Whats up baseball players.
Coach Dan Blewett.
I'm a former pro pitcher
in today's video, we're going to talk about how to hold runners,
so how to prevent runners from stealing, how to keep them from getting good jumps
when they do steal, how to essentially prevent those cheap runs. Right.
So when you let a guy steal second base or let a guy steal third base,
it allows them to more often manufacturer run, which means
they can hit a deep fly ball with one out and a guy can tag from third and score
or the runner on second when no doubt they can hit a ground ball the right side,
he goes a third, then a sacrifice fly or ground ball up the middle.
Well, you know, your team concedes the run allows them to score.
It's really hard to prevent that stuff when you're a pitcher.
You can do your best
to be really nasty and try to prevent base hits, try to get weak contact.
But when we contact like a medium fly ball or ground,
all of the middle scores are run.
It's extremely hard to prevent those runs.
And that's why you need to be good at holding runners to keep those guys off
of second, off of third when you can help it.
And to give yourself the best chance
of throwing runners out with you and your catcher
so that those cheap runs don't come through.
You want to make the other team bat in their runs and really, really earn it.
OK, so we're going to talk about holding runners in today's video.
All right, so having you here, I'm Coach Dan again,
check out the description links below, you'll find more videos
that are related to this one, like different types of pick offs
, all that sort of stuff, my books, my online courses.
So check that out below.
And please subscribe if you haven't already.
OK, so let's talk about holding runners.
So this isn't an overly complicated thing, I'll promise you that. No one.
But it does take some practice and some understanding.
So, number one, when you're off the mound and you're going through
or you're on the bottom of the mound
and you're sizing up what you're going to do next,
you're pre pitch checklist, your mental checklist of what do I need to do?
Which side to have to cover for a bun?
Who's up? How am I going to pitch him? What has he done so far?
What inning is it? What's the situation?
All those things where help those things that help you decide what pitch call
you're going to make and your duty is once the ball is put in play .
Those are really important.
And it starts with understanding the situation.
So when there is a manufactured run situation, so that means runner on first
and no one out or runner on second and one out.
Those runners are more incentivized if they're smart and their coaches smart
to get to the next base,
because getting to third with one out means a sac fly will score him.
Stealing second with no outs means to sac flies will score him so they don't have
to get a hit if they can steal those bases in those situations.
And I have a link. I'll link in the description below.
I made a video all about that. The best stealing situations.
If they can steal bases in those times, then it's going to really maximize
their chance to steal a run against you.
So no one is knowing the situation if you know, stealing situations
versus ones that don't matter quite as much, like stealing second with,
you know, with one out doesn't matter quite as much,
then you can say, OK, I'm going to focus a little harder here on holding this guy.
I got to put a little more effort into it.
The other situation is
and so I was a setup man my fifth year in pro ball
when I was pitching the eighth inning in a save situation.
Know it's two to one. It's one to nothing. It's three to one.
If I let off the lead,
if I let the leadoff guy get on first base, I need to keep him there.
Because if I'm protecting a one run lead,
I can not let him steal second base, because now a blooper that way,
which I can't control, like a blooper is a good result. Right.
They didn't hit it very hard, but a blooper now blows the lead.
So it was really important.
And that's when I got really good at holding runners,
when I knew I absolutely cannot let this guy steal second base.
The mindset difference between I hope he doesn't steal second versus
I cannot let him steal second is very different.
And a lot of young pitchers, they just kind of go through the game
and they're just focused on the hitter.
And if he steals, he steals. I'll try kind of hard.
But no, if you really want to be
great at holding runners, you have to switch your mindset from.
I want where I hope to.
I absolutely must. I must keep this guy on first base.
And that's an important mindset.
All right. So specifically, let's talk about the stuff that you can actually do.
No one is picking over.
More times when there's a runner who's fast.
So obviously I have a video on different types
of pick off to first base your fast move, your slow move, all that stuff.
So if you haven't checked that out,
definitely do that.
So you need to make sure you have a threatening pickoff move.
If you're pickoff, move is really good
and you make strong, sharp throws to first base
and they know you could pick them off, that's going to help keep them closer.
That's an obvious one, right?
The next one is your timing. And this is by far the biggest thing.
So no one understand that you cannot prevent runners from stealing.
If they want to steal, they're going to steal, just like in everything in life.
If someone wants to be your friend, they'll be your friend.
If they don't want to be your friend anymore, you can't stop them.
You can't reason your way through it.
If they're going to do something, they're going to do it.
So if they want to steal, they're going to steal.
So your only option at that point is try to give them the worst jump possible
and try to discourage them from Pitt
from stealing on a breaking ball or a changeup, which is going to
essentially make them safe.
The vast majority of not a hundred percent of the time.
So let's cover the first wave first.
So discouraging them from steal, from stealing on a certain pitch.
What we call this is protecting your pitches.
So for me, again, going back to the eighth inning, it's a two to one game.
I got a guy on first and no one out.
And I'm about to throw a one two curveball
that I want to spike in the ground to maybe get this guy to swing and miss.
So the fact that I know that I'm
going to throw a curveball in the dirt is very concerning to me
because I know if he picks this pitch to steal on, I'm screwed.
And he's guaranteed to be on second base.
So the fact that I know when I'm about to do is harmful to me holding runners.
What do you think I should do?
I'm going to pick off a bunch of times before I throw that curveball.
So it's like, OK,
mentally I'm going to throw a one
two curveball in a tight situation that I want to bounce.
And it's a slower pitch in general.
So I don't want him to pick this pitch.
So now it's boom, boom, boom.
I might pick off three times in a
in a row and be really aggressive with it and give him my best move.
So he's like, oh, man.
And he's a little bit nervous.
And now he doesn't decide to go on that pitch.
He defers it. He pushes the bag, says, OK, I'll do the next pitch. Not this one.
That's really, really important. And that's how you protect your pitches.
So if it's any important situation and you don't want the guy
to pick this particular pitch, then protect your pitches.
And so what happens then is, OK, I'm going to throw one, two.
Airborne, if he doesn't swing and miss, if I don't get my out,
it's one two again or it's two two.
Now I'm going to come back with a high fastball.
So if I can protect my pitch and get him to not choose the curveball.
OK, that's good. We did that. Now it's two and two.
I'm not throw a high hitter.
I'm still going to maybe pick over once.
But if he's going to go, this is the time that I want him to go.
I want him to choose my high fastball.
And I threw hard.
So it's like this is the best possible opportunity for us to catch him stealing.
If he does decide to go a higher hit, a high hitter, it, you know,
ninety two miles per hour or whatever.
So at that point, I might say, yeah, I'm going to do what I can to hold him.
But if he's going to go, I want to be this one.
So I'm not going to overly discourage him now
because I want him to pick that pitch.
That said, the overarching thing you're going to do to
keep runners from stealing is mixing up your holds and your timing.
This is critical.
What most pitchers do who don't hold runners well is they
get into a pattern, whereas I come set one one thousand and then I pitch.
I come set the next time, one, one thousand and I pitch.
I can set one one thousand and then
I can set one one thousand and then I pitch.
So now when that runner is ready to steal, he's going to say, OK, well,
every time he comes set, he holds for one, one thousand.
And then he goes, so I'm going to bolt.
So they have a very good idea.
They're leaning the rig, OK? One one.
And they see the foot go and they're off.
They get a really, really good jump.
So holds are how long you hold the ball in your chest.
And so if you watch good pitchers,
what they do is, all right, I have a stealing threat on first base.
A guy who's fast, he's a good base dealer.
So now I come to that one one thousand and I pitch
next pitch. One, one
thousand two, one thousand three, one thousand four, one thousand.
And I pitch next pitch.
One one thousand two, one thousand, and then I pick.
Next pitch one, one thousand boom and I pitch,
next pitch one, one thousand, boom, and I pick.
Next pitch, as soon as I come said, I pick, I pick.
So the fact is now for this runner in this scenario, he has no idea
when you're going to go home or when you're going to pick.
You could hold three seconds and pitch. You could hold for seconds and pick.
You could hold two seconds in pitch. You can hold one second and pick.
You could be coming out of getting your sign and pick, which is legal, by the way.
So when you have when the runner has no idea
what timing is going to be, the next pitch or the next pitch, he has to wait
till the very last second and watch very intently to figure out. Can I go?
Because they can't do this leaning thing anymore,
because you could pick over or pitch home at any given time.
And that really is the biggest thing you can do to hold runners.
Now, the last thing I'll cover is and there's a problem that I see even
as wide as some Division one baseball games, you know, earlier in the year
as pitchers come set.
Big leg kick. No one
is I shouldn't say no one anymore, but if you want to hold runners on
at any level, you
can't be more than one point three or one point for the most to home plate.
And that means by time my first movement, until the ball hits
the catcher's mitt, it one takes one point four seconds to get there.
So if you throw a 90 miles per hour, it's going to be about four tenths of a second
for the ball to leave your hand and hit the catcher's mitt.
So that means one second flat or little or a little bit less.
Is all this other stuff to deliver the ball?
So just lifting your leg?
One, one thousand.
Most guys that have a full leg kick with runners on base, which is a lot of them,
which is a problem, which is they're just screwing themselves.
They're typically one six one seven one eight.
And so now if you take a runner whose average speed and he's already got
a, you know, 12 foot lead, let's say he's only got to run seven to eight feet
and he's got a one point eight second head start.
And your catcher is going to throw a two one.
That's about the major league average to flat,
maybe like a little more to between 200 to one.
That's a major league in game pop time.
Of course, they go below that if you want to check out my numbers.
I'll put a video in the description about catcher pop times in the major leagues.
So you take in one point eight.
Plus, two point one, if your catcher's good.
And now you've got to catch your honor, who's pretty fast going to run
seven to eight feet to second base, you're not going to get them right.
Runners can run 78 feet in less than three point nine seconds.
So when you start to do the math and of course, there's a lot of younger kids
who are even slower than that, and they don't throw as hard.
They don't throw 90 miles per hour
and the ball takes another tenth, tenth of a second to get their
catches, thirty two point two.
And they just have no chance of getting a runner now.
So you have to give your your catchers a fighting chance to get somebody out.
So that's the last big thing.
You know, you can't have this big league kick.
So if you need to learn how to do your slides, step faster.
And I don't recommend just picking up and going
because you lose your weight shift.
I recommend a knock me and I have a full video
tutorial and all that, which I'll link to in the description below.
So hopefully this video is helpful.
Like I said, I've got a lot of other resources.
Have you made it to this point in the video?
Be sure and check out my video on pickoff on the slide step
on situational base stealing.
All those things are really important for holding runners in baseball.
Thanks again for watching and I'll see you in the next one.
I'm Coach Sam Bluiett and I'll see you next time.