For Kallen Miyataki and his baseball program at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, a sense of optimism has developed, and this time it’s a little more than your standard, hope-springs-eternal outlook shared by every baseball team for the new season.
For Kallen Miyataki and his baseball program at the University of Hawaii at Hilo, a sense of optimism has developed, and this time it’s a little more than your standard, hope-springs-eternal outlook shared by every baseball team for the new season.
It is almost a part of a national DNA, this idea that all things are possible and it’s going to be a better season once pitchers and catchers report and begin the ritual of throwing the horsehide in anger.
In his case, Miyataki is literally looking up at some pitching prospects, visualizing the kind of improvement in them that he, his staff and trainer Kensi Gibbs have been able to achieve in their strengthening and flexibility programs. With the right individual, say a dedicated pitcher like Jordan Kurokawa, Miyataki and staff have been able to build velocity and a newfound sense of confidence.
Kurokawa was drafted by the Philadelphia Phillies last spring, following a UHH season in which he shut out Hawaii-Manoa and was more than a handful for all Pacific West Conference teams, attracting scouts to every start. Over the course of his time at UHH, Kurokawa gained strength, endurance and through targeting specific muscle groups, his velocity increase almost 10 mph, to the mid-90s.
At 6-foot-2, Kurokawa blossomed here, but Miyataki felt a renewed surge of enthusiasm last week when he called together almost five dozen aspirants (55), for the Vulcans’ first practice of the new season. In time, that will be trimmed to 34, with a handful of players to take a redshirt season.
“It’s pretty great for the eye,” Miyataki said, “when you go to the field and you see a few (pitchers) who are 6-4, 6-5 or 6-6 and you think, ‘Maybe this plan of ours really can work.’”
The Plan is something Miyataki has been working on since he took the head coaching role in 2013. He was an associate head coach for Joey Estrella for three seasons and spent 14 more as an assistant. A former Vulcans’ catcher, you understand, ever since he played for the school, he’s literally had his eye on pitchers.
The other day, he recalled his start at UHH, when a few scouts asked him, “How are you going to do this? The perception of the program isn’t too good.”
“I told them, ‘It will take time, that we have to have a process to follow, and that we needed to focus on the ones who didn’t get a good look, maybe got passed over on other offers but still have some ability and desire,’” he said. “My thinking was if we can get some of those kids, develop them physically, work on the mental part of the game and make them into players, maybe we can stir something up, maybe we can create some interest.”
It’s a tough place to win, without question. Baseball is big in the islands, but there is a very limited group of talent on the Big Island itself and anyone worth a second or third look by recruiters and scouts will often be lured to Oahu by Hawaii-Manoa, or one of the mainland programs. Occasionally, with his severely limited recruiting budget, Miyataki scores with a mainland transfer, like outfielder Michael Jenkerson, a senior who ranks among a handful of the fastest players in the Pacific West Conference and who his coach thinks, “just might be the best outfielder in the state.”
That would include UH Manoa and if Miyataki is right, that kind of defense is vital in a pitcher’s park like Wong Stadium. Sluggers? Good luck on finding an authentic power hitter out of high school or community college who wants to show his professional long ball production by playing in a ballpark where fly balls go to die.
This narrow path, playing small ball, relying on solid pitching, finding the overlooked talent and taking the time to gradually develop it, might be the only realistic way to build up baseball at UHH. It worked for Kurokawa.
Now, Miyataki looks out to freshmen Dylan Spain, from Oahu- St. Louis, and Devin Elson, from Anchorage, Alaska, each of them 6-6. That’s just the start. From Kamehameha School comes 6-4 freshman Brandyn Lee-Lehano, joining other pitchers in the program with some size, such as returning senior Morgan West (6-3), and pitcher/infielder Tim Mendonca (6-4), are back for more work.
A lot of the future, not to mention the 2017 season, will center on these mostly unproven players, but beneath the surface, there’s some quantifiable improvement in the whole group, compared a to a few years ago.
“When we started, the average velocity of our pitchers was in the 79-80 (mph) area,” Miyataki said, “and now, it’s somewhere in the range of 82-88, so we see the improvement, we all know how Jordan improved over his time here, but we can’t lose sight of the fact that pitching is more than just throwing hard.
“Eric Vega did a good job for us last year as a sophomore,” he said, “because he knew how to pitch. He wasn’t throwing in the upper 90s, but he had a slider and a cutter he could use to get ahead. He’s coming back with a four-seam fastball he developed since last year and that will give a lot of people trouble.”
Miyataki figures if he can get a few believers to buy in, he can surprise some people and dig the program — 34-102 over the last four years — out of its hole.
“We want to have fun here,” he said, “this game is fun to play and we can never lose sight of that. When you start executing, putting the game in motion and making things happen, everyone gets involved.
“One thing you see about our kids,” he said, “is that they never quit on you. We boot a ball and give up a lead? It happens sometimes, but if you give us some room, just a little chance, we’ll be coming back, hard. They don’t quit here.”
With all these moving parts — baseball defense can’t hide bad pitching and good pitching can’t hide bad defense — Miyataki has a lot on his plate, but anyone who enjoys the game understands where it all begins.
That big guy out on the mound gets his signal, winds up and fires. The pitcher instigates everything and if you want to get better, it only makes sense to start where it all begins.
That explains why Miyataki is smiling more these days.