About Our Staff:
- Ricky Meinhold - Pitching Coordinator TOR Blue Jays MLB
- Charlie Barnes - Former MLB Pitcher & Current KBO Star
- Mike Castellani - Former Pro Pitcher & Prep School Head Coach
Question Covered in this Post:
- Which player that you have been around (either played w/ or coached) impressed you the most and why?
Answers:
Mike Castellani
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In 2018, I had just graduated from college and was desperately looking for a pro ball opportunity. I was living at home, and to stay in shape, I would throw twice a week to hitters at my local high school.
For the first two months, I only threw fastballs and changeups. About 5–7 kids would show up each day to hit while I threw my bullpens. As the months went on (and the weather got colder), I started adding my off-speed pitches, and fewer kids showed up because they were striking out more. By December, only one kid would show up to my live sessions—Hudson Haskin.
For three months, twice a week, I threw 50-pitch bullpens into a net, and Hudson would stand in for all 50 pitches, trying to hit me. In December, he couldn’t touch me, striking out over 50% of the time. By March, I couldn’t get him out with anything but my absolute best. In three months, he had taken over 250 at-bats against me and had clearly figured me out.
That year, Hudson hit .550 and got drafted from a small High School in Connecticut. He was later drafted again out of college in the second round.
I will never forget the work ethic and toughness it took for Hudson to stand in there for 100 consecutive pitches each week and fail, especially in the beginning. Every other kid on the team stopped showing up because they were afraid to look stupid. It was much easier to stay home.
The lesson I learned from Hudson is that you need to surround yourself with people who are better than you—people who push you to the point of failure. Make your practices harder than the game, not because you want the game to feel easy, but because you want to be the best.
Your competition isn't your current level of High School or College pitching; your competition is beyond that. If your goal is to play in College, set the machine to College velo. Simple as that. Train for the job you want, not the job you have.
Ricky Meinhold:
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For me, it was my first teammate and roommate in professional baseball, Dylan Axelrod. Not just who he was as a person, but how he carried himself professionally in every detail. As you progress and ascend to the Major League level, success leaves clues. Dylan's ability to be regimented in his routine is something I’ve never forgotten and always admired as we played together. From his start days to the days in between, there was always a plan and a purpose.
Some might think that to succeed at the highest level, every move needs to be planned out. For some, that works—but there’s also room for freedom. What impressed me about Axe was that he had the best balance. When he worked, he worked tirelessly with intense focus and execution. But when the work was done, he still made choices to put himself and his body in the best position to perform the next day, and there was freedom in those choices. He balanced the human side and performance side really well. He made an impact on me.
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Secondly, from my coaching experiences, there have been many who show why they are who they are on TV and have long careers in the MLB, but Trevor May and Seth Lugo stand out to me. Not only are they great guys off the field, but they are also meticulous in their desire for self-betterment. Their work ethic, attention to detail, and care for each piece of their individual process allowed them the freedom to compete at the highest level, day in and day out.
Everyone thinks big leaguers all work hard, and to a point, they do... but then there are those who truly maximize every moment in the small windows of their professional careers. Those two showed the young guys and the organization that they were winners who cared—exactly what you’d want as a coach.
Charlie Barnes:
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When you get to the big leagues, everyone is impressive. It takes such a level of discipline and skill, and it's really cool to look around the clubhouse and see the guys you’re sitting beside. One guy I was especially impressed with was José Berríos. The level of commitment he had to doing everything in his power to be great was fun to watch. I’d walk in, and he was always doing something—whether it was in the weight room, the training room, or the film room, he was constantly going the extra mile. It really showed me what it looked like to work on your craft beyond the 20 minutes of throwing you do every day.
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On the mental side, a guy I really learned from was a left-handed reliever named Danny Coulombe. We used to spend hours talking pitching, sequencing, and tossing ideas back and forth. He showed me how to break down film and how to game plan for hitters. We had very different arsenals, but we learned from each other’s thought processes and what we saw from different hitters, figuring out how to attack them to keep getting them out.
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