Man its early for this kind of story but it great all the same. Some of you know that at Gamespeed I do a lot of work with pitchers. This time of year I like to see them shut down from pitching and focus on building for the upcoming season. However, for many reasons (Showcases, Fall Teams etc) that’s not always possible. Two of my charges have had some nice results recently. The first vying for a college scholarship and the second moving into his first year of college.
Congratulations to Alex Barden. Alex was in a pressure situation to give the scouts what they wanted. He had eight weeks to get ready for his outing to prospective colleges. In FIVE weeks, doing an in house program of 2-3 days per week with a homework program for another 2 days per week he improved velocity 4 mph! going from 82-86 mph. The result was an impressive outing and an offer from UC Santa Clara. He will join utility player Austin Fisher of Acalanes  who also accepted an offer from the same school earlier this summer.
I posted about John York quite often in the past year. Â As a senior this past season at Acalanes he was one of the most impressive pitchers in the area generally flying under the radar. He posted one of the areas lowest ERA in route to leading Acalanes to a NCS Championship. One of those games was a no hitter in the semi final.
He started back late summer. Fast forward six weeks and eighteen training sessions later and he’s throwing at a scrimmage. Â Over the weekend he topped out at 88 mph velocity (sitting 86 mph) in last weeks four inning scrimmage. That’s 6 mph! higher than what he was throwing during the summer.
Great job guys.