Rick Gold
5.3K posts
@GoldRdg
Retired- Math teacher Piqua High School. Coached high school baseball and college baseball (Wittenberg). Owner of The Barn - baseball/softball instruction
Baseball Doesn’t Need More Data Readers It Needs Pitching Coaches If professional baseball truly vetted the people being hired as pitching coaches, a lot of jobs would disappear overnight. Because what’s happening right now isn’t coaching. It’s data reading. Somewhere along the way, the game decided that if you can interpret ball-flight charts and recite spin efficiency, you’re qualified to stand on a big-league mound and teach pitchers how to get outs. That’s not development. That’s outsourcing responsibility to numbers. Let’s be clear about something: data matters. But data is not coaching. You can teach a real pitching coach how to use data. Good coaches want to learn it. They’ll study it, question it, challenge it, and then filter it through feel, execution, and competition. What you can’t teach is how to pitch. And that’s the problem. The Game Has Replaced Pitching Coaches With Throwing Coaches Talk to professional coaches around the league guys who have actually stood on the mound, competed, failed, adjusted, and survived and you’ll hear the same thing over and over: Many of the new pitching hires have never pitched at a professional level and have no idea how to actually get hitters out. So what do they default to? “Throw it down the middle and see what happens.” “Trust the data.” “Velocity plays.” That’s not pitching. That’s gambling. Pitching is a competitive skill built on execution, sequencing, movement, deception, and decision-making under pressure. It’s understanding how hitters adjust, how counts matter, how adrenaline changes mechanics, and how to get through an inning when you don’t have your best stuff. Those lessons don’t show up on a dashboard. Ball Flight Without Execution Means Nothing Ball flight data without execution is useless. Velocity without command is meaningless. Spin rate without intent is noise. A pitcher doesn’t get paid for having elite metrics in a bullpen. He gets paid for outs. And outs come from being able to repeat a delivery, control the baseball, adjust in real time, and compete when the game tightens. Right now, too many organizations are creating glorified throwers, not pitchers. Guys who can light up a Rapsodo in shorts. Guys who look incredible in controlled environments. Guys who fall apart when hitters stop chasing and the game speeds up. That’s a coaching failure. Coaching Is Not Explaining It’s Teaching The best pitching coaches in the game don’t drown players in information. They simplify. They prioritize. They understand who the pitcher is, not who the data wants him to be. They know: When to push and when to shut up When data helps and when it hurts When feel beats force When execution beats intent They don’t sell pitchers on magic numbers. They teach them how to own the mound. And here’s the part that matters most: real coaches aren’t impressed by bullshit. Professional players can smell it instantly. If you’ve never had to get outs with a tired arm, a bad feel day, or a runner on third and one out, your credibility is gone before you open your mouth. Get Outs Baseball is not a lab experiment. It’s a competitive game of outs. The industry doesn’t need more self-proclaimed “throwing coaches” who hide behind screens and spreadsheets. It needs pitching coaches people who understand the craft, respect the chaos, and can blend data with reality. Data should inform decisions. Execution should decide games. Until professional baseball gets back to hiring coaches who can actually teach pitching, not just explain it, the game will keep producing arms that look great on paper and disappear when it matters. And that’s not development. That’s failure dressed up as innovation. #shegone @notgaetti @BobFile @twuench @billdubs @SliderDominate @slider_sinker @iamrags @ROXSystem @BLocsports @TheRealJHair @DMEASrecruiting @itsJohnRocker @45PedroMartinez @rogerclemens @Plesac19 @BackWoodRebel39 @GlendonRusch @CoachMunoz51
In 1992, Kurt Warner was the backup QB at Northern Iowa. He was more talented than the starter, but couldn't get on the field. So he asked why. Their answer stunned him... He called it the "greatest lesson he ever learned about life and football." (📌Bookmark this)
If you are hitting line drives over the shortstop or second baseman’s head in BP or off the machine and people have a problem with that result- go into ignore mode!
