Late-Season MLB Rookie Success Story Continues!

The September call up of Mike Hinckley to the Washington Nationals continues to be a resounding success. Mike's numbers through his first 11 appearances, all in relief:

ERA - 0.00
9.2 innings pitched, 0 runs allowed
5 hits, 2 walks, 1 HBP (WHIP less than 1, awesome!)
7 K's

Mike called me the other night with an update on his experiences as a big-leaguer, and yes, it's all it's cracked up to be! While his weight is down a bit, to 190 lbs, this is the most he's weighed this late in the season, so he's done a good job of maintaining the strength & growth he made last winter. Major League pro sports seasons are long and draining, yet, due to his continuing hard (and smart!) work, he's performing his best ever this late in his competitive season.

Even better for him, he's been used in a number of pressure-relief situations, not just as a lefty specialist. Obviously, this bodes well for Mike's future. We'll be getting back to his strength and conditioning work in October. We may even publish a few of our workout "secrets" on BaseballFit.com as the winter progresses, so stay tuned!

Mike Hinckley, First Game Appearance for the Nationals!

Called up on Monday, it didn't take long for Mike Hinckley to make his first appearance for the Washington Nationals. Tuesday, September 2, 2008, the dream came full circle, and in a most impressive way. I quote from Federal Baseball:

"Top Of the 7th Inning, 2 on, 1 out, 3-0 Philadelphia...

"First and third, Speigner’s done, and Mike Hinckley’s set to make his Major League debut. Hinckley vs Utley. Lefty vs Lefty. Hinckley gets a double play ball, but it’s awkward, as Rollins avoids the tag on a grounder to second, to let a run in, but gets tracked down and tagged after Anderson Hernandez first throws to first. 4-0 Phils... (both runs on Speigner)...

"Top Of The 8th...4-0 Philadelphia...

"Mike Hinckley faces Jayson Werth in the top of the eighth. 75 mph curve on the outside corner for a backwards K, his first in the Majors. Howard grounds into the shift. 92 mph curve, outside corner, Burrell K’s staring. Hinckley’s first scoreless frame."

Wow - talk about baptism by fire! Mike faced a fearsome array of hittiers - Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, and Pat Burrell - and came away unscathed! So, 1 2/3 innings pitched, 2 strikeouts, 0 hits - an awesome start to a big league career!

Looks like those early morning training sessions in the dark and cold of an Oklahoma winter are paying off. Time to go celebrate with a chocolate milk!

Mike Hinckley, Major League Pitcher

The dream of every ball player has come to pass for Mike Hinckley, as of today a pitcher with the Washington Nationals.

More details here.

Mike called me a couple of nights ago to pass on the good news, telling me in the process that his fastball has been clocked at 94 mph, and he's regularly at 92-93.

Now we can look forward to more "firsts" for Hinckley: first appearance, first win, first save, etc. We'll keep you posted on Mike's progress right here.

You DON'T Have To Cheat To Get Ahead - REALLY!

A lot has been written in recent months (myself included) about PEDs and cheating athletes, particularly MLB players. Yet we know, of course, that not everyone cheats.

So for a change, how about a story of a pro player who is doing things right? That he is an obscure minor leaguer at this point makes the story even better, in my mind. If anyone has some incentive to cheat, it's a minor league baseball player. But this story is about one guy who will never cheat.

The player? Mike Hinckley. I first learned of Mike in a book I read a few years ago, "License to Deal" by Jerry Crasnick, published in 2005. I originally wanted to read it because I know little about the agent and representative side of pro sports, baseball in particular. An interesting, entertaining read, by the way.

Hinckley, a 2001 third round draft pick of the Montreal Expos - now the Washington Nationals - chose one of the agencies covered in the book, Sosnick-Cobbe, to represent him. As it turns out, Mike is from Oklahoma, where I currently reside. Of course, I never expected to meet him.

Hinckley's career got off to a promising start, but I don't want to cover all of that in this article. You can read more on his pro career here. Let's just say that Hinckley went from being considered by Baseball America as the National's #1 minor league prospect in 2005 to being out of a job and struggling with arm problems by the time we met in 2007.

Mike found my web site and contacted me last September (2007) with two goals in mind: 1) To increase his throwing velocity, and 2) To get bigger and stronger.

For 4+ months, Mike followed the program I designed for him. He put on 23 lbs, increasing his weight from178 to 201 lbs. Training with weighted baseballs, his fastball increased from 87 to 91+ mph. Hinckley also worked diligently on his pitching mechanics under the watchful eye of his father, David Hinckley, the head baseball coach at Moore High School near OK City.

Over the course of the winter, Mike considered several offers, eventually re-signing with the Nationals and receiving an invitation to major league spring training. Rather than playing winter ball, as the Nationals suggested, Mike chose to stay home and work on his strength and conditioning in preparation for the upcoming season.

Given his struggles of the past few years, this was a very important decision for the young pitcher, and staying home and not playing turned out to be the right thing for him to do.

Mike performed well enough at spring camp to be assigned to the Nationals AA affiliate in Harrisburg, PA. After posting a 5-3 record there, he was promoted to their AAA team in Columbus, OH. Thus far, after 16 games, Hinckley has a sparkling 2.95 ERA as a LH relief specialist. Talk now is about his receiving a September call up to the Nationals. It couldn't happen to a nicer guy!

I especially like this comment from the National's GM, Jim Bowden, from the article referenced above:

"Since we've been here the last four years, (Hinckley) had no velocity, never got it to 90,"Bowden said. "And now he's consistently back there. So it's a funny game."

Well, yes, funny things do happen in baseball. But Hinckley's success thus far is the result of a good plan and a lot of hard work on his part - PEDS not required. This is the lesson for ball players at every level!

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(C) 2008 Baseball Fit, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Short quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Steve Zawrotny's BASEBALL FIT Hitting & Pitching Conditioning - www.BaseballFit.com

Roger Clemens, Personal Trainer

This little item ranks pretty high on my list of bad ideas. According to the May 28, 2008 issue of USA TODAY, Roger Clemens is providing training and conditioning advice to NY Yankees pitcher Joba Chamberlain. Chamberlain says he’s taking pieces of Clemens’ workout routine and incorporating them.

One piece of advice Clemens gave him: “The easiest day should be the day you pitch.” Back when we all thought Clemens was a natural wonder, this was good advice. Now that it is abundantly clear that Clemens was a juicer, Chamberlain may well find himself in trouble if he follows Clemens’ training directions.

Why?

Because it was the juice that enabled Clemens to work out so hard and therefore perform at such a high level as long as he did. Take away the juice and Clemens achieves far less. All this talk of how it was Clemens’ (or any juicer’s) hard work and not the PEDs that is responsible for their success rings pretty hollow. A lot of players work hard, but by following the rules (and laws) they don’t enjoy the anti-catabolic benefits of PEDs like Clemens and others did.

Note to players who want to stay clean and perform at your highest: DO NOT take advice from known (or suspected) PED users. While on these drugs, you recover more quickly and effectively than those not cheating. It’s just like those ridiculous body-building magazines and their workouts. Among the real "secrets" is that the guy on the cover is using PEDS. If you follow the offerred training regimen, you will not get the same results because you’re not juicing.

So Roger, do Joba and ball players everywhere a favor and limit your advice to such things as how to throw a curve or how to pitch to Manny.

Jim Murray = Smoking Gun?

Unlesss you run your life like a CIA black-op, it's hard to keep secrets these days.

ESPN reported on its web site Sunday that Brian McNamee met with one of Roger Clemens' representatives in 2004 to discuss the implications of Major League Baseball instituting steroids testing for the first time. According to McNamee's attorney Earl Ward, McNamee met with Jim Murray for coffee not far from Clemens' apartment, where the former New York Yankees and Toronto Blue Jays trainer said he injected the 45-year-old Clemens with steroids and human growth hormone. The report indicates that Murray works for Clemens' agents Randy and Alan Hendricks.

I find this very believable. If I were in McNamee's position, I would certainly want to inform my client of potential problems with drugs in his system and upcoming testing. The fact that McNamee invoked Murray's name in the taped phone conversation aired by Clemens' advisors on January 7th further bolsters his claims.

Look, I'm no fan of either Clemens or Barry Bonds, and I think they both used PEDs. Yet Bud Selig, Donald Fehr, and MLB ownership clearly enabled and fostered a culture of cheating, and nothing of any consequence is happening to them. Players, "protected" by their union, are being dragged through the mud by the Mitchell Report. A few may face more serious charges that could land them in prison. 90 players, give or take, have been adversely affected by the Mitchell Report while not a single baseball executive is being held accountable for their role with PEDs.

In the meantime, Selig gets a contract extension.

If I were a player, this would strike me as a bit unfair. How long do you suppose they'll put up with this? Lance Berkman of the Houston Astros wants blood testing now. The rest of the players had better get a clue and demand immediate, meaningful change. The present system is not serving them well, while the rest of MLB seems to be enjoying themselves. Otherwise, it will be more of the same: management will continue to skate, and players will bear the brunt of the fallout from future investigations, as they did in 2005 and are doing now.

Mr. Pot, Say Hello to Mr. Kettle

Just how screwed up do you have to be when the group investigating you is infamously known for such things (naming just a few) as Abscam, the Keating Five, 8,331 bounced checks, embezzled House Post Office funds, and sex scandals with under-age staffers?

Such is the state of Major League Baseball these days.

Loser of the day? Miguel Tejada. Talk about a warning shot at the 5 players who will testify next month! You think Roger Clemens may have soiled himself when he got wind of that?

And who would have thought so many ball players required a drug ordinarily prescribed for attention deficit disorder in children? MLB approved medical exemptions for Ritalin for 28 players in 2006 and more than 100 in 2007. Just as we're coming to grips with physical performance enhancers, here come the "mental" enhancers.

The end is not in sight.

Bonds & Clemens: Future Cellmates?

So Congress has postponed their hearing into drug use in MLB until February 13th. Among those "invited" to appear are Brian McNamee, Kirk Radomski, Andy Pettitte, Chuck Knoblauch and Roger Clemens. I'm guessing they will all appear, voluntarily or not. None of them will be offered immunity for their testimony, which is expected, of course, to be truthful.

This cannot be good for Clemens.

You've probably noticed that the guys who have admitted to using PEDs seem to be getting a pass (Giambi, Pettitte, et al), while the guys who are lying about it are getting hammered. Which is OK by me. To this point, these judgements have been made in the court of public opinion, not a court of law. Due process and "innocent until proven guilty" don't apply, especially if you act guilty.

Assuming McNamee sticks to his story and Clemens to his, at least one of them will be lying. Will we see a second liar emerge?

Imagine this scenario:

Congressman: "Mr. Pettitte, did you ever see Roger Clemens use PEDs? Were you otherwise aware of his use of PEDs?"

Three possible responses:

1) If he truly didn't see or know of Clemens' drug use, he can say no and be off the hook.

2) If Pettitte was aware of Clemens' PED use, does he lie about it and say no, or does he give up his friend to keep his own hide safe from possible prosecution for perjury?

3) Or does he take the 5th - no answer? That effectively condemns Clemens, just not in so many words, and again saves Pettitte's skin, if not his reputation. Anything close to Mark McGwire's pathetic performance in the previous hearing will likewise brand Pettitte.

As long as there is no "smoking gun" out there, a la BALCO records or the like, Clemens may still escape. I'm betting that Clemens, Pettitte and their advisors have a conversation or two about all of this prior to February 13th.

But there is still McNamee's testimony to deal with. If it doesn't change, how does Congress handle this obvious discrepancy on live TV? Will someone be charged with perjury later on? Their last foray into MLB and drugs was widely considered to be a joke. Rafael Palmeiro obviously lied to them, and nothing came of it. The delay until February 13th tells me it may be different this time. Congress doesn't want to come across as a bunch of sycophants and poseurs as they previously did. After all, they have an election year image to maintain, and the public wants them to be tough on drugs, right?

So I expect (hope for?) tougher questioning. "No habla Ingles" won't cut it this time around.

Clemens needs to fire his current team of advisors and hire one with damage control expertise. We may not even be having this hearing but for his arrogance and obstinacy. If he would have offered even a weak defense, like Pettitte, much of this would have passed from the public's eye by now.

But Clemens' pride upped the ante, and I don't think it's outside the realm of possibility that he could go to jail, like Barry Bonds might be doing.

Not for using PEDs, but for lying about it.

Lidocaine + B12 = Flaxseed Oil

Taking yet another page from the Barry Bonds book of self-defense, Roger Clemens has introduced the equivalent of flaxseed oil, albeit with a bit more savvy than Bonds. Bonds claims he used something he thought was flaxseed oil, which turned out to be a steroid. So he's an addmitted user with "ignorance" as his defense. On the CBS show "60 Minutes," Clemens now says he was injected by his trainer, Brian McNamee, but it was with allowable substances, Lidocaine and Vitamin B 12 .

Clemens' defense is that his injections were of allowable substances and not performance enhancing drugs (PEDS). He has the further advantage, presumably, of no physical records or other hard evidence of PED use such as were available on Bonds through his BALCO association. But who knows what the future will reveal in this increasingly bizarre saga.

In a former career, I sold pharmaceuticals, including lidocaine. As a strength coach, I've spent many years in gyms, and I've known a lot of guys who have used all manner of PEDS. With this as background, a few questions come to mind:

1) Why is Clemens willing to talk on national TV to Mike Wallace, but not in private to George Mitchell?

2) I'm guessing Clemens' lawyers vetted the questions Wallace would ask before agreeing to the interview. Even the final video that CBS showed may have been edited. With this in mind, it's too bad that Wallace didn't explore this whole "injection" issue more. Steroids are typically injected in the buttocks area, intra-muscularly (IM). Lidocaine is usually applied topically or by sub-cutaneous (sub-q) injection, as dentists use it, for example.

The only use by an athlete for pain that I'm aware of would be by intra-articular injection (IA), or within the joint. This is a very different type of injection, more technique-sensitive and potentially dangerous, something that a skilled physician would perform - not a trainer.

3) McNamee has a Masters degree in Sports Science. Clemens' educational background is in, what? Just a guess here, but I'm willing to bet that McNamee knows more about drugs than Clemens. The fact that MLB players commonly use the term "B 12 shots" as a euphemism for steroids isn't particularly helpful to Clemens either.

And now we find that Clemens is finally suing McNamee for libel, after McNamee threatened to do the same. Clemens' attorneys are claiming that "McNamee made the allegations with actual malice, knowing they were false."

So who benefits from any of this? One name or the other may be cleared, but not both. I'm not a legal expert, but does this lawsuit prevent Clemens from saying anything substantive in front of Congress, should he decide to appear before them - the old, "I'm sorry, but I can't comment on that because of ongoing litigation I'm involved with?"

And now that the legal process is officially engaged, Clemens had better tread carefully. Bonds is in trouble not for his PED use, but lying about it. Interesting, isn't it, that law enforcement may end up doing more to rid MLB of PED use than MLB itself?

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(C) 2008 Baseball Fit, LLC. All Rights Reserved. Short quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Steve Zawrotny's BASEBALL FIT Hitting & Pitching Conditioning http://www.baseballfit.com/