How Do Pitchers Warm Up?
Friday night at Petco Park, Chris Young came within two outs of tossing the San Diego Padres’ first ever no-hitter. I was at the game, seated three rows above the visitors’ bullpen, and had a great opportunity to watch the Pirates’ Tom Gorzelanny warm up before his start.
Gorzelanny began by simply playing catch with his catcher, Ronny Paulino, on flat ground. Gorzelanny would move back a few steps with each toss, eventually ending up in straightaway center field, while Paulino remained in the bullpen, adjacent to the right field foul line. They exchanged several throws at this distance before Gorzelanny slowly worked his way back to toward the bullpen.
Arm loosened up, Gorzelanny then stepped onto the bullpen mound and began throwing actual pitches to Paulino, while pitching coach Jim Colborn kept a close watch on his young left-hander. After a few minutes of this, Paulino trotted down to the dugout to take his spot on the bench while Gorzelanny finished his warm-up session with the Pirates’ bullpen catcher.
Much later in the game, the Padres’ Cla Meredith entered to close out the ninth. Meredith has the unusual habit of taking the first couple of his eight allotted tosses from well in front of the pitchers’ mound. I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a pitcher do that before, but I suppose it’s all about finding a routine that prepares you physically and mentally for the work to be done.
These are two ways a pitcher might get himself ready for a game. Surely there must be others. Do you know of any unique warm-up routines that big-league pitchers employ?
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4 opinions for How Do Pitchers Warm Up?
gillette
Sep 27, 2006 at 12:18 am
who warms up the pitchers on the seattle mariners when the starting and backup catchers are in the dugout?
Geoff Young
Sep 27, 2006 at 1:43 am
Hi gillette, and thanks for the note. Ordinarily a team has a “bullpen catcher” whose job it is to warm up the relievers during a game. I did a little digging but couldn’t find the name of the Mariners’ current bullpen catcher. Can anyone out there help on this one?
Joe Cristy
May 10, 2007 at 11:04 am
As if a couple of years ago, it was #88 Allan Wirtala. The same coaching staff is still in place, so I would think he is still there. Sometimes, the bullpen coach catches pitchers (ex. recently deceased Elrod Hendricks with the Orioles although they had a bullpen catcher, Sammy Snider, for home games too). I’m not so sure that Seattle bullpen coach Jim Slaton returns the favor though, as he was a pitcher and not a catcher, for 16 years in the big leagues.
Geoff Young
May 10, 2007 at 12:45 pm
Joe, thanks for the info!
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