D-backs logging throwing sessions, staying ready as wait continues

When and if Major League Baseball returns from a delay to the season due to the spread of the coronavirus, it’s not going to be as simple as everyone coming to the ballpark and playing a baseball game the next day.

There is preparation that has to be done for professional athletes to get in game shape, and MLB pitchers are the most special of cases.

As they first report to camp and so on through spring training, pitchers will progress through certain throwing sessions and regiments to ramp up their arms.

With the work some of them had already been doing in spring training being halted due to the league’s stoppage, that’s a difficult thing for pitchers to uphold under the current circumstances, with league facilities closed and everyone staying home.

While it’s surely not being maintained to the tip-top level the Arizona Diamondbacks would normally have their pitchers at in early April, the guys are still throwing and getting work in.

“We’re really dialed in, we’re tuned in to the best of our ability,” D-backs manager Torey Lovullo said Wednesday on Arizona Sports’ D-backs BP Show.

“Whether they’re playing catch with their wife or a brother or a friend, they are continuing to throw, keep that range of motion going and there’s constant communication between them, the medical team (and pitching coach) Matt Herges.”

Most importantly, the D-backs are tracking all this data so they know where to begin once they can fully ramp everything back up from a team operations standpoint.

“We’re logging all of the inventory, all of the work that’s being done day-by-day by not just them but the position players as well,” Louvllo said. “When and if this thing gets cranked back up, we’ll know exactly where the starting point is, where we can stagger them and put them into this race.”

Lovullo made it clear that he wants his team to stay in the right mentality during this break.

“We gotta merge onto a pretty competitive freeway,” he said. “I’m asking the guys to more than park it in neutral. Let’s not go backwards, Let’s keep that engine idling and moving forward day-by-day because I want us to make sure that we’re ready as we can possibly be.”

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