Last week, Andrew Golden of the Washington Post asked several Nationals pitchers where they focus their gaze as they prepare to pitch. They all seemed to have different answers. “When we go to the bullpen, that’s what we’re finding out,” said Robert Garcia. “It changes every pitch,” said MacKenzie Gore.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about where a person directs their attention, about how much control they really have over it, about things seen and unseen. That’s because for the past few months, something has been slowly creeping both into my field of view and into my consciousness.
During spring training, as I watched footage of pitchers and catchers working out, there was often something lurking off in the periphery. Although it was brightly colored, it didn’t draw attention to itself. It didn’t move at all. But once I started seeing it, I couldn’t unsee it. I couldn’t help looking for it, scrolling through the social media feeds of beat writers for evidence.
Here’s a picture Newsday’s Tim Healy took a few weeks ago. Adrian Houser is pitching, and J.D. Martinez is standing in the batter’s box watching pitches. But someone else is lurking behind J.D. Martinez, watching him.
That’s the Designated Hitter. It’s a dummy shaped like a batter. The idea is to set it up in the batter’s box so that pitchers can simulate facing an actual batter. The cord dangling from its elbow is intended to give pitchers a frame of reference for pitching inside. It turns out that just about the entire league uses it.
It’s not just the majors, either. The Designated Hitter has permeated every level of the sport. It’s especially prominent at training facilities. If you’re a pitching nerd who pays attention to what’s going on at Tread or Driveline, you’ve almost certainly seen it in use.
Chris Langin, Driveline’s Director of Pitching, published clips on Twitter showcasing MLB pitchers using the Designated Hitter for training purposes. Colby Morris, a former intern at Driveline and current associate pitching analyst in the Giants system, is a big fan of the Designated Hitter concept.
On Deck Sports owns the Designated Hitter, but the idea didn’t originate from there. Jim Haller, along with his business partner Steve Zawrotny, came up with the concept of the Designated Hitter. Haller, a former minor league pitcher, ultimately found success in manufacturing after his baseball career. He and Zawrotny developed the Designated Hitter in the early 2000s.
Overall, the Designated Hitter has become a commonly used tool in baseball training, from amateur to professional levels, providing pitchers with a unique opportunity to simulate facing live batters during practice sessions. The dummy’s uniform batting stance and brightly colored design make it a recognizable and essential element in modern pitching training.
