New UA pitching coach resides on cutting edge

FAYETTEVILLE -- Griffin Roberts feels like he owes a lot of his success to Matt Hobbs.

Roberts, a former walk-on pitcher at Wake Forest, was selected in the first round of the MLB Draft earlier this year, 43rd overall by the St. Louis Cardinals. He is the highest-drafted pitcher Hobbs has had in 12 seasons as a Division I pitching coach and an example of Hobbs' coaching philosophies paying dividends.

"He just kind of showed me the light at the end of the tunnel," Roberts said. "Right when I got here freshman year I couldn't throw strikes and I didn't throw hard. It was that continued support and continued motivation that, 'You are something special, you just have to tap into that potential.' He always saw the potential I had and was willing to stay late for practice with me if I wanted to get a little extra time."

The University of Arkansas hired Hobbs away from Wake Forest on Nov. 27 as the Razorbacks' next pitching coach.

It doesn't take long to understand that Hobbs, 38, is a name that is well-known in baseball circles. Like Wes Johnson, his predecessor at the University of Arkansas, Hobbs is thought to be among the leaders in using technology and the study of biomechanics to teach pitching.

If there is a tool that can help pitchers, Hobbs makes it readily available to his players, whether it is a weighted baseball or machines such as TrackMan or Rapsodo.

TrackMan originally was used to provide the trajectory of a golf ball, but in the past several years has become a popular baseball tool that helps provide a three-dimensional view of a pitcher's delivery. It also provides data on velocity at a given point during a pitch.

Rapsodo, a high-speed camera that sits on a tripod about 6 feet behind home plate, complements TrackMan by recording spin rates for pitchers, and is useful in getting data on a pitch once it arrives to the plate.

Hobbs loves both machines and uses them in his daily teaching.

"I'm not going to say he's the most forward-thinking person in the business, but when you look around the industry his name pops up a lot in that forward-thinking model," Roberts said. "He likes looking at the numbers and letting the numbers do the talking for us. You just come to Wake and look at the facilities he's been instrumental in building."

At Wake Forest, Hobbs had developed what he called a "hardcore biomechanics lab" for his pitchers. The setup included 24 cameras -- 20 in an indoor facility and four in the outdoor bullpen -- an indoor and outdoor TrackMan machine, a Rapsodo machine and a full-time biomechanist to help analyze data.

The cameras gave "3-D kinematics of everybody's delivery," Hobbs said, "so it's incredibly special."

The lab was completed earlier this year.

Hobbs is hopeful he can duplicate the setup at Arkansas, where a new $25 million baseball facility was recently approved and should be open by the spring of 2021. The facility will include training areas, and Hobbs can be influential in the design of pitching areas.

"We're going to try to do some things that are pretty revolutionary in the new facility, I know," Hobbs said, "and in the time being bring the current facility up to speed with some cameras and new ball-tracking systems.

"We were kind of on the ground floor with it [at Wake Forest]. By the time I left, we had captured about six times and you're basically figuring out what is going on inside someone's body, so it's more than you could ever get from video or TrackMan or anything along those lines. It's another tool."

Johnson used analytics to help coach the Razorbacks to successful seasons in 2017 and 2018. Several Arkansas pitchers saw sharp increases to the velocities of their pitches as a result of working with Johnson, and the team set records for strikeouts in a season.

Arkansas Coach Dave Van Horn said the focus on analytics is changing the college game and making professional teams take note of college coaches. Johnson was hired by the Minnesota Twins last month, becoming the first college coach to go directly to a Major League Baseball dugout in 38 years.

"I think one thing I like about some of the things we're talking about on the pitching end is that we're going to help some kids stay healthy," Van Horn said. "You're going to be able to figure out some things early, change some deliveries."

When it became likely Johnson would leave for MLB, Van Horn began networking to find his replacement. He asked Johnson who he would recommend, and he responded with a handful of names, including Hobbs.

Van Horn also made calls to Tennessee Coach Tony Vitello and former Missouri coach Tim Jamieson. Vitello worked for Van Horn for four seasons at Arkansas, and Van Horn and Jamieson coached against each other in both the Big 12 and SEC, and with each other on the USA Collegiate National Team.

"Matt was who I recommended immediately when Coach Van Horn called, and he said that's who he was calling about anyway," Vitello said.

"This is the honest truth: I told Matt I think it's the best assistant coaching job in the country," Jamieson said. "Arkansas' fanbase, facilities, recruiting abilities, Coach Van Horn -- I just think it's as good as there is. Coach Van Horn is a great guy to work for."

Vitello and Jamieson are qualified to give background on Hobbs, who was a teammate of Vitello's at Missouri in the early 2000s. Their coach was Jamieson, and Jamieson later hired both men as assistant coaches for the Tigers.

Vitello left Missouri after the 2010 season, and Hobbs began there as pitching coach the next season.

It was an era at Missouri that included several players who later went on to become successful as a coach or in the pros. For instance, Vitello and Hobbs played with Jayce Tingler, now the bench coach for the Texas Rangers.

"Matt had some pretty strong leaders around him," Jamieson said.

Hobbs was a left-handed pitcher for Jamieson from 1999-2002. He grew into a weekend starter at Missouri and finished his career with a 13-9 record in 57 appearances and 17 starts. He twice set the Big 12 record by striking out seven consecutive batters in a single game.

He grew up bouncing around several different cities in multiple states, but spent the majority of his upbringing near Los Angeles in Alta Loma, Calif., where he graduated high school.

Jamieson also said Hobbs is also a solid recruiter.

"Having to be on the road, having to be in communication with the players and having to evaluate, it's just a grind," Jamieson said. "It's gotten worse and worse over time because of the mass number of events you have to cover, but Matt is always there, always present. There is a work ethic there that is respected by the people in our profession. He has a very strong reputation. People can talk the talk and people can walk the walk, but I think it's a combination of both and he's earned that respect."

photo

NWA Democrat-Gazette/ANDY SHUPE

Matt Hobbs (left) was hired in November by Arkansas baseball Coach Dave Van Horn as the Razorbacks new pitching coach from Wake Forest. Hobbs likes to use technology in developing pitchers.

Sports on 12/11/2018

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