they make, right.
So it's one of those things whereit's like, hey, when it's your
time to throw, be focused.It's your time to do this. Focus
And you know, credit to JacksonNovie because he's he's had a great start
to the year so far. Butone of the things we found for him
through late fall and early spring waslike, hey, when you're doing your
warm ups, if you can justget down in glove side with your fastball,

(21:15):
everything else goes exactly how it's supposedto go. So it's like exactly
if you if you watch his warmups now, like Devin's gonna move to
his glove side, so Jackson's gloveside too, and he's gonna throw his
first couple of fastballs right there,and it's like every other pitch moves how's
supposed to. He's locating how's supposedto, the fastball's got the ride like
it's supposed to. So it's likejust finding those little things for each guy

(21:37):
is what matters. Colby Frieda andhis catch play. He really has to
work on driving the ball down soyou'll him and Novie's catch play is hilarious
to watch because they're both dodging itbecause like Jackson's down and glove side is
handcuffing Colby every time, and thenColby trying to drive the ball down is
causing Jackson to catch a lot ofballs at his shins. And it can
look horrible to an outside person,but if you really lock in on what

(21:59):
they're trying to do, they aregetting better every day by doing that.
Speak a little bit about Jackson Ovie, and I think we've talked about this
a few times. The biggest jumpfor me and most pictures that I saw
over my college career was from yeartwo to three. You know, that
sophomore year to junior year jump isinsane. I think we've seen it with
Jacksonovie this year. Obviously you've onlybeen around him since, you know,

(22:22):
the beginning of last fall, buthis stuff is maybe a little better,
but his command is on another levelthan it has been the last two years.
Just speak about the development of JacksonOvie. Yeah, it's it's when
we showed up, he looked justokay in the fall his fall, if
you were to talk to him,would he'd probably say it was average to
mediocre. And it was one ofthose things where he just didn't he didn't

(22:44):
understand who he was. He wasin the middle of it. He may
not have been in the best shapeat the time, and it was one
of those things where you know,we kept looking at He had this stretch
last year where he was tracking outlike everybody, Yeah, he's like five
games who was unbelievable, And it'slike, all right, well, metrically
what was he doing? And hewas riding the fastball between eighteen and twenty
and he was doing all these things. I was like, all right,
well, let's get in there assoon as we can. And then we're

(23:06):
trying all these things with his bodyand it's is this is this? We
just switch into a two seam andjust dive into making him a low ball,
and then eventually it just kind ofturned into one of those things where
somebody was like, hey, justthrow the ball down into your glove side
and see what happens. And thenit was a good bullpen and it's like,
all right, in your catch,play down the glove side down in
glove side, and then everything justkind of turned picking up ball down side,

(23:29):
the ball still has to twenty.That's what people don't understand is like
your best vertical breaks are going tocome when you're driving the ball down.
It's so much more fun to throwthe ball up when you got vertical break,
but to get it there, youhave to throw the ball down.
And that's where like his throwing partnerColby Frieda, he has like touched vertical
breaks in the twenty fours and twentyfives because he has worked so hard on

(23:51):
driving the ball down. So likeJackson, like like we're talking about,
you know, he's driving the balldown in glove side. He's figured out
that little thing for him, andhis vertical break is saying consistent and then
he can still lay his hand downand throw the nasty two scene that we
pumps me up. We're gonna havea we have a three minute crash course.
Oh I was hey, I'm justover here. You guys keep talking.
I'll just go over here. I'mlistening. Really nerdy conversation right now.

(24:14):
No no, no, no vcalbreak. We're gonna have a conversation
and educate the Kentucky faithful about inducedvertical break. So this is the new
thing in pro ball, in scouting, it doesn't really matter how hard you
throw the ball. You gotta havethe ball move. Yes, more than
the average fastball. Right spin ratea little bit to do with spin rate.

(24:36):
Yeah, So the induced vertical breakand average major League four seen fastball,
what's the induced vertical break on?It's like sixteen sixteen inches. So
on plane, you're gonna think thatthat ball is going to go down sixteen
inches, Jackson Novi, if you'rethrowing a ball of fastball with eighteen,
nineteen, twenty Kolby Friedo with twentytwenty, twenty three, twenty four.

(24:59):
Yes, Kentucky fans will remember TylerGilfoyle. Yeah, a couple of years
ago, unbelievable. In the twenties, couldn't touch him, Logan Martin in
the twenties, couldn't touch him.The fastball the hitter thinks is going to
drop more than it actually does.So when the batter swings the bat,
he's swinging at a ball he thinkswill be lower than it is, causing
him to be under the ball tomiss it or pop it up. Yes,

(25:21):
So Jackson Novy can get away witheighty eight to eighty nine mile and
our fastballs right down the middle becausethe batter thinks the ball will be lower
than it actually is, and that'scaused by the back spin of the ball
and the way he spins it,so he doesn't sink at all. It
rides more than the zone. Howmany pro guys are aiming to get the

(25:41):
higher induced vertical break is It's somethingevery single person works on all the time.
I mean it's not everybody, butit is one of those things where
if you look at the just thepure percentages, the guys that ride the
baseball get more swinging miss and swingingmis gets you paid, and swinging mis
gets you to the big leagues.Miss wins games exactly, it does exact
actually wins a lot of games atthis level. Yes it does, Yes

(26:02):
it does. So you know,it's one of those things where depending on
your arm angle, you know,where you release the ball, how you
how it comes out of your hand, and stuff like that, it makes
it easier. Like Travis and Masonboth putting in a lot of work,
does fall to transform themselves not justbeing syncer guys being able to ride it
when they want to and you know, we have the opposite end of it
too, with guys like Robert Hoganwho wants to throw a four seam so

(26:26):
bad, wants to throw a fourseam and like he showed up. And
this is one of the things Ilearned from the Tigers. It's called seam
shift awake and it's the crazy concept. But basically it means you're cutting the
baseball, except for it moves toyour arm side instead of going to your
glove side. It's crazy physics.I couldn't break it down for you.
I just know what I'm scientists.I know what I know what I'm supposed
to look for. And when Isee those metrics, I'm like, hey,

(26:47):
so his his second bullpen. Igo to coach Rozelle and I'm like,
hey, do you mind throwing yourone seam grip because he's got a
specific one scene grip he likes I'vegot one eye like, but I'm like,
hey, can you try this onesame grip with Robert. I think
he's going to be able to throwa nasty sinker and then Cuatchers I was
like, oh, okay, whateverthrows it in his like I'll get I'll
give this guy I've known for threeweeks a chance here on this. So

(27:07):
he puts it in his hand andhis four scene was at like a twelve
or fourteen, so just super average. And then we put that in his
hand and then the next like fivefastballs go from a fourteen and douce vertical
break to fourteen by seven, Sofourteen in duce vertical break with seven horizontal
break to like three and do hisvertical break and like seventeen and horizontal,

(27:27):
which is straight crazy scene. Andthe hitters are like, you know,
if they can see spin, whichnot all of them can, they're like,
that ball is supposed to cut andit's doing the opposite. So that's
where you see these crazy swings onhis fastballs from time to time because it's
like that ball's not doing what theirbrain's telling him it's supposed to do.
And it's it's one of those thingswhere everyone, for me growing up,
it's like, oh, if youwant a two scene, you've really got

(27:48):
to pronate the ball. You've gotto get to the inside, you got
to do this. And it's like, oh, now that we have these
cameras, we see the best thinkerguys, like a lot of them more
than you think are actually cutting thebaseball and it's going that. Speaking of
Robert Hogan, Darren Hendrick loves thekid. What have you seen out of
Robert this year? I mean,you're like, I have been fascinated by
Robert. Number one, he's agreat guy to talk to, and we've

(28:11):
had him on the pre game acouple of times. But number two,
the first time I got to seehim, Coach Madison was on the broadcast
with me and we're watching him andI see this ninety one mile an hour
pitch on the scoreboard, but it'smoving, yeah, And I looked at
Coach Madison and I said, wasthat a change up? Or was that
a two seemer? And Coach Madisongoes, I think that was a two

(28:33):
seamer. Robert come up to meafter the game and goes, hey,
that wasn't a fastball. That wasmy slider. I'm like, but I
thought your slider was in the mideighties. Goes, No, I throw
two of him. This kid throwsa change up slider. I mean,
he's got two different speeds on hisslider. It's amazing. And we've had
a chance to talk to him andhe said he kind of discovered it by
accident during a bullpen one day.I mean, it's really neat, so
there. Yeah, he's an interestingbird because you know he's he's one of

(28:56):
those guys that's constantly finding ways toget better, trying to find something.
Not all of them are the bestidea, but but he's trying. See
and you know, when you gota guy like that, it's it's easy
to get to him because he wantsto get better. It's not one of
those guys you're having a lot offire under to get better. So it's
just guiding him in the right way. And coach Rozell does a great job
with that. And you know,Hogan's got a slider that can spin above

(29:17):
three thousand going to the back ofthe spinner, and it's one of those
pitches that's like, you know,Dylan Drummy, he's one of our analytical
guys. He came up and he'slike, I just don't understand why we
don't throw it every pitch because nobodycan hit it. I'm like he did,
and I'm like, well, speakingfrom experience, if you throw the
same pitch over and over, somebodywill eventually hit it. But I do
understand what you're saying, and that'swhere the You know, he's also got

(29:38):
a curveball and a change up thathe would let he'd tell you if you
asked him. But his sinker andhis slider combo really has given him a
lot of room for error, whichis making him pitch well. Right now,
speaking of something like that with MasonMoore, everybody talks about his sinker,
but that start against Georgia, hecould have thrown nothing but his slider
and change up and he was justfine. I mean, when he's on

(29:59):
that to the that level, he'she's a great pitcher. That's what I
noticed from the Sunday start. Iwas there watching it from behind home plate.
Just his changeup has so much swingingmyth on it. And obviously we
saw it last year, man,but that thing's disgusting. It is that
every pitch like that doesn't get hit. I know he hit the kid with

(30:22):
the yet in the game, butman, you got to use it over
and over again. He's so confidentin it, right, he throws it
as hard as he can and heknows where it's going. It's going to
the same down and end angle toalrighty away from a lefty every single time.
It's awesome to watch. He's astudman. So I think the whole
team obviously, the last two daysagainst Tennessee were tough. I'm I'm looking

(30:42):
for us to have a big bounceback in South Carolina. I'm pumped up.
I think we're gonna have a reallygood weekend down there. Yeah,
it should be good. And youknow, speaking of Mason, like the
coolest thing about our entire staff,but speaking specifically on the pitching staff and
coach rozel is, you know,Mason didn't have the best start at Auburn,
and and you know they started divinginto and it's like, oh,
well, he didn't get his breakingball to his glove side. Period.

(31:03):
Everything was left over the middle ofthe plate to his arm side, so
the left had got a chance tohit it. So coach Rozelle's like,
hey, Mason, let me seeyour slider grip. And he's like,
hey, you're gripping this thing tootight. I don't like the way it's
coming out of your hand. So, like, you know, there's a
lot of coaches out there that wouldbe scared. It's like, I'm you
know, Mason has been pretty goodso far. Like, let's not mess
with anything. But coach ros Iwas like, nah, like this isn't
the right answer. Let's change itin the middle of the week. We're

(31:26):
gonna work on it all week andyou're gonna you're gonna throw it against Tennessee.
So we changed the grip and isit went from like a seventy seven
mile an hour slider to like aneighty four mile an hour slider. And
it's still the same strike rate,it's still the same administrate and everything else
like that. So I think it'sI think it's just cool to watch it
watch this staff, like the hayis not completely in the barn as it
for a country way of saying,like we're constantly putting the hay in the

(31:48):
barn and we go out there andcompete. We compete, but we're constantly
trying to find ways to get betterso we can win more games. That
attitude with these different pictures and positionplayers, like you said, it's gonna
pay dividends in June, you knowwhat I'm saying. Like now, when
it comes to June baseball, whenyou're playing the top twenty teams in the
country with the season on the line, like you have to have your best

(32:09):
possible performance, and that means youhave to be the best possible player in
June, like we talked about,we gotta peak in June. Like.
It's not just as a team,it's individually. So constantly developing a player
is massive towards postseason success. Andwe got a pretty good one right here
in charge of that. We reallydo. And this this whole staff man,

(32:30):
and this is what I like aboutit is you've got the veteran experience
in Dan Roselle and coach Mine,but you also have young rising superstars like
the man with is Trevor Fitz andm o and and Kuzno. It's a
great staff. We love talking baseballwith you guys. And Trevor, I
know you're busy watching film and gettingready for the game, Cocks, but
thanks for joining us on the showthis week. Appreciate you. Thanks for

(32:50):
having me. He's the director ofplayer development for the Wildcats, Trevor Fitz,
alongside Darren Williams. I'm Darren Hedrick. You've been listening to Behind Kentucky
Baseball presented by Assured Partners, Proudto offer Frankenmoth Insurance. Frankly speaking,
when you need us, we'll behere. Call us at eight five nine,
five four three one seven one sixtoday and we'll see you next time

(33:12):
on Behind Kentucky Baseball