Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
How are you? Good?
I'm doing well. Just getting kind of on board with everything that's new.
everything was new and as as we were just talking um i'm congratulating you for being pitching coach the new york mets which honestly when i woke up this morning i i thought well i don't know if i'm gonna be able to say that i would more than happy to say justin willard just uh just nebulous pitching person like out in the ether just a guy that's out there yeah it's just out there
But it's official, so I don't know that some hoops, some formalities had to jump through, but still you've landed in this spot, which is a testament to you and an awesome achievement and an awesome challenge, an awesome accomplishment.
Chapter 2: What does Justin Willard feel about becoming the new Mets pitching coach?
So now that it sort of is what it is, how does it feel? I mean, because this is ultimately, and we're going to get to sort of your path, but ultimately for someone in your profession, holy mackerel, pitching coach in the New York Mets is pretty cool, right?
Yeah, definitely a really, really exciting opportunity. Loved my job with the Red Sox and loved what we were building. And when this opportunity just came up, I just had to jump at it and really excited to get to know the Mets and get to know their system and get to know the players and start a new kind of journey and adventure.
What is – when you look at this job – What is the thing that's like, how do you start? Is it, is it, I mean, I think I know the answer to this cause it's probably communication, right? You know, a big part of it. And I think this, that's one of the things that you were so good at talking.
I always see you talking to people and, and, and it's not only talking to coaches, not only talking to front office, but it's talking to players a lot. Is that where you start is just reaching out to as many people as you can.
Yeah. Start connecting the players and where's their head at? Like, who are they as a person? What do they value? Right. Are they something that loves baseball or baseball is just a job? And that's the way you approach those guys just as human beings, first of all, is super important and get to know them and really what drives them.
Do you know a lot of guys? Do you know a lot of people? Honestly, no.
We've got a couple that I've crossed paths with with both Minnesota and the Red Sox, but really beyond that, it's a lot of just new faces, new names, new people. Yeah, a lot of relationship building.
I mean, in fairness, when you went from the Twins to the Red Sox, did you know a lot of people? Probably not, right?
No, Zach Kelly might be the only one from college.
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Chapter 3: How important is communication in coaching pitchers?
What's your take on that dynamic?
Yeah, it's definitely an interesting dynamic because there's first of all, like anytime, whether it's Boston or New York or any of these other major league teams, like there's just a vastly, there's a vast gap between what AAA players are and what big league players are.
So that's the first thing they need to solve is like, okay, I'm good enough to be here, but do I truly believe I'm good enough to be here? Again, guys like Tully and Early, they just weren't afraid. Like, okay, this is what's got me here. I'm going to continue to learn some lessons and get beat around a little bit. But hey, this is all part of growth and learning and development.
And I don't have all the answers, but we're going to figure this out.
How different is it? How different is that, the jump from AAA to the major leagues? I mean, I know obviously it's the major leagues and that's AAA, but we hear about, okay, this year, this generation is a lot bigger or smaller, whatever it is. For you, looking at that dynamic, how big a jump is that? Or maybe it isn't as big as it used to be. I don't know.
Yeah, I think it is pretty vast. I think I've heard this said a few different ways, but there probably needs to be a 4A type level because how big that gap is between the worst player in a major league lineup and the best player in AAA. It is pretty vast. And again, what worked in AAA isn't always going to necessarily work in the big leagues.
And again, it's how quickly can those guys learn and adapt to what big league hitters are telling them.
So along those lines, you look at a guy like Nolan McClain, you look at a guy like, um, Trey Savage, like for you, you must look at us. Okay. There's lessons to be learned here. And maybe the lesson is simply this. it comes back to one of the philosophies I've heard you say is like, throw the, throw it in the zone, throw, throw your nasty stuff in the zone. Right.
And trust that it's going to be good enough. I don't want to put words in your mouth, but when we look at these examples and those are two pretty good examples, is, is it, is it that it, is that it?
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Chapter 4: What strategies does Willard use to connect with new pitchers?
And then later it was like we were cranking up the traject machine to 100 because even though the guy doesn't throw 100, his extension's like he throws 100. And by the way, we're sitting on the fastball. So what was sort of like when you go through – and I know that Jonah Tong had sort of some ups and downs as well. I mean, you'll dive into that, I'm sure.
But after you have success and then you have that hiccup, what's your – experience of communicating with these guys?
Yeah, I think it's really drilling down. What did we learn from that? Whether it's success or failure, what did we learn? What are the lessons we can continue to compound to drive more success in the future? Again, watching and digging into a little bit of Jonah, it's cool. We still need to be competitive in zone. We got to be in advantage counts. We got to maximize success.
those locations of our pitches. Because again, big league hitters are really good. They're the best in the world. And they're going to give you really good feedback really quickly on whether your stuff's going to play in terms of what you're doing right now and the problems you're trying to solve and how you solve those.
You know, you mentioned Jonah. He's also an example of, I always find pitching coaches fascinating because you have such an eclectic group of wind-ups, of deliveries, of pitch mix, of all of that. And in case people don't know, like, look, Jonah Tong has been sort of compared a lot to the Tim Slinson come, fair or not, I don't know.
But, and then you have a guy like Nolan McClain who is vastly different delivery. As a pitching coach, how do you view that? To me, that's fascinating.
And not to ramble on here, but Justin, I go back to, I remember when John Farrell was a pitching coach for a group that was like Daisuke Matsuzaka, him Wakefield, a knuckleballer, you know, Curt Schilling, Josh Beckett, like dramatically different people. So for you, let's take your current group. When you look at these guys, how do you approach them as a pitching coach?
Yeah, I think it's, first of all, understanding what makes them really, really good. What is the superpower they have? Because you have to have some sort of superpower to be in the major leagues. And then now, can we multiply your effectiveness through that superpower? Part of what makes Jonah really, really good is you talk to hitters, and it's like the ball's coming out of his chest.
So it's like, okay, we don't necessarily want to take that away. We just got to make sure it doesn't get too far down the rabbit hole that it's affecting the quality of his pitches, his ability to locate those things. But like, hey, his superpower is this ball is coming from a really weird spot. Let's make sure we maximize that. Again, like crochet is a perfect example.
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Chapter 5: What are the challenges of transitioning from AAA to the major leagues?
But for you, like, how do you view a season when it comes to pitches? Because we talk about crochet. Alex Cora always mentioned the game against the Mets. Remember where he took him out a little bit earlier, so this is for the long haul. How do you view that?
How do you view about getting starting pitchers, the value starting pitchers who can pitch deep into games, but also managing so they can get to ultimately where you want to go?
Yeah, I think ultimately, like, you would have a set amount of pitchers on your roster, and you want to set it up to where, again, you're playing basically every day to maximize as much winning potential as possible, right? Like, I think we saw last year was May, June-ish, where starters for the Red Sox weren't going past, like, the fifth inning.
They were kind of getting cut off third time through the order. And I think there were some advantages there. Okay, cool, like... We can use our bullpen, but are we using our bullpen now too much that it's actually taking away from the effectiveness of our ability to actually win baseball games because we're using these guys over and over and they're getting fatigued and tired.
So it's like, it's all very much a juggling act of, we always want to maximize for winning and understanding kind of who we have currently available and who's starting this game and how do we maximize our ability to win this game? And whether to push that guy out there for another time through the order or take him out is just understanding how do we win each baseball game.
But you got to have the guys who are capable of doing, you know what I'm saying?
For sure. That's, yeah.
I mean, to have the value of having the guys, like you had guys like Crochet. The ace is such a like under, I don't want to say an underrated thing, but. It's, it's like the day before the day of the day after it protects you. Right. Yeah. So, um, how do you view bullpens? You know, like I, that's another thing that's sort of evolving, I think a little bit. Um,
The bullpen in terms of that we've seen, obviously, we've seen you have the closer or you have the high leverage reliever. Do you need, do you think in this day and age, because of the way bullpens are managed a little bit differently and the willingness to bring guys in and not do like Billy Wagner was, doesn't matter who the three guys were, the ninth, he was coming in the ninth.
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