Mark Connor
Mark Connor
Mark Peter Connoris a former pitching coach for the Baltimore Orioles and Texas Rangers. Before his coaching career, he was a minor league pitcher from 1971 through 1972 who batted and threw right-handed...
ball good moving people progress throwing time
The ball was moving good today. He was throwing it over the plate. If he does that, he'll get people out. There's progress each time out.
baseball command depends far stay
It just depends on his command and how he's feeling, as far as how long he'll stay there. We want him healthy.
certain expects focus hard looks perfect pitch pitches trying
I want him to focus on making one pitch at a time. Sometimes it looks like he's trying to make 10 pitches and pressing to a certain degree, trying to make the perfect pitch. It's hard to do this with a lot of tension, it's hard to do anything with a lot of tension. He's pressing because he expects a lot out of himself.
fair five goes option pitches six
We want him to keep starting. If he goes 80 pitches and five or six innings, it's fair to say he's now an option for us.
building closer course feeling felt innings keeps needed pitch
Through my years, I've felt a closer needed to pitch about 20 innings in the spring. But I like the course Coco is on. As long as he keeps building up and feeling good, I think he'll be fine.
help lead piece relinquish spot violin violinist
This is a piece where I thought that I really wanted to relinquish that first violin spot and have a really big-name violinist come in to help lead this quartet.
ball baltimore couple given good help hopefully liked mechanical rick saw seen shown since
I saw Rick come up with Baltimore in '01 and I liked his stuff. I haven't seen much of him since but he's got a live arm, his ball sinks and he's got a good slider. There's more in there than he's shown and I've given him a couple mechanical things that hopefully will help him.
good pitch
It could be a good pitch for him.
chance gets good matures pitcher starting
He's a talent. As he matures and gets more experience, there's a pretty good chance he's going to be a good starting pitcher in the big leagues.
decision felt hitters mound pitch ready seen sure thrown worried
He hasn't made a decision yet but he's going to have to get up on the mound pretty quick. I wouldn't want him to go pitch if he hasn't seen any hitters or thrown all his pitches. I'm not worried yet. He said he felt better today. But I'm not sure he's ready to get on the mound.
ball came closer game january problem since stuff throwing
He has been lights-out since January and wasn't laboring, so I didn't have a problem with that. He's throwing the ball well. He probably came in here closer to having game stuff than anybody.
deserves opportunity
He deserves the opportunity to be in the rotation.
base believe breaking gave guy hit spring struck stuff telling trust walked
He was perfect. He walked a guy that I thought he struck out. He gave up a base hit and it was probably an error. He commanded his fastball, changeup and breaking ball. I've been telling him all spring he's got the stuff to do this. He's got to believe in it and trust it.
feels pitch
He feels like it's a pitch he can use.