Indiana University righty Bierman signs with Miami Marlins

By STEVE KRAH
http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Gabe Bierman has faced adversity and personal crisis on his way to professional baseball.
The Jeffersonville, Ind., lost his father during his freshman year at Indiana University.
Douglas Bierman Jr., passed at 49 on May 16, 2019.
“I fought through my dad’s death and ended on a good note,” says Bierman, who signed July 18 with the Miami Marlins after being selected in the seventh round of the 2021 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft.
A right-handed pitcher who committed to IU as a Jeffersonville High School freshman, Gabe was on the mound two days after Dougie Bierman died and hurled three shutout innings with four strikeouts against Rutgers and fanned two and allowed just two hits in 3 2/3 innings in an NCAA Tournament game against Illinois Chicago. He wrapped his freshman year as a Hoosier at 4-0. In 20 games (15 as a reliever), he posted a 3.56 earned run average and struck out 46 while walking 18 in 48 innings.
Bierman’s time management skills — something needed by all college students but especially an athlete — were lacking during his early days in Bloomington. He persevered.
As Bierman developed on the diamond, he got tougher. Jeffersonville pitching coach P.J. Thomas and he had talked about being a warrior and that’s the mentality he takes each time he steps on the mound.
“I’m someone who will get the job done and battle,” says Bierman, 21. “I’m a person who fights and fights and fights.”
Add to that pitchability, game management and the stuff that goes along with it.
In three seasons (2019-21) at IU playing for head coach Jeff Mercer and pitching coach Justin Parker, Bierman made 36 appearances (21 starts) and went 11-5
with one save and a 4.00 ERA. He had 150 K’s and 57 walks in 144 innings.
In 2021, Bierman had 12 starts and 5-4 record to go with a 3.16 ERA. He produced 80 strikeouts and 30 walks in 74 innings. On May 9 against Nebraska, the righty whiffed 11 batters and walked one in nine frames.
The COVID-19 pandemic kept Indiana strictly Big Ten Conference games and limited the home crowd at Bart Kaufman Field. That had no adverse effect on Bierman.
“My game and what I do on the mound is focused no matter what,” says Bierman. “There are no external factors.”
When Bierman pledged to play at Indiana, Chris Lemonis was head coach and Kyle Bunn pitching coach. Their successors got a thumbs-up from the pitcher who won four baseball letters and set career and single-game strikeout marks at Jeffersonville.
“I was pretty confident and Mercer and Parker and their good reputation,” says Bierman. “I needed that for my career moving forward.
“What I’m doing now reflects how they treated me and my journey through IU.”
A 6-foot-2, 200-pounder, Bierman throws a four-seam fastball, two-seam fastball, slider, change-up and curveball from a three-quarter overhand arm slot.
His fastest pitch is sinking two-seamer that sits at 89 to 93 mph and hit 95 in the summer of 2020 while Bierman was playing for the Prospect League’s Normal (Ill.) Cornbelters.
A sinking change-up came during his freshman year and he added the slider as a sophomore. Rapsodo data has helped him refine these pitches.
“I shortened up arm path in my sophomore year to get better movement on the slider,” says Bierman. “Eventually everything came along with more bite and more movement.”
Bierman signed with the Marlins in Jupiter, Fla., and its there that he is beginning to prepare as a pro.
Miami’s four affiliate clubs are the Low Class-A Jupiter (Fla.) Hammerheads, High Class-A Beloit (Wis.) Snappers, Double-A Pensecola (Fla.) Blue Wahoos and Jacksonville (Fla.) Jumbo Shrimp.
Where does Bierman go and when?
“It depends on how hard I work,” says Bierman. “I’ll put anything on the table for any organization.
“I’ll do anything I have to get to the top.”
Bierman’s first organized baseball came at Jeff/GRC Little League, where he played from age 5 to 12. Then came travel ball with the Louisville-based Ironman Baseball Club 13U to 17U.
Derek Ellis was his head coach with the Jeffersonville Red Devils.
“Derek was great,” says Bierman of Ellis. “We had several meetings together to see what my career could look like. “He pushed me and motivated me to the best version of myself.”
Following his freshmen year at IU, Bierman played for the Northwoods League’s 2019 Kenosha (Wis.) Kingfish.
Since the end of the 2021 season and being selected by and reporting to the Marlins, Bierman spent time in Bloomington keeping physically sharp and spending time with family. His mother is Andrea Bierman. His stepmother is Molly Bierman. He has five siblings — sister Mekenzi (an Indiana University Southeast student) and brothers Elijah, Nick, Ashton and Myles.

Gabe Bierman (Indiana University Photo)

Gabe Bierman (Indiana University Photo)

Gabe Bierman (Indiana University Photo)

Gabe Bierman (Indiana University Photo)

Gabe Bierman (Indiana University Photo)

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Learning mentality drives baseball coaching vet Bell

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

There’s a running debate in baseball coaching about the Old School vs. the New School.

The Old School represents the long-used methods.

The New School includes emerging technology and its application to the game.

“We’re always learning,” says Bobby Bell, a Lafayette, Ind., native, who has decades of experience as a professional hitting instructor — most recently working in affiliated baseball with the Milwaukee Brewers organization 2018 and 2019. “Technology is very important. That’s where we are today.

“We are not Old School or New School, We’re In School. If we don’t continue to be In School, we’re going to hurt these kids. Period.”

As Bell teaches lessons and clinics across the country as well as in Noblesville, Ind., at Jason Taulman’s Indy Sharks training facility and will soon in Lafayette at Jeff Isom’s new On Deck Training building, he looks to share he’s learned and shares it with his pupils.

“There’s all this information,” says Bell. “I’m not saying its detrimental. It’s confusing. (Technology) can be a great thing.”

Bell, 56, is adaptinhg to the new tools so he can understand and get players to understand.

“I’ve learned it my way instead of some guy telling me how I must learn it,” says Bell, who has worked with Blast Motion sensors and looks forward to using Rapsodo motion detection.

“Humans see in 2D,” says Bell. “Technology sees in 4D. It’s another set of eyes. It can be a great thing.

“You will see great strides in that kid’s progression if it’s utilized the right way.

“You can’t quantify the movement from the left to the right hemisphere You have to combine (technology) with what he’s thinking, how he’s thinking and why he’s thinking. I understand the importance of it all coming together. I really do.”

Knowing that each player is different, Bell does not expect everyone to have the same movement patterns and to reach them you’ve got to get to know them.

“The individual needs to be an individual,” says Bell. “We want them to be short and direct to the ball. We don’t worry about things we don’t control. We control the (strike) zone and get a good pitch to hit. It sounds like a cliche, but you’re only as good as the pitch you hit.

“We try to keep it as simple as possible. Pitching is too good. They throw so hard.”

Bell wants to relate to his hitters on a personal basis.

“I want to establish a relationship with that player,” says Bell. “That’s the key. This guy’s there for him whenever he needs them.”

Bell is a 1981 graduate of Lafayette Jefferson High School. His head baseball coach was Mark Strader, who had been a Bronchos standout for and assistant to Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Famer Paul “Spider” Fields.

“(Strader) was one of the best baseball players to come out of Tippecanoe County,” says Bell.

Concepts he associates with Strader are intensity, tenacity, competitiveness, work ethic and doing the little things right.

In the summers, Bell played for Lafayette American Legion Post 11. Manager Eric Harmon became his mentor at a young age.

“He did a lot of things for me,” says Bell, who credits Harmon for getting his a place on Team USA in the 1982 World’s Fair Games in Knoxville, Tenn., and a place in college baseball. “He is a phenomenal man.”

Bell played two seasons at Pima Community College in Tucson, Ariz., where his head coach was Rich Alday and Jim Fleming directed Aztecs hitters.

“(Fleming) was one of the best hitting teachers in the country,” says Bell, who would meet up with him again years later.

From Pima, Bell played two seasons at Mesa State College (now Colorado Mesa University) for head coach Byron Wiehe. Jamie Hamilton was an assistant coach for the Mavericks.

Bell signed as a minor league free agent with the California Angels and played three seasons in the Halos’ system 1986-88, primarily as a righty-swinging catcher with Palm Springs or Quad Cities.

Sometime after his playing career ended, Bell moved back to Lafayette. Isom asked him if he wanted to get back into baseball.

“Absolutely not” was Bell’s reply. But Isom asked again later and got Bell to be his hitting coach with the Joliet Jackhammers in the independent Northern League.

Bell went to be hitting coach in the Northern League with the Andy McCauley-managed Schaumburg Flyers in the independent Frontier League with the Jason Verdugo-managed Evansville Otters.

Then comes a call from John Mallee, then hitting coordinator for the Florida (now Miami) Marlins that leads to another call from then vice president of the Marlins Jim Fleming — the same man who was Bell’s hitting coach back in college.

“I actually hung up,” says Bell. “I didn’t think it was Coach Flem.”

Mallee called Bell back and set him straight and Bell was hired by the Marlins and was hitting coach for Greensboro Grasshoppers (2009), Jupiter Hammerheads (2010) and Gulf Coast League Marlins (2011-14).

He was out of organized baseball for a few years and still offering instruction including at Kiwanis International baseball camps for troubled teens in Alaska at the invitation of David Hall.

By this time Mallee was with the Phillies. He called to say that the Brewers were in dire need of a hitting coach. There was one week left in spring training.

But Bell took the gig and spent the 2018 and 2019 seasons with the Carolina Mudcats in Zebulon, N.C. Coincidently, the Mudcats vice president/general manager is Lafayette native Joe Kremer. Bell and Kremer had never met until Bell arrived with the club.

The past five years, Bell has been traveling up from Florida to share his knowledge with Taulman and the Indy Sharks.

“I love everything he does for all those kids,” says Bell. “They’ve progressed extremely.”

Bell has been spending more time in Indiana to be closer to daughter Bobbi, a junior at Purdue University. Bell also has four sons — Brandon and Keaton in Colorado, Zion in California and Kai in North Dakota.

Bobby Bell, a Lafayette, Ind., native, was a hitting coach in the Florida/Miami Marlins system for six years.

Bobby Bell, a 1981 graduate of Lafayette (Ind.) Jefferson High School, has been instructing baseball hitters for decades. In 2018 and 2019, he was a coach in the Milwaukee Brewers system. He works regularly with the Indy Sharks travel organization.

 

Tippecanoe Valley, Purdue grad Andrews chose baseball over football and is now getting paid to pitch in Marlins system

By STEVE KRAH

http://www.IndianaRBI.com

Tanner Andrews was on a pigskin path when the horsehide took over.

A three-sport standout (football, basketball and baseball) at Tippecanoe Valley High School near Akron, Ind., Andrews had made more than a half dozen unofficial campus football visits to Purdue University and thought he was on his way to playing receiver for the Boilermakers.

When his gridiron days at Tippecanoe Valley were over, he held just about every record — single-game, season and career — belonged to to Andrews.

He landed in West Lafayette alright. But as a baseball player.

“It’s God putting me right where I need to be,” says Andrews, who is now on the pitching staff of the Batavia (N.Y.) Muckdogs in the Miami Marlins organization.

While attending a clinic in Fort Wayne, Purdue pitcher Nick Wittgren (who is now also in the Marlins system and has spent time in the majors) saw Andrews pitch and arranged for him to throw a bullpen for Boilers pitching coach Tristan McIntyre. Purdue coaches liked what they saw and wound up signing Andrews.

Mostly a shortstop and center fielder in high school, where he played one year each for head coaches Scott Backus and Ryan Moore and two for Brandon Cody, Andrews came to concentrate on pitching at Purdue. He played four seasons (2015-18) — two for head coach Doug Schreiber and two for head coach Mark Wasikowski.

In 60 mound appearances (38 starts), Andrews went 17-15 with one save, a 3.69 earned run average, 184 strikeouts and 120 walks over 257 2/3 innings. He was used mostly out of the bullpen as a freshman and sophomore and a starter as a junior and senior.

Andrews says he appreciates Schreiber’s old-school approach.

“We did a lot of team bounding through hard work,” says Andrews. “We did a lot of early-morning running and were in very good shape. He pushed you beyond what you thought you could do.

“Coach Schreib gave me the opportunity to play baseball at the school I wanted to go to and that’s something I’ll always be grateful for.”

Wasikowski came in with an attention to details.

“All details matter to him,” says Andrews. “He puts his players in the best position to win.”

In his first two seasons, Waz led the Boilers to 29 and 38 victories. The 2018 team played in the Big Ten Conference championship game and participated in the NCAA Chapel Hill Regional.

Andrews played summer wood-bat baseball in college with the Kokomo Jackrabbits of the Prospect League and Kalamazoo Growlers of the Northwoods League.

His name was called in the 10th round of the 2018 Major League Baseball First-Year Player Draft by the Marlins. After one game with the Gulf Coast League Marlins, Andrews was assigned to Batavia in the Short Season Class-A New York-Penn League.

The next stops on the Marlins minor league road are Greensboro (Low-A), Jupiter (High-A), Jacksonville (Double-A) and New Orleans (Triple-A).

In his first 10 games with the Muckdogs (eight in relief), he is 1-0 with a 3.91 ERA. In 23 innings, he has 19 strikeouts and four walks.

Former big leaguer Mike Jacobs is the Batavia manager. Jason Erickson is the pitching coach.

The 6-foot-3, 220-pound Andrews delivers the baseball from a high three-quarter arm slot.

Andrews considers his athleticism to be his best trait on the mound.

“I move pretty well and can field my position,” says Andrews. “I have good body control and fluid movement.”

Born in Rochester, Ind., Andrews played travel baseball for the Fort Wayne Indians from age 10 to 15 for coach Ray Moon, who played in the Cincinnati Reds organization and independent professional baseball.

After a travel season with the South Bend-based Michiana Clippers, Andrews used his summers to concentrate on football and basketball.

His head football coach at Tippecanoe Valley was Jeff Shriver while Indiana Basketball Hall of Famer Bill Patrick guided Andrews and the Vikings on the hardwood.

With friend and classmate Ben Shriver (the coach’s son) at quarterback, Valley footballers were a close-knit group.

“It was a family atmosphere,” says Andrews. “You were focused on the guy next to you. That’s the way it is in all sports, really. When you do that you get more out of yourself.”

Andrews credits Patrick for getting the most out of him and his teammates.

“Coach Patrick pushed us mentally and physically in practice,” says Andrews, who played all over the court and scored over 1,000 career points. “He prepared me for what I’m going through now.”

Andrews says what he enjoyed most about his high school baseball days was the two years he got to be teammates with older brother Brody Andrews (Class of 2012).

“It was fun to go tot he park everyday with my brother and best friend,” says Tanner.

Todd and Marget Andrews are parents to Brody and Andrew and their cousin Nico (9) is also part of the household.

Tanner graduated from Purdue in May with a degree in organizational leadership.

“I want to go into coaching and that goes hand-in-hand,” says Andrews, who learned about reading with change, making adjustments, solving problems and dealing with people.

Tanner Andrews, a Tippecanoe Valley High School and Purdue University graduate, is in his first season of professional baseball with the Batavia (N.Y.) Muckdogs in the Miami Marlins system. (Purdue Photo)