Mark Verstegen founded Athletes’ Performance in Tempe, Az. in 1999. Previously a coach at Washington State University, Verstegen also worked as Assistant Director of Player Development at Georgia Tech, where he built and implemented performance programs for football, men’s basketball and golf. He started the International Performance Institute in Bradenton, Fla. before moving to Arizona. Athletes’ Performance’s clients include numerous NFL players, professional golf, tennis, and basketball players, multiple amateur athletes, and an array of Major League Baseball players, including Nomar Garciaparra, Pat Burrell, and Adam Dunn. Verstegen recently chatted with BP about training methods for baseball players, the importance of injury prevention for athletes, and the challenges facing young athletes.
It’s a good week. I’ve got the MLB Extra Innings package, and after a long day of tinkering and swearing, my TiVo can now record up to 220 hours of baseball. I’ve seen so much fine baseball I feel like I’m in a pleasure coma–being able to sit down and watch NL teams I hardly ever got to see, while knowing that every Mariners game will be archived for my off-season amusement.
Monday, the Red Sox picked up the option on Pedro Martinez’s contract.
The move, which Martinez had been agitating for since last winter, guarantees
Martinez $17.5 million in 2004.
To understand just how far through the looking glass we are on this issue,
consider the headline on ESPN.com’s baseball page: “Red Sox finally pick
up Pedro’s 2004 option.” Finally. An option with a deadline
of November 5 gets picked up on April 7, and the word used to describe this is
“finally”?
Derek Jeter talks dislocation and David Cone returns to the majors. Sammy Sosa on his 500th home run and George W. Bush. Bud Selig credits revenue sharing with Anaheim’s World Series win. Mike Hargrove on old saws and exercise equipment, and Kevin Youkilis talks about other types of tools.
Will Carroll looks at the status of usual suspsects Ken Griffey Jr. and Todd Helton, tallies up more injury concerns for the owie-ridden Cards, and worries about Darren Dreifort and Brad Penny lasting the year.
For the second time in five days, Joe Sheehan explores the options available
to a team losing a star to a dislocated shoulder. Plus, the Disar Awards
return!
Will Carroll chimes in with a UTK Sunday Extra, reporting on Ken Griffey’s latest injury, plus status reports on Derek Jeter, Kevin Millwood, and more.
Welcome to the Derek Jeter Report…I mean, Under The Knife. I want to start today by thanking everyone for stepping up and helping with the Velocity Project. Heck, one great reader, Josh Plotkin, even sent in some great pictures! We’ve already had several reports come in–including one on Mark Prior today that made me giggle–and several more people have weighed in on potential problems. Yes, there’s a lot of error in the sourcing, but it we get enough of a sample, we should be able to come up with something workable. If the data from this phase works, I’ll find a way to get people at games with radar guns. Since today’s UTK is almost all about pitchers breaking down, even a small step toward figuring things out–or even figuring out that velocity doesn’t work–gets us closer to true knowledge.
Joe Sheehan spots two underdogs making early noise, grabs Ronnie Belliard, Jay Payton and Endy Chavez at bargain-basement prices in roto, and starts saber-rattling for a new cause with Erubiel Durazo justly freed.
Bill “Chief” Gayton has spent 18 years in the scouting profession, working for the White Sox, Athletics, Yankees, Rockies, and Padres, and enters his third full season as the Director of Scouting in San Diego. BP correspondent Craig Elsten recently sat down with Gayton at the Peoria Sports Complex, while watching many of the Padres’ top minor leaguers play on a back field in a Double-A game against Texas. Elsten asked Gayton about the effects of technology on scouting, the challenge of evaluating high school talent, and balancing performance analysis and scouting principles.
Derek delves deeper into the mystery of the Twins outfield while lamenting the wearing of pants.
In the spirit of Better Late Than Never, it’s time we present the
second annual Golden Gun Award, honoring last year’s most valuable
catcher arms.
One of the downsides of writing this by a deadline and then having a gap to publication is that things can happen, new information can come out, or a source will pop in late.
With Derek Jeter yesterday, I speculated that the delay in the MRI of his injured shoulder was due to swelling in the joint space. In fact, the Yankees were merely trying to keep their star shortstop safe. With the global SARS outbreak affecting Ontario, the Yankees elected to delay the MRI until they returned to Tampa. While this makes me no more optimistic about Jeter’s prognosis–in fact, I completely agree with Joe Sheehan’s assessment of the situation–I applaud the Yankees for making a smart decision. UTK will of course have info on Jeter’s MRI and prognosis tomorrow.
In a recent article about the 1967 Boston Red Sox, I wrote that the team’s 20-win improvement was not particularly unusual. I had spent a few minutes convincing myself that there were a few other teams in neighboring seasons that accomplished the feat, but made no attempt to determine how common it was, or whether the 1960s were particularly unique in this regard. This article delves into the topic quite a bit further, presenting an historical survey of the phenomenon, while contemplating patterns that might help us figure out who is most likely to leap forward this year.
Joe Sheehan offers a darkhorse candidate to replace Derek Jeter, defends Boston’s bullpen set-up, and chronicles the exploits of a free man.
It’s amazing how quickly I can go from sitting on the couch watching game after game after game, cold beer never far from my lips, to full on working the phones. It’s funny that there’s now two phases to how I write–first, I make the outgoing calls to the usual suspects, but now I’m also getting a significant amount of incoming calls, pages, and emails. During my first call to my Yankees source–and note, many U.S.-issued cell phones don’t work in Canada–I probably had three calls coming in. In the first few hours of a “big story” like Phil Nevin or Derek Jeter, I make more outgoing calls, but by morning the ratio completely reverses. It’s an interesting experience. Thanks to all the readers who alerted me (I was watching, but thanks) and offered their takes. On to the injuries: