Skip to main content

Lakewood Pitching Coach Bob Milacki Q&A

PhoulBallz.com spoke with Lakewood BlueClaws pitching coach, and former Major League pitcher, Bob Milacki.


- I asked Coach Bob to comment on Jason Knapp's sparkling 7 shut out inning/14 strike out performance on Tuesday.

Ah, it was impressive. Impressive. I mean you see a guy that throws that hard, that young, and has command of his three pitches, it was fun to watch.

- What's his pitch repertoire like?

He has a fastball, a good curveball and his third pitch is his changeup. But, ya know, when he had them all working together, and you throw a lot of strikes, it's fun to watch. They were late on his fastball, he overpowered hitters at times, and he changed speeds enough to where they never really caught up to his fastball. It was really impressive to watch.


- How much have you had to do with Knapp upping his level of performance?

I think it's all him. I mean, he's tremendous at making changes. The pitching coach is here just to guide him in the right direction, but he's the one that has to do it.


- What have you seen out of the pitching staff so far that you like most, for success going forward?

For the most part, guys at this age level, in my experience, have a hard time throwing in(side). We also throw a lot of strike at this level. We have a lot of guys who can throw some strikes for the most part. But the thing that's really impressed me a lot is a lot of guys can pitch in. And that's hard to teach sometimes at this level 'cause they're afraid of hitting guys and putting guys on base. They're so oriented about throwing strikes and they're so not oriented about throwing non-strikes. And being able to double up on their pitches is really impressive, so we've got a good group of guys here.


-(Coach Bob used to coach in the Pirates organization prior to coming to Lakewood) Can I get you to comment a little bit on the transition of coming from Pittsburgh to the Phillies organization?

It's been really good. The people here in the Phillies organization, when I first came over, and when I did my interview, made me feel like I fit right in and that's the type of people they are. I mean they're just tremendous. Pittsburgh made a lot of changes over there, and it wasn't because of the baseball stuff as much. It was more of a personal thing is why I left. But it was a big change for me. But coming over here with Philly, it seems like, just that I knew quite a few people that were already over here.


- What is the fun level like working with the BlueClaws so far this year?

I think this team's pretty loose. We have a good group of guys where everyone kind of gets along and they're willing to harass everyone a little bit, in a fun way. And it's just a fun team to be around. I mean, it's still early and there's going to be changes, but right now it seems like a pretty good atmosphere being in this club house.


- Is there anyone on the pitching staff that you suspect might be your first to lose due to promotion?

No, I just think we need to do our stuff here.


- I then pressed, trying to get coach Bob to toss a name out...

If there is, it might be someone who's a little older. We have a young pitching staff, so they're probably going to stay here the whole year. And if not, they'll probably go to Williamsport (short season rookie league ball) when Williamsport starts. We don't know who that's going to be.


- Lastly, is there anyone on the pitching staff that projects to have, or currently reflects any, traits of a major league Phillie right now?

Well, I mean obviously Knapp has a heck of an arm. And we have some other guys, (Jesus) Sanchez has a chance and he's just coming along. (Jon) Velasquez has been throwing the ball very well and could play at higher levels. (Justin) De Fratus, 'cause he throws a lot of strikes could play higher levels. (BJ) Rosenberg, same thing. I mean there's a handful of guys...it's really hard to project how far they'd go. But the one that, if he stays healthy and keeps improving like he is, Knapp's gonna be a big leaguer in a few years.


Obviously, with the last question Coach Bob thinks his BlueClaws pitchers are incomparable to any Major League Phillies pitchers (I choose that explanation, rather than assuming he missed the point of the question, because I like him and I'm not mean to people who give me interviews).

This has been PhoulBallz.com, the BlueClaws pitching staff of Phillies blogs. (I insist you take that as meaning this site is incomparable, not necessarily 4 promotions away from the big time...thanks)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

PhoulBallz Q&A with Mike Stutes

Mike Stutes completes "The Reading Phils Mike Tri-fecta" over three days, here on PhoulBallz.com. Stutes, a 22 year old, was an 11th round selection by the Phillies in the 2008 amateur draft. Stutes, a right handed starting pitcher, helped lead Oregon State to the College World Series championship in both 2006 and 2007. Stutes and teammate Vance Worley are the first players to begin a season at Reading the year after being drafted since Pat Burrell did it in 1999. Stutes was the Phils' minor league pitcher of the month in August '08, when he went 4-1 with a 1.72 ERA in 6 starts. Check out my Q&A with the third Mike below. Can I get you to talk about the coaching staff and how they help you deal with ups and downs? They've been real positive with me. I started out good and then I hit a rough patch. They've stuck with me through it all. I haven't heard any negative words from them. Every day they try to come out, work with me, try to get me turned around...

Jason Knapp Q&A

PhoulBallz .com was fortunate enough to meet with Phillies prospect Jason Knapp just one day after he caught the attention of the baseball world with his 7 shut out innings, 14 strike out performance against the Indians' Lake County team. - I asked Jason, the Lakewood BlueClaw , for some thoughts about his big game... I had pretty good command of three pitches (fastball, curve, change up). I was on the same page with my catcher, D'Arnaud , and I ended up, ya know, I felt pretty good. - In a great performance like that, how much credit goes to Travis D'Arnaud , the catcher? More than you might expect, definitely. I didn't shake him off once. He told me what to throw and I do what I'm told. And if it works out, a lot of the credit goes to the catcher. - Does the lack of run support (Lakewood has scored 3 total runs in his 3 starts), in your few starts, increase your stress level, or enhance your focus? No, I just try to go out and do my job every outing. Ya know, we...

Yankees Fans Misled By Pepsi Promotion

**** Today, New York Yankees fans attended a Pepsi promotion in Times Square hoping for chances to win opening day tickets to the new stadium, but the tickets, which were difficult to track down due to poor organization on Pepsi's part, were actually for a game in June. Furthermore, the 250 pairs that were promised were actually only 100 pairs. The fans, who were made to sprint through traffic over multiple city blocks when locations for the promotion changed, quickly turned against the soda brand by pooring out their beverages and chanting anti-Pepsi phrases. Yankees fans are even threatening a boycott of Pepsi. An appearance by Yankee great Goose Gossage could not even settle the angry mob, as he had to be whisked away, as a precaution, according to the Daily News . Ooo , I'd hate to see what "the worst fans in sports" (Philadelphia fans) would have done to their free Pepsi cans and beloved reliever in that situation. Because this happened in a non-Philly city, th...