Mental or physical: which is more important?

In the game of baseball, which is more important, mental or physical abilities? The old hen or the first egg quantum. They are actually just as important.

Before you jump up and throw your cap in defiance of my statement, let me present a couple of examples that have recently stumped some of the brightest minds in baseball and so far eluded solving.

I think you’ll admit that getting to the major league level as a pitcher requires a person to possess tremendous physical abilities. This is validated by the fact that there are literally thousands of top pitchers in the minor league and college systems who never set foot in a major league ballpark unless they buy a ticket.

Now let’s narrow our focus even further and talk about relief pitchers, as opposed to starting pitchers, since at the professional level they are a unique breed. Starting pitchers have a schedule that they’re on, pitching every five days, or whatever the team’s rotation is, but the point is they know when they’re going to pitch. This gives them time to mentally and physically prepare for the task.

Relief pitchers can go from telling a joke in the bullpen to performing to 50,000 screaming fans in a pressure cooker situation in a matter of minutes. They obviously have mastered the ability to instantly focus and perform like at the big league level, this is not their first rodeo.

So how does a Major League Baseball relief pitcher, as that is our current topic, go from being elite in his profession to being forced to retire or leave baseball, barring injuries, in a matter of just one (1) season?

In the 2010 season, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Ryan Franklin was elite, arguably one of the best closers in Major League Baseball. The stuff about him was overwhelming and, for the most part, when he found himself in a lifesaving situation, he rarely failed to succeed.

Fast forward to 2011, the next season with no physical changes, injuries or otherwise, Ryan Franklin was on a fast track to being forced out of baseball because he couldn’t get anyone out.

How does a professional baseball pitcher, who demonstrated no detectable physical indicators of loss of speed or movement in his pitches, go from being the best to being forced to retire from baseball in one season?

unusual case? Could be. In 2012, Mitchell Boggs, ironically another relief pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, was an excellent set-up for Jason Mott, the Cardinals’ closer. A setup man typically pitches the eighth inning, keeping the score and allowing the closer to finish off the win in the ninth inning. Boggs performed to a high level of achievement in the role of him.

Fast forward to 2013. All relative data showed that Boggs had a normal spring training and entered the 2013 season scheduled as the Cardinals’ setup man.

Somewhere, somehow, in the first few weeks of the season, something happened to Boggs that wasn’t physical, turning him from an elite setup man into a batting-practice pitcher. When brought to a ball game, Boggs would allow leadoff batters to get hits or walk them, forcing them out and putting the next pitcher in a bad spot.

Once again, the best baseball people and medical personnel available were unable to detect any physical ailments or loss of pitching ability. Based on those evaluations, Boggs was sent to Cardinal’s minor league system to sort out his problems.

Pitching in a relief role at the highest level in the league, a whisper short of big time, Boggs returned to his old self and dominated hitters. Satisfied that he corrected what had been wrong, he was called up to the majors and returned to the bullpen.

This might be a “story to go on” because the final chapter of Bogg’s career hasn’t been written, but his performance since returning to St. Louis has been dismal with start after start.

Now, don’t get the wrong impression, I’m not criticizing these two pitchers, I’m just a Cardinal fan and know more about them, but I’m sure this story is repeated by every major league team.

There is no viable alternative, except to say that these players have lost the confidence and mental capacity to perform at the Major League level. That’s why I stress to youth baseball coaches the importance of teaching the mental side of the game as well as the physical.

I wish I could end this article with a magic formula how to solve the loss of mental capacity of these two players, but if I knew that, I would be too rich to have time to write.