Am revisting a topic addressed last in a 2005 thread. Would like feedback about West Coast schools development of their pitching staff. By West Coast, please address Hawaii, California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona programs.

USF (Coach Moore)

I've also heard good things about Coach Moore at USF. I don't know much if anything about the schools you've listed but you might want to PM Bum and see what he knows about Washington and Oregon. I believe his son is headed to Washington State. Arizona used to have a reputation for over recruiting and sending players to JCs. I don't know if that's true these days.

University of Portland has a new full time paid pitching coach who started last year. He played 8 season in MLB. They are in the same conference as USF.

West Coast:

Recently, I visited the U of San Francisco campus and met with the baseball coaches, whom I have previously know from our Area Code games.

Coach Greg Moore has a well deserved reputation as a "good" person and as a pitching coach.

We will have two players from our Australia trips attend USF next Fall.

Please study this web site on Sonoma State. They are in the Regional this week in Chico.
Nationally #2 ranked in Division II.

If you are a pitcher, I would go where there are strong hitters. SSU has won the last 6 games with HR in the final innings and leads the nation in fielding %.
http://www.sonomaseawolves.com/index.aspx?tab=baseball&path=baseball

Bob Williams

quote:

Originally posted by Consultant:

If you are a pitcher, I would go where there are strong hitters. SSU has won the last 6 games with HR in the final innings and leads the nation in fielding %.
Bob Williams

That's a nice pearl of wisdom from a man who knows his oysters.

The coaching staff at Hawaii has been great with my son. With HC Trapasso and PC Konishi, your actually getting two experienced pitching coaches (both former D1 pitchers) on the same page that know how to get the most out of their players. Feel free to PM me if you want more info.

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Son doesn't go to USF but have had plenty of opportunities to interact and I too have a ton of respect for Coach Moore...great guy, soft spoken and really knows his craft...guys go there and they get better and they achieve...


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You might also want to look at the WCC, as that conference has as good of pitching as you will find anywhere in the country.

bleacherfan ...

Love the tips the other posters have given you. Our son played in the Big West conference, home of Cal State Fullerton, UC Irvine, Long Beach, UC Riverside etc and lots of good programs in those schools.

The new baseball program at Oregon might deserve a look as well. I am including a link to the bio on their pitching coach, Andrew Checketts. He was our son's coach at UCRiverside and our son thought the world of him.

Andrew Checketts bio @ Oregon

I actually meant to say BWC . As FBM notes there are many top notch programs there. And because they don't play football the schools are often overlooked.
BTW Fresno State also has a very strong pitching staff year in year out.

I have seen a number of tall / skinny kids this spring and they pitch well in HS ball and only throw 80-84, is it realistic that a college program can help them increase their velocity? and if so what does it really take to compete at the D1 level as a pitcher? seems like everyone gets enamored with the 90 mph kids, but isn't pitching about location and change of speeds? and do colleges really like leftys over rightys? why?

OldCob,
Pitching in the high 80s with location and change of speeds tends to work better than working in the low 80s with location and change of speed.

It is probably realistic to believe that a college program could help those kids increase their velocity or that they'd increase their velocity some in any case. The question is if they'd get a shot at D1 ball in the first place at those velocities.

Colleges like lefties because there aren't that many of them and they generate different movement on the ball than hitters are used to seeing.

FBM,
Was Martinez there when your son was playing?

CADad ...

Not sure which Martinez you mean ... Johnny M (older brother ... pitcher) was there the whole time and AJ's last year, Johnny's younger brother (can't remember his name) transferred in from JUCO. Are there more Martinez's on the roster these days?

FBM,
Sorry, I was asking about Dave Martinez, a coach who was at RCC, not UCR for a couple years. I just remembered Riverside and asked the question before getting my facts straight. Thanks for trying to answer the question.