Our 3rd Rounder is Sending Your Players a Message

"With the 106th pick, the San Francisco Giants select..."

I've been at a bunch of MLB Amateur Drafts in the War Room with the Los Angeles Angels, and it's pretty crazy.  

Scouts and coaches are fighting for players, and front office members are on the phone, wheeling and dealing for the best players possible from the pick of the litter. You then go to a magnet board and start shuffling names and get pissed when one of your dudes is called by someone else.

ONE STANDOUT PLAYER

Long before the 2022 draft, we received an email from a kid in Gonzaga named William Kempner.  

I didn't know much about him, but he was dead serious about taking care of his throwing arm, and he was dead serious about playing professional baseball.  

(However, given the amount of money extracted from players due to injuries in the draft, stock in ArmCare.com has risen sharply this season for college arms—revealing that arm care and injury prevention is now a much more prominent focus for amateur players.)

So, I do what any good baseball skeptic does and go to my go-to scouts for some inside information.  

Not one of my sources thought he was going past the third round. They said he is lightning in a bottle and that his $HIT comes out of his hand starting at a batter's earhole and then bends away late. It's the "late" part that I like best.  

The baseball world is velocity-driven, with plenty of pitchers throwing 94-98, but I am not overly impressed. 

Most guys in the draft throw the baseball like it's on rails, and if it doesn't elevate, it gets hit hard at the MLB level.

It's common to see Johnny over the top, with a hand that flashes like a beacon from a light tower when it comes out of the glove, giving the batter more milliseconds to prep for the pitch.   

But William, well, he has deception paired with some late movement and can take a hitter out of his swing.  

I am always looking at videos for pitch tips (glove flair, big breaths, change in glove position, stance, etc.) along with poise.  And for me, this kid is electrifying, and I loved his signature walk around the mound.  

He bangs a guy out and turns his back as soon as it hits the glove. It's not flashy, it's just him, and he looks pissed when he punches a guy out.  

He pitches with his hair on fire and has a killer instinct. 

To see what I am talking about, I have the video here that was shot by Gonzaga.  Great quality flick where you can see the gas and you will hear the pop.  

Look at the lowering of the center of mass and how long the arm is behind him without him opening early, and then the sling comes, and you hope it's a slider away. 

I'm excited to see that he's going to the San Francisco Giants, whose pitching department is run by Andrew Bailey, a friend, and someone I had coached as a player and worked with when he was with the Angels. He is at the helm as the MLB Pitching Coach and is a brainiac when it comes to fixing deliveries and pitchers' minds. 

A FIRSTHAND LOOK

In our podcast, we capture the moment that the San Francisco Giants called his name.  

It's an unbelievable recount of that day and the dynamics leading up to his selection. Imagine, your whole life, you are waiting for your time to shine.  

What is even more impressive as he would have passed my sniff test. For the years I was with the Angels, I evaluated athletes not only physically but also assessed their habits.  

Each team has its own survey that they provide to players, but I think at the time, the Angels had the best one, and I made sure we had a rubric to evaluate habits that were projectable to future health.  

It's cool to throw hard and get drafted, but the ones that get bumped due to injury and never finish seasons often end up in the land of misfit toys. 

It makes me think of the snip and rip machines from the movie Toy Story, and I've seen many of them at the pro level.

Tommy Johns, revised ones, SLAP tears, torn glenohumeral ligaments, thoracic outlet syndromes, x-rays, MRIs, one kid had an osteophyte in his arm the size of a golf ball, and the list goes on and on.  

Teams spend 100's of millions of dollars in a 5-8 year period on pitching injuries, and I believe it is partly due to poor player habits that cause the destruction.

WHAT CAN YOU LEARN AS A COACH, PLAYER, OR PARENT FROM WILLIAM?

Listen carefully to the podcast we put out a few weeks ago and see if you can pick up on his intangible gift.  

It's not a blazing fastball, hard sweep, killer instinct. Instead, he can learn from mistakes and create an optimum process.  

Unfortunately, athletes reach out to us when they are hurt or just after they have experienced an injury. Instead, we want them to be proactive about taking care of their arm and create a process by which their arm is a priority.  

This demonstrates that their career success is paramount, and they don't intend to veer off.  

I am excited for William because he's dogmatic, refuses to come undone in his process, and can handle adversity.  

He would have been high on my list for professional baseball success because he is calculated, organized, and can answer WHY he chooses to do the things he does.  

So if you are a coach or parent reading this, share the podcast with your young player. It's time they go to school and learn from one of their own who was in their seats only a moment before the biggest day of his life in baseball.

Have a great weekend, and if you are a player, coach, or parent that doesn't have a process to keep yourself or players in the game and sustain performance, then it's time to reach out and ask us to help.  

My mom used to tell me when buying toilet paper, "A pennywise is a pound foolish," and it's time that players invest in themselves.

And remember Newton's 3rd Law: For every reaction, there is an equal and opposite reaction. So make your reaction to the story proactive, separate yourself from the pack, and never look back. 

Ryan

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