1-on-1 with DP – 93.7 The Ticket KNTK - 1-on-1 with DP live from Blur Events: June 18th 12:00am Segment 4

Episode Date: June 18, 2025

1-on-1 with DP live from Blur Events: June 18th 12:00am Segment 4Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Coming at you live from the heart of Lincoln America, a 93-7-a-ticket and the ticketfm.com. Here is your host, Derek Pearson, brought you by Canopy Street Market. Boom. In store. Nice. Like an Arkansas, no-hitter. Take it. You will get no hits and you will like it.

You will like it. The Sartorhammed text line. 402, 464, 56685. Want to be a part of what we're doing? Hit us up. Let me with a what's up on a Wednesday. It's what's up Wednesday. Get your shout out and, shout outs in.

Not shouts out. Your shout outs in. It's like strike outs versus the act which is strikes out. We went through the full process of doing that. You can follow on all of the live videos streams, Facebook, YouTube. Allo Channel 961. Please download the ticket app. Go to your play store and find it.

927 the ticket. Download the app so we can go where you go and do be where you are. Greatly appreciate that. We are Bler Tailgate. We will be here today until 6 o'clock. We'll be here Saturday from 3.7, but they will be open 3 to midnight on Saturday as they head into the college World Series finals. The final series.

And we're headed towards that. Game one today with Coastal Carolina and Louisville, Louisville, Louisville, Louisville is the correct pronunciation. Louisville. Yeah, there's all one. Oh, yeah, it's real quick. The cardiac cards versus the Chanter clears and it is Chanac Clearers, not Chanticleer. I do that just to irritate people. I do that just to irritate people because it's a thing, right?

Whatever way you say, you don't understand what we were talking about. Game two tonight at 6 o'clock, the Go Tigers from the Bengal Tigers from Louisiana State University against the hogs, the Razorbacks of Arkansas, Tewy Pig. There'll be lots of Go Tigers and Suey Pigs in the building tonight at 6 o'clock. Again, if you have tickets, great. If you don't have tickets, they are available. You're about an hour away from first pitch game one. and those tickets, you can go to the College World Series website

and get in a lower bowl for $25. So, you know, for those of you that have the ability, the weather's nice so far. It looks good up here. Looks like we're going to be able to get through the day. And then, but if you want to go to a later game, expect to spend $125 in the pocket somewhere to go see the rematch between Arkansas and LSU.

They've met several times. this year. But today determines whether there is a game tomorrow. And if game tomorrow, if LSU wins, they advance to Saturday's championship series. And if the Coast of Carolina wins, they advance. If the other two teams win, we will have if games tomorrow. It's interesting, too, because you think about the pressure that each team is facing right now as they kind of lead into this, is that one, on one side, you know, you can punch your

way to the call towards series championship. That's the goal, the entire season, the goal playing baseball, all that together. So a lot of pressure there, but you have a little leeway, right? You could lose the game and still have a chance to fight for it. Whereas on the other side, Louisville and Arkansas today, they're playing for their season. And, you know, that other part of it is there, but it's a little bit further. I think if you think, well, we got to win two games. It sounds like an uphill battle.

You got to win one game to survive to the next day, obviously, and see if they can punch their ticket to the college world series. So different levels of pressure there. Then another thing I wanted to mention was there's a lot of, there's a lot of focus on Gage Woods, obviously for pitching the no hitter. I was talking to my friend the other day. He told me, he surprised me. He said, my cousin was actually the catcher for that. So I have to pull up his name.

It was writer, writer Helfrick is the catcher there. And he said from what he's heard that that was completely called by the catcher, all the pitches. So, you know, I think sometimes, obviously the pitcher is going to get a lot of the glory as well. They should for pitching a no hitter, but don't forget about the catcher who's calling a lot of it as well. Well, the catcher knows, as we were talking about you know, an earlier hour,

the catcher knows you get those warm-up pitches. The warmer pitches is not just to get loose. It's to get textures, to get feel, new baseball, old baseball, to figure out whether your plant foot has a natural spot for you to land because somebody else has been in your house.

Somebody else has slept in your bed. And if you're a 5 foot 11 pitcher, your plant foot hole is going to be different than a 6 foot 6 guy. If you're right-handed versus a left-handed, plant foot hole will be different. So the warm up, that's what that's for. Go in and find out. Listen, what kind of jump do you have on the fastball? If you throw a multi-seam fastball, how is it breaking? Where do you need to spot it?

Right? Because if I throw a slider and it's running. in its full form, I know there is a start point when I go to my release window that I need to hit for that thing to end up where I need for it to end up. So I have to learn in the warmup what my target spot is for my slider, what my target spot is for the breaking ball, and can I reach it without changing my slot, right? The throwing side of the release point. If you change the release point with the change of the pitch, you're tipping. So if I watch you in the warm up and you're breaking ball,

Your curveball is up from a three-quarter window, but your slider is a little bit lower. That's the tip. I know that when the ball comes out of that window, it's going to break and run, and I need to be on it. Basketball, if the same window from it, then I'm looking for rotation.

I'm looking for seams. And I might be looking for foot placement because pitchers will make a small adjustment on the plant foot for the breaking ball because you need to snap it a little harder. They will often get that foot down. earlier for the breaking ball and later for the fastball because you need to hump it up. But you need to pay attention in the warmup. That's what that's for.

And the best eyes for it is the catcher. I can't see it from the dugout. As a coach, I just can't see it. I got to trust, a look over. I will have him run out to talk to the pitcher. You see the catcher right after one run out to the pitcher? Usually that's for the skipper. Because when he runs back to home plate, he can nod.

to me and give me a one or two and tell me what's working or not, right? So then I can get into the port. And then also, I've given the catcher, the scouting report. I try not to talk to pitchers during game. I will absolutely talk to the catcher. I don't want to get in the head of the pitcher. Have your own conversations, leave me alone. I'm not messing with you.

So yeah, shout out to the catcher because him knowing that somebody is gripping the bat tightly and settling in for dead red if he sees it and digging in with the back foot he sees it you know what he won't be able to break it down and get to the breaking ball so that's how he calls that breaking ball to start it uh in the ninth inning you see a thing you call it you get the result so bravo to it how often does that again i've never played baseball so some of these questions might sound uh one-oh-one but that's all right uh so how much how often when you're doing more of pitches. Are you showing your whole stuff? You're trying to warm everything up? Depends on the pitcher. Crafty pitchers don't want to show you. Power pitchers

absolutely want to intimidate you. Power pitchers want to show you, hey, bro, you don't have, you don't have, you don't have hands to get to this. You know what? You can see how quickly it's popping, but you can't see late movement from the on-deck circle. So you can see how, you know what that looks like 96, 97? What you can't see how, you know what? That looks like, see until you get in the box and bravo to the folks who are doing the um camp oh yeah because it is a whole new level of respect to see late moving and by late movement release point is one thing how quickly it's moving some pitchers throw a heavy ball which picks up speed as it gets closer to the home plate you can't tell that from the back from the on deck circle you also can't tell

the break on a ball late moving on a on a two seam and a four scene entirely different you need to see it from inside the box in order to do it and quite frankly if i'm if i have a good feel for it i'm not going to show you everything in the warmer i'm just getting loose there's some pictures nolan ryan said you know what bob gibson used to talk about it i i want you to hear me in the warm up because it's going to change your heartbeat this is you're going to change your heart rate Like your pulse is going to pick up. If you stand in the box and Randy Johnson is slinging 97 at you from 6 foot 10, hey man, you are making some business decisions from the on deck circle.

So it depends. Greg Maddox always said he never threw anything other than lace fastballs in warmer. Why would he show his hand? That's kind of what I was thinking is maybe he just warm up the basketball. He was a movement in a location guy. he wasn't going to show you what the location was. As a matter of fact, the catcher didn't know what he was throwing until he caught the ball back. So there's the famous story of Greg Maddox telling how he called pitch.

He called pitches during his games. And how he called pitches was how he caught the ball when the catcher threw it back to him. So like if he threw it back to him and if he just snapped the glove, that was one thing. If he caught it and with two hands, it was another thing. he would let the catcher know what he wanted the next pitch was going to be by how he received the pitch the ball back from the catcher. Pretty amazing stuff. Maddox was an alien. Like there's one Greg Maddox.

And it's amazing. But also for that era that if you weren't pop, Maddox could actually amp up to 94. He just didn't because he would rather have control of the location and the direction, rather than being able to pump. Now, he would surprise some people because he'd go up to 92 and they go, wait a minute, the professor's out here dealing today.

But that was only to set up the next pitch, which was probably a cutter off the hands that you would look stupid rolling with. So it depends on the pitcher and the pitching coach, different pitching coach style. So Mike Maddox, Greg's brother, is a pretty good pitching coach. He had a different set of rules for what he wanted them.

One, he worked on, okay, foot placement. Your warm-ups, I need the first four pitches to be about reestablishing the plant hole where your foot's going to land because that was going to dictate. He also would tell you to come out, I need you to throw through window three in the first three pitches because you might decide you're going to throw from slot two, depending on who's hitting top of the order i'm throwing through my natural slot bottom of the order depending on the pitcher i may change my slot i may change through slot one through the first time through the rotation right i may go full three quarter i may drop down on critical two

strike pitches to sign on why because i'm that hitter hasn't seen it yeah you haven't seen it You're looking, there's three squares that you could place in a pitcher's release point. What window is the ball coming through? Because that's what your eyes need to focus on. I'm not looking at his eyes. I'm not looking at it. I better not be looking at his glove flip through because that's a distraction. I shouldn't be paying attention to his foot placement.

I better be looking at the window, his release window. And then as quickly as possible, see whether it's high rotation or not. High rotation will tell me it's going to break and do something. If it's a solid rotation, quick, I know it's a fastball. Four seam is the deception because the rotation changes, the closer it gets the home plate. And you go, talk on it. This is science. I should have paid attention in science clients.

I guess there's a reason we're hitting 300. Pretty good deal. It's tough to do. It is not 300. And they talk about it, especially at this level, at the collegiate level, it is a defining thing in your ability to produce on the college level. Because it means you're identifying actual strikes. Strikes. If you can identify strikes, one, you're removing 40% of pitches that are thrown to you.

I don't have to pay attention if it's out of strikes. As a matter of fact, I don't want to see it. If it is not a strike, I don't want to see it. I want to finite my strike zone vision to just the ball coming through a window that's going to fit in to a 12-foot box. That's it. Anything else? None of my business. And if I'm only swinging at strikes, I have a better shot of doing something good with it.

If you're below 300, it's because you are swinging at not strikes. I teach players, we would spend entire batting practices just watching for pitches in the strike zone. Having a batter stand at home plate and have pitchers throw 15 pitches at them, call out ball a strike. Tell me that you can identify strikes zone. Okay. Now I can let you get your hands free.

You now know what to look for. And it simplifies it because hitting in this day and age is simply knob of the bat on the level of the ball in a strike zone as long as it can stay on that level. That's it. That if I go from my launch point through the front of the strike zone with control of the knob of the bat, my hand, hand on the level of wherever that pitch is going to be. I'm not going to chase it because movement means I'm just going to use the wrist to extend out or down. Bad head, this is how far in a strike zone, the bad head can move.

You have to know that. Smart hitters are good hitters. Smart hitters are 300 hitters. Power hitters, those are aliens that, quite frankly, they just need to see it and match. Hit it match, bro. The other question I have about catchers was how early in the development are they starting to call a majority of the game? Or what age does that you usually see that? It depends on where they are in the country because different regions of the country work differently.

Different coaches want control. Some coaches are control freak. I don't trust you. Softball, you see, and I think softball is a really good indicator for it, where you see them with the wristbands. The pitcher comes in and they see the wristband and because the pitching coach will put up a number or a color or they'll go, hey, you know, there'll be 16 numbers and the numbers have a different pitch ball. You call the 16, go to 13. Well, they look down and all 13 touch curveball. Go to 12.

Oh, 12 was a rise ball. It depends on the program. It also depends on the pitcher. because quite frankly, some pitchers need to feel like they're dominant and they're in control. I need to call my own pitches. There are catchers who are the real brain center of defensive baseball. They're catchers. Look, coach, I need to do this.

Like, I need to have control because the catcher given the signal also tells the shortstop and second baseman how to position the players on their side of the field. If I'm throwing a breaking ball down in a way, my shortstop better know and my second baseman better know. Center fielder also has to know. So the catcher puts down a signal. Behind them, you'll see a second baseman or a shortstop flash a number behind them. That's to the center field to let him know, hey, we're running heat up here. You might want to lean, maybe take a step and not take a step before he pitches,

but take the step as the ball's being pitched. right don't tip sometimes outfielders tip sometimes short stops it's like a basement tip listen if you deepen up shortstop slides over two steps towards the bag and the second basement goes deeper that's outer that's outer half that's happening they're going over there man that's why they're position so all of it is a series of of movements understanding one is a catcher i can trust is he a thinking catcher? Because he might be an offensive catcher and it might not be his thing calling pitchers.

They're guys like Eddie Perez who make an entire career while hitting 2.30 because they're so good at calling plays and keeping the game pace up. Rarely you have a Gary, the kid Carter, who's exceptional at both. Colton Fiss

matured into the game. Cal Ripkin was so good at short step that he called the pitches. Cheez. Cal Ripkin called the pitches for the Orioles for decades. And people didn't even know it because he was a student of the game. His dad was a manager. As a matter of fact, when he came up, his dad was the Orioles manager. His younger brother, Billy, was the starting second basement.

So guess what? Cal Ripkin called pitches. So it depends on the situation. Depends on the players. Depends on the coaching staff. I say that the earlier, the better, because in Little League and Travel Ball, first of all, I don't want my pitcher throwing three pitches anyway. It's too early.

Yeah. If you're throwing a curb ball 12, get a new coach. Get a new coach. Stop it. You're not built for it. Right? If you're at 14, you're playing travel ball and it's high level ball. Okay, if you tell me you're throwing a breaking ball, I'd be more, a,

I'd be happier if you're throwing fastball change up and that you can locate them where you need for them to be. Then at high school, add the breaking ball, add the breaking ball and add a breaking ball. I don't need a 16-year-old tendon throwing heater, change-up, curveball, slider. No, no, no, no, no, no. you are guaranteeing that that young man is going to struggle and have issue. And then in college, if you, you can't be a college pitcher without two pitches.

No matter how hard you throw, you have to have two pitches. And solid fastball change up, solid fastball, curveball. Solid fastball, slider. If you have three pitches, you're a problem. You're a problem. And if you can control them and put them where you want when you want,

you are in the conversation for playing games after your college career. That's a good way to. So personnel is really dependent. And then, you know, it kind of, kind of thinking through it too, that should help the catcher. As they grow into it, there's not so many pitches to call as a young catcher.

And then, you know, expands as you get through the game. Mastery is starting with the simple things. Mastery is that, one, he can handle the fastball in the strike zone. as a catcher, can you, can you gracefully receive a fastball in the middle of the strike zone? Then next level catcher, can you master the black, the stripe on the plate? Can you handle that and make it look athletically arrogant? Like, you know what?

That's right where I expected that to be. The easiest way to really piss off an umpire and a pitcher is to throw something on the black and make it look awkward. because you make the umpire have to make a tough decision and the pitcher feels like you're not there fighting for him okay step one master the strike zone step two master the corners then master level three starting catcher at a high school level can you handle the top and the bottom of the strike zone without feel looking unnatural is it an athletic movement for you to reach the top of the strike zone and the bottom of the strike zone without changing your elbow. I don't need the, I don't need the windshield wiper. What I need is you start back at your chest, you land, and you hold. If you can do that, you're now a high level high school catcher and you have the ability for college coaches because he's investing in 12 pitchers. And the last thing he wants is a catcher who's out here all over the place stabbing at peas. We would say, nope, I need you to catch the pea in the spoon.

I need you to be, get me the strike I'm supposed to get, get me the strike that I want, and then every now and then, steal one. Still one. I need for you to pull it and catchers, when you watch catchers in the bullpen with starting pitchers, watch them how little they're trying to move the glove. Now, the glove can carry, can cover the entire square. But what I need to do is start in the middle and not move no matter where it goes. I can cover all of it and I need for it to look.

Now, receiving some catchers extend. I don't like catchers to extend because it's what happened yesterday. You extend and a hitter is deeper in the box and he hits the back of the glove and he gets a base. Nope. If I receive it, I need to receive it. software. I need pillows on my hands as a catcher. And then that makes me a collegiate catcher. That makes me a high level collegiate catcher. Those things are taught and accumulated over thousands of pitches, thousands of rotations before you get into a game.

All right. Final question on my catcher list is because I'm a Red Sox fan from back of the day. Tim Wakefield, the knuckleball. That's what I get to. Jason Verdeck is probably the best catcher that Boston's had since the 80s. And he didn't even, he was not the catcher for Tim Wakefield. They'd bring in a different, knuckleball catcher. Well, because it breaks your tradition.

It breaks your, it breaks your groove. As a matter of fact, knuckle balls not only break the catcher, but it breaks hitters for the next two nights. Because all of your tendencies no longer work. All the things that you do to trigger against a fastball, curveball, a sloball changer, you can't use those triggers

against a knuckleball. You can't use it. The timing's off, right? Because it's 20 miles an hour slower. It curveball has one break that I care about at the hanging point. So if it's a hanger, I need to get that. I'm not trying to get it after the curve. I'm trying to get it at the hang.

Slider, I need to get it at the hang. Because once it starts to slide, I'm done because that's two different. You're changing level and location. the slider changes both you can't hit either one if i hit first location i'm popping it up if i hit second low break on the on the slider i'm hitting a ground ball to the first basement or second basement and it's a watch i need to get it at the hang and that's where it is knuckleball there are three hanging spots and none of them are fluent none of them matter none of them matter you're dead you're out there catching a butterfly what you say you're trying to eat soup with a floor

It is doing a dance that you are not a part of. And you are just out there hoping, Lord, this is your favorite son, Jason. He is throwing a knuckleball. Please put my bat on this, on this knuckleball. And a lot of the time, God didn't answer. You're on your own. Good luck.

So, yeah, there's lots to it. And again, this is why baseball, the beautiful science that it is, it is America's game because it's there's so many things that you can be good at and be good at this game and there's so many ways for this game to humble you that's why 300 hitters succeeding three out of 10 times you are elite and there is a reason that's how it works we're going to break more one-on-one from blur or tailgate when we come back