The Perfect Strom

Front Office
Written By John Crowley

It’s the Christmas season and time to be with our families, so, I’ll get straight to the point: Brent Strom is the new assistant pitching coach for the Pittsburgh Pirates, and I believe his role there will take Paul Skenes’ career into sustained and further stardom. The perfect storm is gathering over the Allegheny. Alright, with that big statement out of the way, and, in the words of Strom himself, let’s get after it.

Brent Strom is a 76-year-old pitching coach legend. He took over the Houston Astros’ pitching staff in 2014 until retiring in 2021, then came out of retirement to steer the Diamondbacks into their first World Series appearance since 2001 as pitching coach. There were other stops along the way, but those are the major tenures. Oddly let go at the end of the 2024 season with one year left on his contract (we’ll get into that), Strom now heads to the star-studded Pittsburgh rotation to join Oscar Marin in coaching NL Rookie of the Year phenom Paul Skenes, as well as young ace Jared Jones.

Strom’s Resumé

In that 9-year coaching span (ignoring early stints with the Royals and Nationals), chasing the likes of Leo Mazzone, Strom has seen 4 World Series and coached five Cy Young finalists. Fun challenge for the day: try to name them. Here’s one of them to get you started: he took ex-Pirate Gerrit Cole and turned him into an ace in 2018. In the two years before joining Houston, Cole rocked a 4 ERA with a 19-22 record, striking out 294 batters, averaging around a 1.35 WHIP. In his two years in Houston, Cole pitched a 35-10 record with a 2.68 ERA and a 0.96 WHIP, punching 602 tickets. At the end of the 2021 season, it looked like Strom was calling an end to his spectacular career.

Then, in a twist for American seniors, Strom unretired to Phoenix. As early as May 2022, the Diamondbacks were surprising everyone in baseball. They’d lost 110 games in 2021 but had a winning record one month into 2022. Talking to Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci, when asked about helping coach the worst team in baseball, Strom replied, “it was intriguing to me, I wanted the challenge”. He already had an idea of where to get started: “They were dead last in elevated heaters last year!”. *1

In 2023, Strom took his early success in Arizona to the next level. He built a personal relationship with then Triple-A prospect Brandon Pfaadt. He called him up at 11:00 PM during the All-Star Break just to tell him a revelation he’d had about shifting Pfaadt’s foot to the first base rubber side.*2 He had a whole diagram drawn up and everything. Before that conversation, Pfaadt got banged up badly in his first trip to the Show, hemorrhaging a 9.82 ERA over 26 innings, and was now convalescing in Triple-A Reno halfway through the season. Working closely with Strom, Pfaadt came all the way back to make the playoff rotation. Aside from his shaky Wild Card start in Milwaukee, the rookie of rookies danced under the brightest lights, giving up no runs in his Division Series start against the Dodgers, posting a 1.86 ERA in his two starts against the Phillies in the NLCS, and holding his own in the World Series against Texas’ mashers. Pfaadt had a 1 WHIP, 3.27 ERA, and 10.6 K/9 over his 22 innings pitched in the 2023 postseason. He’d pitched in the majors for only 2 months.

Diamondbacks Departure

So, why’d the Diamondbacks let Brent Strom go? Heads had to roll for a team that had the best offense in baseball but missed the playoffs, posting the fourth highest ERA (4.63) in the MLB. Notably, Strom was caught off guard by the firing, but didn’t flinch: "Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and when it comes to the pitching, that's me."*3 I honestly love that response. It’s neither cocky nor afraid. Moreover, it checks out with Strom’s reputation for realism. When interviewed by the MLB Network panel during the 2023 WS against Texas, Strom opened up *4 on how he responds to poor pitcher performance, as he is often labeled as ‘brusque’, or, not caring about pitchers’ feelings:


“I don’t mind [the] lack of execution when they fail. I do mind when they don’t follow a plan that we’ve agreed upon. That’s when I’ll go out and say, ‘listen dude’.” 


In that same interview, he gets credited by a Brian McCann quote, stating, “Nobody could get a guy out of a funk on the mound quicker than Brent Strom” – high remarks from a 7-time All-Star catcher.

Brent Strom interviewed by Mark DeRosa during the 2023 World Series – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ao7YHzIBf8s 

Strom tells the truth. His track record is too good for him to catch the blame for costing the ballclub the playoffs. From Reddit threads to YouTube videos of ardent Snakes fans, I’ve gathered that their disappointment from 2024 lays a little blame with Torey Lovullo’s management – pounding the same arms on back-to-back nights and waiting around until jams almost demand earned runs in order to be escaped. Other times, they’ve questioned the GM Mike Hazen *5 for a lack of depth prior to the season. But, as with all sports, it’s the players that have to play the game. Mangers, GMs, and pitching coaches can only affect so much. 

On paper, entering the 2024 season, the rotation was powerful: Zac Gallen, Merrill Kelly, Brandon Pfaadt, Eduardo Rodríguez and Jordan Montgomery. The problem was, Kelly was out from April to mid-August, E-Rod didn’t pitch til August, and Montgomery, due to a missed spring training from a late signing and some injury, was playing catch-up all year in real time. Missing three of your best arms on paper for a team that’s already strapped for innings isn’t Strom’s fault – or any of the coaches’ for that matter; he can only coach what’s there. 

The Unity of Data and Feel

In his own words, Strom’s pitch coaching goal is to “make the unintentional intentional.” An intuitive tinkerer, Strom studies outcomes. An anecdote: during his tenure in Houston, Strom did a three day deep-dive on Zack Greinke, making him a $100 bet that he’d get better results with an elevated fastball. Greinke doubted him, noting that that’s where guys take him deep. Then, Strom showed him when he throws the very next pitch in the zone, he consistently holds hitters to a .300 OPS. This level of observation reminds one of the Japanese martial art of Aikido, using your opponents’ power against them in a multi-move game of body chess. Strom’s study of the game ensures that outcomes turn into game-planned pitch sequences, not accidents. 

The Japanese martial art of Aikido – https://www.westchesteraikido.com/ 

Strom goes to outside sources like track and field competitions and other sporting events, hunting inspiration to get pitchers to move “more athletically.” *6 He credits Paul Nyman, the Connecticut engineer and founder of SETPRO that revolutionized *7 pitching with physics and analytics, for his way of seeing the game. In his MLB Network interview during the 2023 World Series, he talks about how guys like Bob Gibson weren't analyzing their static positions in space, one step at a time of their delivery – rather, they were “getting after it.” His goal with data is to help pitchers move more intuitively by moving more athletically. This is very important: Strom destroys the false dichotomy – the sense of separation – between analytics and “old-school baseball.” He is an old-timer and a master of his craft, an empiricist that’s dedicated to observation. He isn’t pining for the olden days, missing Bob Gibson. He’s pointing out that Gibson, physicists, and data guys are all chasing the same Zen. He isn’t married to Python machine-learning models grinding against a database while looking at the world through an iPad or Trackman, nor is he gruffly muttering that the game isn’t played by computers while yelling at clouds. He’s the “wax on wax off” guru with the lab coat and the laptop to back it up. That’s the thing, in Brent Strom’s eyes, there is no separation between analytics and just playing the game. It’s all one. 


The Pelvis Throws the Baseball

Pun intended, the core of his pitching view is the scientific study of pelvic loading. He got his first tip here from Paul Nyman’s research and made it his own. Strom did a presentation to the American Baseball Coaches Association in 2006 when serving as pitching coordinator for the Washington Nationals. You can see the slides of his presentation here, along with some commentary. *8 From one of the slides: “the pelvic area becomes the reference point for movement with respect to the processing and interpretation of proprioceptive information.” That’s a fancy word, so I looked it up. Proprioception means self-awareness of the body’s motion and position in space. To really get a glimpse of its definition, close your eyes and stand on one leg. 

Correct Pelvic Loading — ABCA presentation slide, Brent Strom – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT6PLVRmhuA 

According to Nyman, Strom, and physics itself, the point of proprioception is to maximize the energy transferred into the baseball, where the byproduct of this efficiency is the decrease of strain on injury-prone parts of the pitcher’s motion (the kinetic chain). We’ve covered this before in prior articles on Bauer, Ragans, and Arrighetti – pitchers touted for their use of analytics and the study of form with regards to physics. For me, it’s easier to understand a new concept when I witness the old problem that the new concept is trying to solve. Strom adds an animation of a “not so good” pelvic loader, in Mark Prior, injury-prone Cubs ace from the early 2000’s. 

Mark Prior - “Not so good” Pelvic Loading from ABCA presentation slide, Brent Strom – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT6PLVRmhuA 

Contrasted to the human body animation of the prior slide, the Prior slide shows a vertical, stiff posture that seems to be obligatorily-lifting its lead leg as a vestigial salute to what pitching motions tend to look like — I’m not trying to knock Prior, who showed incredible skill. With regards to the “pelvic load” way of thinking, the leg shouldn’t really be lifted, as that puts the motion origin in context of the human head. It’s more that the leg should be pulled by the pelvis, coiling up the core as the kinetic kickoff. The pelvis is the brains of the whole sequence. When the pelvic load is not made the body’s center of gravity – the head of the entire kinetic chain – the energy that is trying to be transferred into the baseball gets lost along the way, bumping and banging around in a maze of delicate ligaments and joints. Energy is a lot like a fluid – it will take the shape it’s given. In Prior’s more upright posture, he throws away most of the energy generated from his core in his non-pelvic load, putting more strain on his scapula and elbow to make up the difference in the baseball’s velocity. This is how you get injuries or Tommy John surgery at a more frequent rate. Importantly, Strom does away with old adages like use your legs by pushing off the rubber, as those imply a body motion that tilts side-to-side in a pelvic lean – which, again, wastes the coiled energy of the pelvic core, responsible for transferring both leg and upper-body energy together into the baseball. Blending the philosophies of analytics and going with your gut into a single science – Brent Strom sees no separateness between the halves of the body, either.

Incorrect load – Pelvic leaning – from ABCA presentation slide, Brent Strom – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT6PLVRmhuA 

Behind The Skenes 

Pelvic loading is common knowledge now; why is Strom good news for Skenes? Simply, the thesis is that Brent Strom’s arrival as assistant pitching coach will take Paul Skenes to the next level, Maddux-ifying him in a vehicle of physics and spatial awareness to protect his stardom into longevity. I believe Strom will make him more a chess player than a burst of lightning. It’s not just that Strom gets physics and data — it’s that he’s mastered them and doesn’t use them in a vacuum or like some hacky tool. With enough effort, someone can learn to play sax like John Coltrane if they memorize his records and ‘lip’ sync every line. But, they don’t feel through the sax as if it were another limb, like Coltrane did. It’s not a creative connection. It’s just copying. For Strom, a pitcher with willingness and talent is a conduit for the highest creative ideal. It’s his art.

Skenes is a fastball-throwing talent, and that’s right in the wheelhouse of Strom’s resumé. He guided Verlander’s career resurgence in Houston, and Gerrit Cole and Merrill Kelly’s arrival as real aces. Strom’s love of the elevated fastball as a prelude to the unfolding story of an at-bat bodes well for Skenes. I’m excited for both of them. 

A new storm is brewing over Pittsburgh. Who knows, maybe this tandem goes down in history next to Bismarck’s political fusion of ‘iron and rye’, or the health foodie’s blend of turmeric with black pepper, or, for the rest of us, the perfect combination of chocolate and peanut butter. I saw somewhere that it’s like Vader and Palpatine. No matter which dynamic duo they most resemble, I think the fates have aligned over the Allegheny. I’m eager to see if Strom can take Skenes to the next level, not only in becoming a chess master of the mound, but one that can pitch for a long time to come.

*

  1.  How Diamondbacks Pitching Coach Brent Strom Is Fixing Last Year’s Worst Team – https://www.si.com/mlb/2022/05/09/diamondbacks-pitching-brent-strom-the-opener 

  2.  Pirates Star Excited For Addition of Brent Strom – https://www.si.com/mlb/pirates/news/pittsburgh-pirates-paul-skenes-excited-addition-brent-strom 

  3.  Diamondbacks Pitching Coach Brent Strom Reacts to Being Fired – https://www.si.com/mlb/diamondbacks/arizona-diamondbacks-news/diamondbacks-pitching-coach-brent-strom-reacts-to-being-fired-01j99w3wkjgh 

  4.  D-backs Pitching Coach Brent Strom talks Development –  https://youtu.be/Ao7YHzIBf8s?t=595 

  5.  D-backs Poor Pitching- I Don't Think Brent Strom is Entirely to Blame – https://www.azsnakepit.com/2024/10/6/24263270/d-backs-poor-pitching-i-dont-think-brent-strom-is-entirely-to-blame 

  6.  D-backs Pitching Coach Brent Strom talks Development –  https://youtu.be/Ao7YHzIBf8s?t=452 

  7. The Man Who Started The Pitching Revolution: A Discussion With Paul Nyman – https://www.baseballamerica.com/stories/the-man-who-started-the-pitching-revolution-a-discussion-with-paul-nyman/ 

  8.  Brent Strom ABCA Pelvic Loading Presentation My commentary – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jT6PLVRmhuA 

John Crowley
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