I was watching video of Verlander in the Series and it jumped off my computer screen like a cricket in heat.  This guy gets the ball out of his glove so fast it’s a blur.  It’s like he’s in a hurry to get home. 

This is the ignition switch that turns on TEMPO.  Seaver preached it relentlessly.  Get it out.  And get it up.  Quick as a cat.

Verlander on juiced baseballs

“You’re always walking a tight rope.  You can’t miss barrels anymore.  You have to miss bats.  Four, five years ago I’d just throw a fastball away.  But you can’t do that anymore.  The nine-hole hitter can hit an opposite field homer.

“It’s not a coincidence. The balls are juiced.”

Tempo

Getting the ball out and up is the kick-off. Tempo is the Super Bowl, the Mad Max of velo.

I have no stat for this.  No mind-numbing Analytics.

But I’m willing to bet MLB pitchers have sped up their tempo as much as 20 per cent over the past couple of decades.  It’s as if an ET from Jupiter squirted from its UFO and saturated them with Tempo Juice.

*****************************************

You see it in the guns.  Cole, DeGrom, Strasburg, Verlander, Buhler, Kluber, Scherzer, Syndergaard.  And young guys like Tyler Glasnow, who shoots 100 mph lasers so easily it looks like he’s got a cannon hidden in his sleeve.

***************************************

Tempo is simply the speed of your delivery.  It’s never frantic or disjointed.  It’s always smooth and in rhythm.  But it’s never slow.  Not ever.

Jacob DeGrom, who’s tempo is as fast as a burp

I see kids all the time who are fighting their tempo.  They’re so deliberate it’s like watching Michelangelo paint the Sistine Chapel in slo mo for three decades. They’ve been taught robotic mechanics.  And they’re desperately trying to remember each step, each checkpoint.  Like dancing lessons.  Their tempo has been destroyed.  They’re pitching in handcuffs and they never met Houdini. 

Nail your mechanics.  And then forget about them. 

Never go slow.  Speed up your tempo and get down the hill like a force 5 hurricane searching for a town to obliterate.

Velo begins with knee raise rhythm.  Then drive.  Toss in slick separation.  And machete rotation.  All with swift, serial killer tempo.

Tempo crushes.  Tempo is King of the Hill.

Return to home page

Follow My Blog

Get new content delivered directly to your inbox.