Communication key for Bullpen Tournaments VP Tucker

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Growing up playing sports in Zionsville, Ind., Michael Tucker knew what it was to be a teammate.

A center in basketball and catcher in baseball, Tulsa, Okla.-born Tucker played at Zionsville Community High School and graduated in 2008. Some of his closest friends to this day played on those squads.

“We had some great teams,” says Tucker, who played for head coaches Dave Ferrell and Shaun Busick in basketball and Darrell Osborne and Adam Metzler in baseball and counted Matt Miller as a mate on the court and the diamond. Miller went on to pitch at the University of Michigan and in the Milwaukee Brewers organization.

Eric Charles went on to play baseball at Purdue University.

Ryan Price’s father Tom Price played baseball for Dr. Don Brandon at Anderson (Ind.) University and that’s one of the reasons Tucker ended up at the NCAA Division III school.

Tucker was a standout hitter while playing catcher and first base for the Ravens and the Hall of Famer they called “Bama” for his first two college seasons followed by two with David Pressley.

Brandon impressed Tucker with his memory.

“He can tell you the situation — who was on the mound and the count — (from most any game),” says Tucker. “He was really fun to learn from.”

Pressley was a first-time head coach at Anderson. Tucker credits him with lessons on and off the field.

“I learned how to be a man,” says Tucker. “(Pressley) is a huge man of faith.

“He taught a tremendous amount of life lessons.”

Tucker also gained knowledge from Brad Lantz, who was an AU senior receiver when he was a freshman and went on to be a high school head coach at Guerin Catholic and Lapel and is now coaching in the Indy Sharks travel organization.

“I learned so much about catching, counts and what to look for,” says Tucker. “I learned more from (Lantz) than anyone else.”

Tucker was named to D3baseball.com’s 2010s All-Decade Team.  During his career, Tucket hit .361 with 52 home runs, 50 doubles, 193 runs batted in and a .730 slugging percentage. He was a first-team All-America selection and the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference MVP in 2011.

Franklin (Ind.) College has long been a big HCAC rival for Anderson. Tucker recalls how Grizzlies head coach Lance Marshall sometimes used to bring in a fifth infielder when Tucker was at the plate. 

Not a Marshall fan at the time, Tucker has come to see the veteran coach as one of his favorites.

Tucker received a Management degree with a minor in Entrepreneurship from Anderson U. in 2012. 

His “internship” time was spent coaching (coaching with Cesar Barrientos and the Indiana Baseball Academy Storm while injured in 2009) or playing summer collegiate ball (Fort Mill, S.C., Stingers of the Southern Collegiate Baseball League in 2010 and Hannibal, Mo., Cavemen of the Prospect League in 2011 — a team owned at the time by former big leaguers Ryan Klesko and Woody Williams) and he saw a future related to the diamond. 

“I wanted to make baseball my job whether that was with an indoor facility, coaching, training or tournaments,” says Tucker. “I didn’t know what avenue.”

Tucker was a director at the Incrediplex on the northeast side of Indianapolis 2013-15 and coached for the Indiana Bulls travel organization 2012-16.

Since April 2015, Tucker has been part of a different team as vice president for Bullpen Tournaments, Prep Baseball Report Tournaments (with Rhett Goodmiller as director of tournaments) and Pro X Athlete Development (with former big league pitcher Joe Thatcher as co-founder and president) are tenants at Grand Park in Westfield, Ind. Bullpen, with Tucker as the director of day-to-day operations, is involved with Pro X and works with PBR Indiana and consults with PBR national, which operates LakePoint Sports campus in Emerson, Ga., and Creekside Baseball Park in Parkville, Mo.

Ground was recently broken for Championship Park in Kokomo, Ind., and that complex will also be used by Bullpen and PBR.

The 2021 summer will mark Tucker’s seventh with Bullpen Tournaments. 

Hired by BT president Blake Hibler, whom he knew from working Prep Baseball Report showcases, Tucker started at Bullpen in time to experience Grand Park’s first full summer.

“I did everything,” says Tucker. “I tried to be a sponge. Being in baseball your whole life is completely different from the tournament industry.

“There’s learning the business side and scheduling.”

While at the Incrediplex near Lawrence, Tucker had done scheduling on a smaller scale and had become comfortable with software.

Tucker appreciates that Hibler lets him seek out processes.

“If I can find a better mousetrap, he lets me run with it,” says Tucker.

Bullpen is a very large operation.

“We’re a different beast in a lot of ways,” says Tucker, who notes that on any given weekend the company may have as many as 45 fields under its control, including those on and off the Grand Park campus.

Tucker says the key is getting the word out to teams, families and recruiters.

“You have to be able to communicate,” says Tucker. “Half of scheduling is the communicating of the schedule.”

With Hibler having a large part in brainstorming and development, Bullpen first used the Tourney Machine app and now works with Playbook 365 while also helping develop PitchAware and ScoreHQ. 

Bullpen hires scorekeepers for every high school tournament game (15U to 18U) at Grand Park. In 2020, there was also video on six fields.

“It’s huge to have accurate data,” says Tucker. “We can overlay video with stats.

“(A college) coach can recruit from his office.”

But even though Bullpen is dealing with many moving parts, there are only a half dozen full-time employees.

“Guys are tasked to learn a lot of different things,” says Tucker. “But we never feel like this is something I can’t do. Our mentality is we’re going bust our butts and how do we solve this problem?

“Our guys do a tremendous job of being flexible.”

An example of teamwork and flexibility is the creation of the College Summer League at Grand Park, which came about when so many other leagues were canceling the 2020 summer season during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The team that made it happen include Hibler, Tucker, Thatcher, Phil Wade, Luke Dietz, Mark Walther, Matt Bowles, Logan Weins, Cam Eveland and Kevin Ricks. Thatcher and Walther are at Pro X. Weins splits his time between Bullpen Tournaments and PBR Tournaments.

With many players reaching out, Bullpen saw the need and went to work to put together what became a 12-team league with most games played at Grand Park with a few at Kokomo Municipal Stadium and Victory Field in downtown Indianapolis.

The league was constructed with safety, NCAA and recruiting regulations in mind. Players were placed, umpires were lined up and jerseys were distributed in a very short time frame.

“We had about seven days to do it,” says Tucker. “We’re excited for it to come back (in 2021).”

As a D-III alum, Tucker was especially pleased that the CSL allowed top-flight players like Joe Moran (who pitched for Anderson and has transferred to Taylor University) was able to compete against D-I talent.

While the pandemic slowed the start of the 2020 Bullpen season, Tucker estimates that there were upwards of 80 percent in games played as compared to a normal year.

The fall included more contests than ever.

“Teams couldn’t play in the spring and that baseball hunger was still there,” says Tucker. “They wanted to play a little longer.

“We had a great fall.”

Weather plays a part, but the first games each year at Grand Park with all its turf fields are collegiate in February. 

“If we get a warm-weather day our phone blows up,” says Tucker. 

Activity starts to ramp up in March with the first 8U to 14U contests the last weekend of that month.

Of course, the pandemic will have a say in what happens in 2021.

“With all the uncertainty it’s tough,” says Tucker. “It’s going to be an interesting spring.”

A perk of Tucker’s position and location is the relationships he gets to build with high school coaches. 

He sees the unique dynamic between between Noblesville’s Justin Keever, Westfield’s Ryan Bunnell, Zionsville’s Jered Moore and Fishers’ Matt Cherry of the Hoosier Crossroads Conference.

“They’re buddies,” says Tucker. “They go out to eat after the game.”

Michael and wife Dani Tucker live in Noblesville, Ind., with son Cole (5) and Cali (3).

The Tucker family (from left): Cali, Dani, Michael and Cole. Michael Tucker is vice president of Bullpen Tournaments is a tenant at Grand Park in Westfield, Ind.

Lebanon grad Herrin pitching in Angels system

BY STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Travis Herrin has been a professional baseball pitcher since 2015 and the graduate of Lebanon (Ind.) High School (2013) and Wabash Valley College (2015) in Mount Carmel, Ill., has made steadiness his goal.

“I look for consistency,” says Herrin, 24. “It means learning to throw every five days (instead of every seven like in college). That extra two days is a pretty big deal.”

Herrin is a right-hander in the Los Angeles Angels organization with the Inland Empire 66ers in the Advanced Class-A California League.

Inland Empire uses a “piggyback” system for its starting pitchers, meaning Herrin may start one time then come in right after the starter the next. Through June 30, he had made 12 appearances totaling 48 1/3 innings and was 3-2 with one save, a 4.84 earned run average, 45 strikeouts and 24 walks.

“You make sure you get down whatever you need to get done — the weight room, arm care,” says Herrin of each day at the ballpark.

What’s the difference between Advanced-A and lower levels (he has pitched in the rookie-level Pioneer and Arizona leagues and the Low-A Midwest League)?

“Competition,” says Herrin. “You get away with less and less as you move through the system.

“You have to have your stuff going from he first pitch.

Herrin throws a four-seam fastball with arm-side fade, a 12-to-6 curveball, a slider with side-to-side action and a change-up.

“The minor leagues is about development,” says Herrin, who works with people like Inland Empire pitching coach Michael Wuertz and Angels roving minor league instructors Matt Wise and Buddy Carlyle to get dialed in. They use video to study what he does in games and bullpen sessions.

During this past off-season, Herrin rode with Reid Schaller (a Lebanon High school graduate in the Washington Nationals chain) to work with Greg Vogt at PRP Baseball on mechanics and pitch design.

The son of John and Christy Herrin and older brother of Maggie Herrin (an Indiana State University student), Travis played for Rick Cosgray at Lebanon High and Rob Fournier at Wabash Valley.

“He’s a great guy,” says Herrin of Cosgray. “(Fournier) is unreal. He is close to 1,000 wins (for his career). Junior college is a character thing. You don’t get a whole lot of gear. It’s pretty competitive (in the Great Rivers Athletic Conference). There are a lot of guys moving on to (NCAA) D-I schools every year.”

Herrin grew up in Lebanon — a town located northwest of Indianapolis — and played at Lebanon Little League and with the IBA Storm coached by Cesar Barrientos (now an assistant at Wabash College) during his junior summer in high school. He later pitched for the Lebanon Merchants.

Selected in the 18th round of the 2015 Major League Baseball First-Year Year Player Draft by the Angels, the 6-foot-3 hurler was with the Burlington (Iowa) Bees when he had Tommy John reconstructive elbow surgery June 19, 2017. He came back in August 2018 and appeared in seven games.

“It was a grind,” says Herrin of the recovery process. “I was doing something every single day to try to get ready.

“I had no doubts about getting ready. I know the organization likes me.”

Travis Herrin is a graduate of Lebanon (Ind.) High School and Wabash Valley College pitching in the Los Angeles Angels organization. (Inland Empire 66ers)

Travis Herrin pitches for the California League’s Inland Empire 66ers — aka California Burritos — in the Los Angeles Angels organization. (Franklin Gutierrez Photo)

Travis Herrin pitches for the California League’s Inland Empire 66ers — aka California Burritos — in the Los Angeles Angels organization. He is a graduate of Lebanon (Ind.) High School and Wabash Valley College. (Franklin Gutierrez Photo)

Wabash College alum Martin returns to ‘passionate place’ as head coach

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Fourteen years ago, Jake Martin chased fly balls in the Mud Hollow outfield.

Now he’s back on the Wabash College campus as head baseball coach.

Martin, who earned letters in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003, leads the Little Giants on the diamond at Goodrich Ballpark.

“I enjoyed my time here as a player,” says Martin. “This is a passionate place. There’s great support for athletics and success across the board.

“I’m excited to come back. To play a part in your alma mater’s tradition and make your own mark on it is a pretty special experience.”

On the wall at Goodrich (christened in 2011) it reads “Wabash Always Fights.”

It’s an athletic motto. But it goes farther than that.

“It means you’re in a classroom working hard for good grades, working hard to get a good job,” says Martin. “(You’re) able to handle adversity and have confidence that you’re gong to be successful and your experience here has prepared you to do so.”

At an NCAA Division III school with high academic standards, getting athletes to come to Wabash involves the understanding that grade-point average and batting average both have worth. But academics is higher in the pecking order.

“Everybody that plays college baseball has to have a baseline of talent,” says Martin. “We start our recruiting with the classroom. This is a serious place where you’re here to get a great education and to play athletics at a high level.

“We need to find guys who are going to be able to handle the academic rigor and manage their time so they’re able to take advantage of the facilities that we have and the great opportunity to become the best baseball player they can be.”

Wabash coaches — Martin’s assistant are Andy Weeks (Wabash Class of 2009), Cesar Barrientos and John Walker — attend showcases or tournaments and the conversation with potential recruits involves grades, test scores and class rank. The admission office will weed out the ones who would struggle in an environment where they will be pushed both as a student and an athlete.

“We have to make sure that are being set up to be successful here,” says Martin. “They need to be committed to the classroom first. Right behind that needs to be a commitment to playing college baseball at a high level.”

“We want guys that need to have both as part of their experience. They aren’t willing to sacrifice the academic side for a great baseball experience.”

NCAA Division III does not redshirt athletes, so Wabash players typically finish their undergraduate degrees in four years then head off the graduate school or the workforce.

On the field, Wabash competes in the North Coast Athletic Conference. Other members include Allegheny (Leadville, Pa.), Denison (Granville, Ohio), DePauw (Greencastle), Hiram (Hiram, Ohio), Kenyon (Gambier, Ohio), Oberlin (Oberlin, Ohio), Ohio Wesleyan (Delaware, Ohio), Wittenberg (Springfield, Ohio) and Wooster (Wooster, Ohio).

Leading up the conference tournament where the top two teams from each division converge in mid-May in Chillicothe, Ohio, the NCAC tends to play doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday (four 9-inning games) which calls for plenty of pitching depth and also does not interfere with academic schedules.

In a 40-game schedule this, Martin says there might be three times where the Little Giants will be missing class time.

“We start (games) as late as possible,” says Martin. There are times when Wabash does not take batting practice on the field so players can still attend a 1 p.m. class and still be ready for a 4 p.m. home game.

Mud Hollow was a multipurpose field with a temporary fence and Goodrich rivals even some of the parks used by smaller NCAA Division I schools.

“It’s a great place to come to work each day,” says Martin. “Our guys know and understand how good they have it. We’re very grateful for the alums that made it happen and the support staff that takes care of it.”

The Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association North-South All-Star Series was played at Goodrich in 2011.

Martin, a Rushville High School graduate, received his Wabash degree in 2003 and went to DePauw where he served as a graduate assistant, volunteer coach, associate head coach and, finally, seven seasons as head coach (he was NCAC Coach of the Year in 2012 and led the NCAC tournament champions in 2014). He was promoted to associate head coach when head baseball coach Matt Walker also became the Tigers head football coach.

While working at DePauw, Martin picked up his master’s degree at Indiana State University.

“I loved my time at DePauw,” says Martin. “I promised myself there were a couple of jobs I would look at if they were to open and this was one. I was blessed to get an interview over the summer and eventually get hired (last) July (to follow Cory Stevens after his 10-year tenure as head coach at Wabash).

“(Wabash vs. DePauw is) a fun rivalry across all sports. It’s not just the Monon Bell game (for football).”

Martin likes the D-III model and the balance between academics and athletics, but he would like to see an increase in the amount of development time coaches can spend with players from the fall to the spring. Right now, counting back from the start of the conference tournament schools get 19 weeks and that includes a few weeks in the fall plus the preseason and regular season.

Players could benefit with individual or small group training sessions with coaches. It would also make possible some valuable conversations.

“We’re missing out on the opportunity to mentor and keep in contact with players in that gap time,” says Martin. “We’re losing out on the chance to check in with them consistently. Contact and relationships are what makes all small colleges special.”

Jake Martin, a 2003 Wabash College graduate, in his first season as Little Giants head baseball coach.