BRADENTON, Fla. — As a high school player, right-hander Quinn Priester never had a pitching coach. He learned much of his mechanics by watching videos on YouTube.
There are, of course. a lot more resources available to Priester now that he’s in the Pirates farm system. The spring training complex is crawling with coaches and trainers, and Priester often sits down for brainstorming sessions with other pitchers. “It’s great because when I get stuck, there’s always somebody to go to,” he said.
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Yet Priester, like many young players, appreciates the power of video as a teaching tool. That’s where Vic Black comes in.
Black, 33, is the Pirates’ minor-league pattern and throwing coordinator. He manages the rehab throwing portion of the club’s “return to competition” plans and designs throwing performance programs. “Vic is one of those guys who just understands the movement of throwing, inside and out,” Priester said.
Part of Black’s job is organizing a video library of every pitcher in the Pirates’ farm system. Players’ specific movements — in the training room and on the mound during workouts and in games — are recorded and uploaded into files that they use to recover from injuries, fine-tune mechanics and ramp up performance. Black got the idea after posting his own workout videos on Instagram, which drew dozens of positive responses from players.
“We realized, as a lot of us (coaches) are ex-players, that we liked to see video of ourselves doing things,” Black said. “It really helped. When I played, video was kept, but we didn’t get a lot of access to what we wanted to see.”
Such a forward-looking, high-tech database demands an edgy, super-secret-sounding code name. Something with a James Bond flavor that will intrigue the Generation Z players and intimidate the Pirates’ opponents.
“We call it ‘Pitching Correctives,’” Black said.
Oh. How disappointing.
“Maybe we’ll come up with something a little better if we ever get it thrown into an app or something like that,” Black said, grinning.
Black was the Pirates’ first-round pick in 2009 and pitched in a handful of games in the majors in 2013 and 2014. The Pirates brought him back two years ago as a coach. On Monday, Black stepped away from his duties at minor-league spring training camp to chat with reporters about the Pitching Correctives program.
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How did the database come about?
It started with me videoing myself (in workouts) during the COVID year. We found that (players) wanted stuff like that, which made sense because they went to (outside) facilities in the offseason. If they’re not getting it here, they’re going to find it somewhere else. We realized it’s better for them to see themselves or other players (in action, instead of coaches). When a coach designs a new drill, we film it and it’s sent to me. I upload it into (a file hosting service) and it gets put site-wide so everyone has access. We also have one we’re building for the position players because we’ve got them doing arm care and plyo work and stuff.
Our focus is to make this player-centered. They are the drivers of this; we’re just kind of along for the ride, like a GPS. We found that to make that successful, part of it, at least from my lens, is creating a library that they can choose from based on how we view their delivery. We take our assessment, break it down and then subcategorize it. That allows all the coaches to have real-time access to this library and select whatever implementation they want. They can go in and say, “Hey, we’re working on the back-load hinge,” and they’ll have about 150 things to choose from, and they can make any of those into 10 more. It allows for constant change in variability, which is something we want, while it targets what we’re trying to accomplish. It gives the coaches an easier pathway. And the players are getting something new every day.
Do players submit their own video?
We have them shoot video for us, but that’s just for our regular upkeep. As far as the (Pitching Correctives) library, it’s usually a coach taking (video) of a player. … I’m kind of picky on the angles and things, so we have a tutorial video that I made, just to keep it a clean look.
Can you see how this database is carrying over into the work players do on a daily basis?
They’re getting really good at it. The goal is that in two years, the group that we first showed it to last year will be running their own show, in a sense. We’re providing them more of a backseat guidance. They can (watch video) and be like, “All right, I know I’m starting to feel this in my delivery because it’s the middle of the season and fatigue may be setting in. This is what I need to do to get it back,” and then they can go grab an aqua bag, a med ball or a plyo (ball) and do something to get back in a good position. Coaches at our affiliates each have 15 guys so it’s hard to (work with) them all. For the players to be able to own this stuff, understand what they’re trying to get and learn from it, it’s priceless. We’ve developed an entire culture of guys who are their own best coaches. We’ve always heard, “We want the player to be his best coach.” Well, now I think we’re actually allowing them to do that.
What’s been the reaction from the players?
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We hit on it with a lot of guys in the “Get Better at Baseball” camp (in November) and they started to buy in. There’s a snowball effect with guys who are (initially) hesitant: “So-and-so is doing it and it’s starting to work out here on the field, so maybe I’ll use it too.” It also keeps us from jabbing stuff down people’s throats. We want the players to come to it. If they like it, we’ll adjust and we can make it anything they want.
Typically, when players perform something badly, they know it. They don’t need us to tell them. When they do something good, they want to be affirmed. When they come to us about something, they’re to the point where they realize there needs to be an adjustment. Take Anthony Solometo, who’s one of the brightest young dudes I’ve spent time around. He really knows what he wants to do. He’s telling us, “I noticed this in the delivery. I’ve been watching this guy, I see this, I see what I do. I know I could probably do this a little better. How do we do it?”
Do a lot of players come into camp already having done a lot of video work at private facilities?
A majority have, just because of social media. We believe we offer the best product to our players. And if that’s the case, we want them here — and, this winter, they wanted to be here. It was unlike any other winter (program) I have been a part of in any organization. Before, most of the time it was, “When is the earliest we can leave? When’s the latest I’ve got to be there for spring training?” And now it’s like, “When’s the earliest I can get there? Can I stay the whole time?” So we know we’re succeeding there with the players and with what we’re giving them. They like it, it’s helping them and they want to be around. If you’re looking at it like an investment, it’s hard to trust your portfolio to somebody you don’t know. We know what we have here. The players trust us and it’s just freakin’ cool.
What happens if a player uses an outside trainer and comes up with something that you know is just a terrible idea?
When you train at an (outside) facility, you’re paying to go there. There is more of a buy-in because of the financial (cost). But, at the same time, for us to say, “Hey, that’s dumb. Why are you doing that?” … no player wants to hear that. He invested his own money and time, he trained and felt like he got better and he’s coming here to show us what he got better at. So we watch, we observe. And if it is something that digressed, we pose it like, “Hey, I saw you’re doing this now. You weren’t doing this last year. Is this something from the offseason? Where is this helping you out? What’s the goal?” Often, we figure that explanation of what he’s trying to get done wasn’t made clear enough.
It’s not that the person didn’t know what they were talking about. Translations are tough. I mean, I could say one thing to you, and it means 20 things to 20 other people. That’s usually what we run into. I’ve also called facility owners and coaches (who worked with) guys we’ve had in the last couple years, just wanting to understand their background. Why did the player respond this way to it? What was your thought in doing this? You’ve just got to keep an open mind, because I don’t know everything.
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It sounds like this also helps minor-league coaches quickly get up to speed when a player is promoted (to a new) level.
It’s hard to keep that fluency throughout an entire system — you have so many personalities coaching, so many players moving around — but that’s our goal. Last year, when (Miguel) Yajure and (Jared) Oliva went up (to Pittsburgh), we had their (data): “This is what they’ve been doing, this is what felt good to them, these are the drills we like.” We sent that to (the major-league staff) and they just rolled into that.
Were you chosen to put all this together because you’re some sort of tech wizard?
No, no, no. (Laughs) My literature degree (from Dallas Baptist University), which is still unfinished, is not helping me much in this realm. But as far as the videos and just finding the usefulness of it, I take the simplest route and then I allow other people who know how to organize it better put it together.
This is a lot of data. How many laptops are hooked up in your office?
Just one. I do most of this from my Samsung (phone). The new one has a 960-frames-per-second camera, which is 40 (frames) slower than the Edgertronic (high-speed camera) for about one-fifteenth of the cost. That camera makes it easier and (has) simple uploads (to our database). I can name files and shoot (them) right in, and in real-time a coach will have access to it.
Hey, did I just help you land an endorsement deal with Samsung?
(Laughs) I would take it. They’re my favorite.
(Photo: Josh Lavallee / Pittsburgh Pirates)
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