Stivors joins coaching staff as Assistant Director of Pitching Development

TXST BASEBALL

Considered to be one of the greatest closers in program history, Tristan Stivors will join the Bobcat coaching staff as the Assistant Director of Pitching Development.

Stivors reunites with his former Head Coach Steven Trout, as both sides had a mutual interest in Stivors joining the staff.

“It was just a simple conversation,” Stivors said. “[Trout] actually had me meet with [Associate Head Coach Josh] Blakley, because I’m working mostly with just pitchers. Basically helping Blakley find drills, helping him with analytics and stuff like that on pitch shaping and what guys need to be throwing because of certain arm slots and stuff like that. The conversation was really simple. [Trout] knew I was interested in coming here and helping the staff out.”

Stivors set a program record for most career saves with 27 and most saves in a single season with 18 in 2022, which led the nation.

Stivors was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in the 14th round during the 2022 MLB Draft. He spent the last three seasons with the White Sox.

Despite playing in the minors seemingly far from home, Stivors has always made San Marcos his home base.

“I live up here in San Marcos during the off-season and then for the past three years I’ve always come up here in the fall and early spring to work out, do my throwing program and my workouts,” Stivors said. “I mentioned to Trout, I was like, ‘Hey Trouty. I know y’all have some volunteer spots opening up. I’d love to be able to help out there, help the coaches with whatever they need and help the players with whatever they need. Basically [Trout] was like, ‘Yeah man that would be a great idea to have you back in town, have you on the staff and helping out around here. And the guys would love to see you and be able to talk to you and stuff.’” One of the goals Stivors is tasked with is helping to develop pitchers with certain workouts that will strengthen their attributes along with working pitching analytics alongside Blakley and Director of Pitching Development & Analytics Austin Wallace.

“I help Blakley with the analytic side [of pitching] and then help to find mound work drills,” Stivors. “Whether it be water bags, core velo belts, plyo balls, I just advise him on some drills that I did with the White Sox and that I’ve learned over my years of playing that have helped me develop. I’ll recommend those to him, and then I show him how to do them. Then he puts the pitchers through them so their bodies can move more efficiently on the mound and be more athletic.

“That’s the main thing we want. We want to have athletic pitchers on the mound. We don’t want to have guys that can’t cover first base.”

On developing workouts for the pitchers, Stivors is focused on finetuning the Bobcat pitchers’ skills.

“The main thing is just helping Coach Blakley and Coach Trout find certain drills that work for certain pitchers,” Stivors said. “Everybody’s body moves differently and works differently. What Blakley really stresses is he doesn’t want to change anything that anybody does, because they recruited them here for a purpose, they do something special. They brought me in to finetune what they already do and make them do that at an elite level.”

Also tasked with analytics, Stivors talked about how the development of analytics has altered training and preparation from a pitching perspective.

“It’s changed the game a lot,” Stivors said. “Ten years ago, you hear the term, ‘Oh that guy throws a heavy fastball,’ meaning that [the pitch] gets up on you quick, and it’s got some behind it. Now with the analytics and everything, we can actually see what makes that fastball the way it is, so if there’s a guy that throws a live fastball at the top of the zone, it means he has a bunch of induced vertical break on it. Or if you see a guy throwing a heavy sinker, we can see, ‘Oh this guy has five [inches of] induced vertical brake versus a ride fastball that sits at 20. Depending on what their pitches do, there’s certain spots in the zone where they should throw it. That’s basically more of the analytical part of it and then knowing what counts to throw what pitches in.”

Stivors is happy with the group of pitchers he is tasked with helping that have a chance to push the Bobcats over the top after consecutive seasons with a winning percentage under .500.

“Right now I see a bunch of dogs,” Stivors said. “Guys that like to compete and throw some really good stuff in the zone. The bottom line is if you don’t throw strikes, you’re not going to pitch. We’re really stressing that to the pitchers this year, and they’ve done just that, filling up the zones in the bullpens. They’ve been working on the breaking stuff and their fastball locations.

“It’s just been going really well for everybody. Once we do it in the spring, we’re going to have a really solid group of pitchers go out there and give us a chance to go to Omaha.”