Texas Tech University Athletics
Making His Mark
February 25, 2004 | Baseball
Feb. 25, 2004
Putting your name on something.
Children write it on their homework. Adults etch it in their checkbooks.
Travis Walden takes pride in it and hopes to do it right when he places his name among those who are in charge of the Texas Tech baseball program in 2004.
"Anytime you put your name on something, it is important," said Walden, who was hired as Tech's pitching coach in the summer of 2003 after serving in the same position at Southwest Texas State (now Texas State). "It's an opportunity. It's special."
Though Walden is new at Texas Tech, it is far from the first time his name has been associated with major accomplishments in the city of Lubbock.
Walden won championships under two of the biggest coaching icons in West Texas history. He played on Bobby Moegle's Lubbock Monterey Class 5A state championship team in 1981 and helped current Tech head coach Larry Hays' Lubbock Christian squad to the 1983 NAIA national championship.
What Walden hopes to put his name on in 2004 is the Texas Tech pitching staff, a group that is seeing its third pitching coach in as many seasons. With both struggles and ERA mounting higher in recent seasons, Walden will have quite an opportunity to put his stamp on a staff that returns only three seniors.
"To be effective as a player, you've got to want to compete," Walden said. "I want these guys to go out there and get after it every time. I want them coming here every day ready to go to work."
The Red Raider pitching staff maintained a 4.24 ERA in 2001 and only walked 147 batters but has stumbled in the two seasons since. Tech pitchers walked 160 batters and held a 4.38 ERA in 2002 before sliding all the way to a 5.56 ERA with 176 walks in 2003.
As far as the walks are concerned, Walden has developed a unique approach- one that puts little emphasis on avoiding bases-on-balls.
"I'm not a guy who gets too concerned with walks and rides guys about them," he says. "If you're doing things right mechanically, that won't be a problem anyway."
Walden's feelings about constantly stating the importance of throwing strikes are something that makes him unique in an era where most pitching coaches preach about finding the plate and staying in the strike zone.
"Guys start worrying about walks, and they dwell on it," he said. "It's a lot like free throws in basketball. When you start talking about it, it tends to get in their heads. It's counter productive."
Rather than using time on the discussion of balls and strikes, Walden looks to spend more time developing in each of his pitchers the ability to throw an off-speed pitch that can put away opposing hitters.
"You always want guys that have velocity, but what I really want in a guy is an ability to use an 'out pitch'," Walden says. "Basically, to be successful, a guy has to have a solid out pitch and he's got to be able to have quality misses."
Non-quality misses are one thing that hurt Tech in 2003. Red Raider pitchers left the ball over the plate too many times and gave up 581 hits, but the startling stat is that 168 of those went for extra bases (including 43 home runs).
"A pitcher needs to have talent," Walden says. "But, he also has to be able to execute certain things. You need to have more good misses than bad misses."
One of Walden's favorite things to do is work with pitchers who have already developed mechanically and have control of their pitches.
"When you've got a guy who's already got a strong second pitch and good mechanics, then you can teach him about the game instead of trying to get him to think about mechanics. That's a part of coaching that I really enjoy when I can talk with a guy about how to set up hitters and when to use pitches. You can always teach a guy a change-up, but it's great when you can take what the kid's got and bring out how to use it. We've got a few guys here (at Tech) that we can do that with."
Where talent is concerned, Walden will be the first Tech pitching coach since Frank Anderson (now head coach at Oklahoma State) in 1999 to be directly involved with recruiting. Both Ryan Brewer and Brian Strickland served as volunteer pitching coaches, which prevented them from recruiting according to NCAA regulations. Walden, on the other hand, is now Tech's full-time pitching coach, which allows him to be out on the road looking at pitchers and finding the things he wants.
"I'm always looking for guys that can execute their pitches, especially guys who can use that 'out pitch'," Walden says. "Ideally, you hope for a guy that's a great pitcher and you can just bring him in, change his jersey, and let him throw."
Walden credits his five years as the head coach at Vernon Junior College as the most influential in learning about collegiate coaching.
"Vernon Junior College is probably the place where I learned the most. I learned how to recruit and be a college coach. It was the first and only time I was ever a head coach. When I got there, the program was not very good, and I got experience coaching hitting, pitching, infielding and just a little bit of everything."
Aside from pitching strategy, Walden's philosophy on handling players has it roots in his days as a player and coach under Texas high school coaching legend Bobby Moegle. After playing his college ball at LCU and spending three years after that in the Philadelphia Phillies organization, Walden served six years as an assistant at Monterey.
Like Moegle, whose former players often trade stories of his tough-natured leadership, Walden's coaching philosophy has a hard-nosed, no-nonsense style.
"The more places you've been and the more you coach, you have to pick and choose what you like." Are you going to be a player's coach, or are you going to be a tough coach? I'm more of an old-school values type of guy- a rougher and tougher kind of coach. Either way, you have to be the same every day, or your players won't respect you."
Walden brings a patchwork philosophy to Tech, consisting of ideas he has picked up at Vernon JC and Monterey along with his other coaching and playing stops. Following his assistance under Moegle, he spent two seasons coaching at Hardin-Simmons, followed by a season as a pitching coach in the Texas Rangers organization. Walden then worked five seasons as head coach in Vernon before spending one year as a volunteer assistant at Texas A&M and last season at Southwest Texas State.
With numerous stops, Walden has had a lot of time and numerous opportunities to figure out his own way of doing things.
"I feel like I've been able to take all the things I have seen in places I have been and create my own philosophy. I know what I want to do and how I want to do it. Being at a new school as many times as I have has helped me build my philosophy. Having to establish yourself at every place makes you even stronger in your beliefs. Players are always going to try you, and you have to be sure of yourself."
Walden's season working with the Rangers is tied to his relationship with Oscar Acosta, a former pitching coach at the big league level (Chicago Cubs and Texas Rangers) who was Lubbock Christian's pitching coach during Walden's playing days.
"I've learned a lot about pitching from Oscar over the years. I used to spend two or three weeks every summer with Oscar wherever his team was. Sometimes he was traveling through the minors working with guys, and then he was up with the big league clubs. I met him wherever he was. He put me in touch with other guys who were around as well, and I've been most fortunate to be around good people and gain a lot of knowledge that way.
Out of all I've learned, I've figured out that you've got to treat each pitcher different and try to get the most out of him. You have to have enough knowledge to work with each kid."
Working with different pitchers will certainly be in Walden's job description in 2004. Of the 19 hurlers on the Red Raider pitching staff, 13 are newcomers and only Steve Gooch has significant experience as a starter heading into the year. Juan Razo, Tanner McElroy and Corey Gerstner all made starts for Tech in 2003, but all struggled with ERAs of at least 6.00 or higher. This doesn't concern Walden, though.
"It hasn't been difficult putting in my system here. All of these kids want to win. They are either going to do things right or they probably won't play. They've all bought in more and more into what we are trying to do."
Undoubtedly, Walden's hard-line approach will make a mark on the Tech pitching staff in 2004 and for seasons to come. Red Raider fans can hope Walden's mark will be one that guides Tech back into postseason play after a one-year drought. And maybe they should hope with confidence.
After all, Travis Walden is very serious when it comes to putting his name on something.
