Longhorns Part Ways With Pitching Coach Sean Allen - Sports Illustrated Texas Longhorns News, Analysis and More Talk about delusional expectations, even for them. Tulowitski is rumored to be USC HC target also. Lots of turnover in Austin.
This season we had our first pitching coach. I am not going to evaluate him now because we have so many freshman arms. And the improvement in Sproat was very impressive. Sully used to be our de facto pitching coach and as a former catcher he probably thinks he knows a lot about pitching. That being said and from my signature you know that I love Dizzy Dean. One time his catcher came out to the mound and Dizzy said something like "Get back behind the plate. The only thing you know about pitching is that it is hard to hit."
Lurk— You are correct, a lot of HC’s are former catchers and like to be their own pitching coach (Sully and Bianco immediately come to mind). It has been my learned observation that after watching them that they know all of the lingo, drills, and throwing programs that should lead to strong healthy arms for pitchers. I taught pitching mechanics from rocker step to follow through. Most of the time I would ask my catcher this or that about the pitcher’s mechanics and I found the answers from him to be accurate for rocker step, pivot, balance point, and drive—but from release to follow through he couldn’t really say because naturally he’s busy tracking the pitch out of the pitcher’s hand. My point is that as good as the information I got from my catcher was, he had other things on his plate other than watching the pitcher’s release point and follow through and someone has got to monitor it for the success you want.
Sean Allen may not be the only loss of Longhorns staff. I’ve read where USC Trojans have expressed interest in Troy Tulowitzki for their empty HC position.
The Texas offense was pretty good and I heard Troy could play ok as well. Would be an intriguing hire by SC who has been a perennial underperformer of late.
Makes me think way back to my first Little League practise. First play of the practise. I was at third and fielded a ground ball and threw a bullet to first base. Immediately I was throwing on the sidelines to our catcher and after a few minutes the coach asked the catcher about me. I didn't start as a pitcher our first game. Funny thing was I started at third base. I came in down 17-0 with one out in the first. We lost something like 21-13. We were playing the best team in the league. After that I was a starter.
