Patrick Jones Baseball

In today's episode, I speak to Brady Kirkpatrick. Brady joined the Florida Atlantic University staff as pitching coach in September of 2021.

Brady comes to FAU most recently having coached at Harvard University for the past three years. 

Prior to Harvard, he coached for two seasons at Monmouth University. Before that, he was an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Rochester University, and coached two summers with the Mountain West College Summer League as well.

Brady’s playing career began at the University of Maryland, for three seasons. He finished his college career at the University of San Diego, and began coaching there as well, in the fall of 2015 as a volunteer assistant.

In this episode, he talks about the landscape in the summertime as a Division I baseball coach.

He says that players need confidence to improve, and that confidence comes with preparation and organization.

He shares what he does every day when it comes to recruiting. He talks about structure and the mechanical side of things.

In this episode, we'll take a look at why command is important for younger pitchers.

[2:28] What's the landscape in the summertime for a division one college coach?

[4:03] How do you identify players you want to look at in the transfer portal?

[5:38] Is there a red flag when you see someone in the transfer portal?

[7:07] You guys had a prospect camp where you can actually work with the players when is that and I didn't know you're allowed to work with players at your camps?

[9:21] What's something that you see as a flaw from a lot of young pitchers that they don't necessarily work on enough for?

[11:10] What are some ways that you've been able to help pitchers improve their command?

[13:07] How many times when a player comes in as a recruit as a freshman there's mechanical work that you feel needs to be improved?

[15:12] Is it too young still at the college level to get kids to focus on meditating and the mental game?

[18:13] Do you want all your guys throwing sliders?

[20:34] Do you call the pitches during the game?

[22:57] Was this the first year that they used the earpiece or did you guys have that last year too?

[24:25] Can you review all games now?

[26:00] Are you a fan of the automated strike zone?

[27:28] What's something that you learned as a pitcher that has helped you as coach coaching pitchers?

[28:43] What's a way that you help players kind of understand and grasp what you want them to do on the field?

[30:37] Do you have your guys write down so they can remember what it feels like when they do it right and then when they do it wrong?

[31:44] Do you utilize personality tests at all when and trying to understand how your players learn and think?

[34:05] Jump steal - Are you guys doing that in college?

[35:50] Do you think they are going to change the ball next year?

[38:56] When you're out watching pitchers, How much of it is them just looking the part of being projectable?

[40:47] How important is body type to you when identifying pitchers?

[42:52] Is there a certain amount of time on average you watch a kid before you're like okay I'm in let's make him an offer?

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