State of the Hogs: 'Pitchability' the word for Razorbacks

Arkansas pitcher Peyton Pallette throws during a scrimmage Friday, Jan. 29, 2021, in Fayetteville.

Do you remember when you heard a phrase for the first time that suggested an acquisition of deep knowledge on a sport?

These are wow moments. One came in the summer of 1995 when quarterback Barry Lunney told me ahead of the Arkansas football season “that the game has slowed down.”

Lunney took the Razorbacks to the 1995 SEC West crown. I’m not saying I saw it coming. Losing at SMU to start the season will bury those thoughts.

But it was clear during a throttling of South Carolina the next week that Lunney knew when and how to make every audible at the line of scrimmage as the safeties moved. He had answers on the goal line in the triple option and looked smooth in the process.

One decade earlier there was a wow moment watching Nolan Richardson’s first Tulsa basketball team when everything the coach said about his style of play began to click. Defending champion Louisville wilted in the second half, completely losing the ability to make a jump shot as it lost legs. The Golden Hurricane rolled to a 68-60 victory.

But one of my favorite thoughts from a coach came in 2012 after Arkansas defeated South Carolina 2-1 at the College World Series. Asked what he saw from Ryne Stanek, Arkansas pitching coach Dave Jorn had a one-word answer.

“Pitchability,” Jorn said after Stanek snapped South Carolina’s 22-game winning streak in the NCAA Tournament. “Stanek finally has it.”

Oh, don’t you love it when someone finally gets "it?" You can’t define "it," or can you?

I looked online for a definition of pitchability as it pertains to baseball in a slang dictionary of sports. It was a massive list of qualities. It’s against the law to copy and paste, so I didn’t.

But it was among the things I asked about the current Arkansas pitching staff as Dave Van Horn met with the media Friday. The word on the street is that this bunch of pitchers may have the best velocity of any Arkansas staff in history.

Former Arkansas coach Norm DeBriyn is still doing some scouting work for the Colorado Rockies. He has seen enough of the new pitchers to marvel about the long list with big arms. Velocity of over 95 mph is a consistent asset throughout a staff that might be 20 deep.

“It’s impressive,” DeBriyn said. “I’ve been out to watch and every time I look up, there’s another one that’s raised his level of velocity. There’s a bunch. The latest I see is Peyton Pallette. Wow.

“And I see pitchability.”

Ah, yes. Back to Jorn, it was from the veteran pitching coach (for both DeBriyn and Van Horn) that I first heard that word.

There was a discussion about Stanek’s pitchability just ahead of the trip to Omaha in 2012. It was the last thing he needed. He could throw just under 100 mph on a consistent basis, but Jorn wanted to see something other than a hot fastball. He wanted to see first pitch strikes, perhaps with an off speed pitch. Walks — and even 3-1 counts — needed to decrease. A weak ground ball or a pop out is just as much of an out as a strikeout.

“When he decides not to try to win the teddy bear and learns pitchability, then no telling where he’s going to end up,” Jorn said. “He has to stop trying to just be the guy who lights up the radar gun at the county fair to win the teddy bear.”

Pitchability means a lot of things, but mainly it’s knowing how to work through a batting order. You don’t give the best hitter the pitch they like to hit. You can throw any pitch in any count. You have something other than a fastball that can be thrown for a strike.

There’s much more. But mainly, pitchability means you aren’t just a thrower anymore.

Do the Hogs have enough on this roster? Can they throw strikes?

“We have a lot of strike throwers,” Van Horn said. “I love velocity. Why wouldn’t you? Because it just makes all of your other pitches better, they have to kind of cheat to get to the fastball.

“But I like guys who get people out. I think anybody who’s watched the game, been around this game knows that you’ve got to make the other team swing the bat. But we have a lot of kids with pitchability, and that’s a good baseball term there.”

Cheating might mean they have to scoot back in the batter’s box or choke up on the bat if there is pitchability on the mound.

“That’s (a term) we use here a lot,” Van Horn said. “But we do have a lot of strike throwers, a guy who we can put out there and they can pitch. Some of the other kids, we’ve seen them do it a lot more than others.

“Example, I guess when you say pitchability, (Kole) Ramage has a lot of pitchability to me. He’s a strike thrower — ball moves. We know what we’re getting when we put him out on the mound.”

There is some thought that the Hogs know what they are getting from Pallette, too. After pitching four times in the 16 games played last year, Pallette might be the starter in the season opener against Texas Tech.

Pallette displayed a 92 mph fast ball last year as a true freshman. He’s consistently at 97 now. But he has more than high velocity. Van Horn compares him to Ramage as far as pitchability.

“Pallette is kind of the same guy,” Van Horn said. ”He’s got a really good arm, but he throws it over the plate.

“You’re going to have to swing. That’s a big part of getting people out, is them knowing that you have three pitches you can throw around the plate.

“It’s such an advantage. We also have guys who can go out there and throw it right by you, as well.”

One of them is true freshman Jaxon Wiggins, a 6-6, 220-pound flame thrower from Roland, Okla.

“Electric,” DeBriyn said. “I checked with our national guys (with the Rockies) after seeing him this fall. They had been on him hard, but didn’t get to see him pitch one high school game because of covid so you just couldn’t take him in the short draft.

“Boy, do I like him. He looks the part.”

There’s a lot to like. Wiggins was consistently hitting 95 mph in the fall and doing it with an easy motion.

“He’s got a really good arm,” Van Horn said, “up to 97-98 mph already this, I guess we’ll call it winter, January, February.”

There may be more in the tank. The good news is that Wiggins also can do more than win the teddy bear at the fair.