The RoundHouse | 10/23/2020 7:35:00 AM

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Fall baseball is finished and Wichita State baseball pitching coach Mike Pelfrey takes us through the developments. As a bonus, he details the Halloween costume discussion in his household. 
 
We talk about the return of the starting rotation, newcomers such as outfielder Seth Stroh and shortstop Andrew Stewart and the progress of pitchers Connery Peters and Aaron Haase. Pelfrey dives into "spin rates" and how technology figures into coaching.
 
Pelfrey on his top impression from fall practice:
 
"We preach pitching and defense. Overall, we are going to pitch. We are going to play defense. Offensively, I think we are going to be a lot better than we were last year. They're going to have an option, a choice of 12 guys this year. Twelve guys you feel good about, that you can put in the lineup."
 
Pelfrey on keeping the returning starters humble:
 
"First day, we tell them all of them that we're returning all but six innings of a staff that had a 2.91 ERA. You had the Friday night, Saturday night, Sunday guy. We have the midweek guy, which was (Tommy) Barnhouse. We tell them 'You guys are guaranteed nothing.' It is a true open competition and that's what we live by."
 
Pelfrey on the difference between getting drafted and building a career in professional baseball:
 
"Everybody loves velocity, but if you can't command the baseball, it doesn't matter how hard you throw. If you had to pick velocity or command, you've got to pick command."
 
Pelfrey on Haase, a sophomore pitcher:
 
"At the end of the fall, it's harder to be more dominant than he was. I think it was the last seven innings, he gave up two hits and struck out 18 or something like that. He locates and he throw strikes and he was 93-96 (mph) there at the end with a really high spin rate, for all the sabermetrics people."
 
Pelfrey explaining spin rates:
 
"It's the amount of times that the ball spins. The faster it spins and the higher (rate) it spins, the harder it is for your eye to pick it up. The average fastball in the big leagues spins at 2,200 (revolutions per minute). The big-league average on a curveball and a slider is 2,300-2,400. The tighter the spin, the sharper the breaking ball is, the harder it is for the eye to pick up."