off-season training
i would like to start this post off by apologizing to jpbucco, my comment was unnecessary. however you have to understand that for someone who works as hard as i do that it really upsets me when people put so much value in a rumor that they hear through the grapevine.
so i hope you accept my apology jp.
this incident actually inspires my next post on here. i think its a pretty good topic, so you know what the offseason of a minor league baseball player is.
ok so i spent this offseason in charleston, south carolina. which is a great city, and is only 2 hours from where my parents live in chapin, south carolina. i was there because my girlfriend lives there and is attending the medical university. another reason i was there was because my grandfather lives there and his wife, my grandmother, of 42 years passed away this year, towards the end of the season. so i was there to keep him company and keep his mind off things.
while i was in charleston i was able to find a personal trainer. his name is brian devlin and he is a genius in terms of neuro muscular efficiency. to put it simply he killed me for three months. if you go to his website www.briandevlin.com there is acutally a video of some training clips on the front page. the wheel of death is the first thing shown and its shown at the end of an hour long workout. i would also like to note that i finished by purging myself in the nearby bushes, which was not a rarity this offseason. the video clips help so much because we were able to identify weaknesses in my body and atttack them.
as far as my throwing a conditioning went, i threw with a catcher at bishop england high and ran in the field and through the town that it was in. the catcher is actually signed to go play baseball at the university of south carolina, so you can imagaine how we got along. im just kidding, he was very nice.
well thats it for this post, as always comments and questions are appreciated
until later
Moskie Madness 
No problem dude, I was actually glad to see you get fired up a bit.
I just wanted you to know that though a lot of Pirate fans are extremely angry that Dave Littlefield passed on Wieters to draft you, we know it’s not your fault.
Unfortunately Bobby Hill isn’t around anymore so you are the most notorious link to DL….So that makes you the poster child for our anger and disappointment.
I hope to hell for your sake and ours, you prove everybody wrong.
Good luck.
i completely understand. but like you said its not my fault. i am also doing everything in my power to be the best baseball player i can be. you should be sure of that. thats aa promise i will keep no matter what
Daniel, looks like you are working your a** off, I really expect to see you pitch like you did in the middle of last year . I remember seeing you have a sub-one ERA over about five starts. Keep pushing I’ll be attending a few of your starts in Altoona.
aso- thank you so much for the kind words. ill look to seeing you there. make sure to let me know when youll be there and ill get you an autograph and what not
I live in State College and will be attending some Curve games..try not to fire an “accidental” errant fastball in my direction.
Man thanks, didn’t even have to ask. Hopefully it’s against Trenton so you can plow through some of those future Yankees, wait they don’t give prospects a chance. Haha.
hahaha that would never happen. but i will get you some autographs and whatever you need
hahah aso i know. isnt it crazy. we wont call em prospects anymore. from now on they will be called trade bait
Daniel, I will be down in Bradenton the second week of March. My question is are you going to be at any of the games or will you be at Pirate City?
man idk why people are so upset over this weiters bs, id still rather have doumit, hes the truth. idk why people get so caught up in conditioning and all that stuff, look what babe ruth did and i wouldnt say he was in great condition, as long as you can play well ya know. I honestly hope that you and all the other prospects can come up here and start the winning tradition again because from what ive seen at steelers and penguins games if the buccos started winning again pnc park would be insane. idk what type of music you like im sure that will be another post topic but this dude i went to high school with wiz khalifa up here in pittsburgh is well known and is getting attention nationally
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9gypvoDNrM
thats one of his older songs, not his best but i thought considering what its called itd be a good one to listen to haha
how do you get your posts to have spaces?
First, its nice to watch an athlete attempt to get stronger the clean and natural way.
Of course, that brings us to another elephant in the room. Steroids. I know youre just starting out, but as a player you must have an opinion. Heres my question: one of the reasons it took so long for testing to be implemented is because the union stonewalled, an assumption made that they were attempting to protect their rank and file. But as one of those who believes the users were in the minority, didnt their actions essentially throw the clean guys like you under a bus? As a result of their actions, hasnt the stench of suspicion unfairly been sprayed onto all the clean players?
Oswalt recently talked about this openly and I was curious how you feel about it, or maybe how the other players feel as Im sure its been discussed. Me, Id be pissed. Thanks.
Daniel, how would you evaluate your production and development during your first two years in professional baseball? I think for many fans, they see your apparent struggles as a source of frustration due to you being the #4 pick in the draft.
Reading posts like that gets me pumped for the season to start, I hope to see you in Altoona this year, I should get to more Spikes games too. Keep up the hard work and I’m sure you’ll prove all the doubters wrong.
Danny,
Just caught the link to here from WHYGAVS.com. I do applaud you for not only blogging on here, but responding to all the posts. It’s a lot of work and I’m sure as the season progresses it will get harder to do regularly, but we really appreciate it. If you can get past the few jerks that may show up here, there are a lot of very interesting things we can learn. I also understand that it may be difficult for you to address certain questions because this is a public forum and you don’t want to speak badly about a person or the organization. That said, your posts so far have been enlightening and fun to read.
As for inserting spaces, I think you’ll need to use the html tags. the easiest way should be to type when you want to insert a line break.
Thanks again. I’m sure I’ll have lots of questions about life as a prospect.
d’oh! the xmp tag worked in the preview page. anyway, type the left angle bracket (above the comma) then “br” then the right angle bracket (above the period) and it will make a line return.
Wow. That is REALLY intense. I always wonder what players are doing during the offseason and now I know what you are doing. I can’t wait for the first spring games!
-Ellie
http://mrmetbro.blogspot.com
Daniel, thanks for the “wheel of death” video link on Brian’s site. When you rolled over on your back and did the drills, that mimics how I do crunches in training for marathons — torso up at same time as legs brought in. But the wheelbarrow thing…that looked brutal even with batting gloves! Nice job.
Shout if you need anything here at the MLBlogosphere. This community is pretty much troll-free, any pest commenting is easily extinguished. Really cool how you respond, and you have more patience so far than I would have.
Mark/MLB.com
http://mlblogs.mlblogs.com
spring training- yes i will be in bradenton then. but most likely will be at pirate city. sorry to disappoint.
clarke i will be the first to say that wieters is an amazing baseball player. players like him dont come around that often. i played against him for 3 years in college. he is really good. music will probably be another post but i pretty much listen to anything, and ill have to check out that video. i have no clue how to do it. i wish i did, it would make things alot easier.
orrington- steroids is a very controversial subject, and i dont know that i should be talking about it openly becuase i dont want to throw anybody under the bus. i myself never have been and never will be a steroid user, i believe that hard work pays off. im gonna leave everybody to make their own decisions tho and not judge them. sorry if you consider that avoiding the question.
cybixler- due to really slow negotiations of my contract terms it took over a month for me to sign. which took its effect on me for the first short season. i really didnt get back into full playing shape until my last few appearances. thanks to hard work by our pitching coach wilson alvarez.
and as far as the first full season goes, i was moved from the bullpen to the rotation. this was a big change for me. pitching every 5th day instead of every 7th in college, as well as mkaing 25 starts instead of 10. my body simply just did not know what it was getting itself into. i see this year as a very important year, and i am more than ready.
thank you very much shamtown, im jsut as pumped as you for the season to start.
falseaccount thank you for the kind words and the support. its good to have fans out there like you. if you ever have a question just let me know. oh and thanks for the tip. this works a little bit better.
hey ellie, thanks for the input. it was not fun, but i do tell you that having a trainer really helps. He was able to push me on the days when i was lacking in motivation.
Hey Moskos. Canada here, from Lynchburg. Love reading the blog. I look forward to reading your posts when the season gets started. Do you think you could keep us up to date on where certain players may land as we get closer to the upcoming season? I know there may be some information that you wouldn’t be able to divulge, but anything you could report would be a huge favor to the minor league fan base.
Good luck next season. I’m living in DC now, so I’ll see you and the guys when you head down to Bowie.
You weren’t kidding about him working you hard. Sorry to hear about your grandmother passing. I’m sure your grandfather appreciated you spending time with him.
Julia
http://werbiefitz.mlblogs.com
Congrats on debuting as the top overall player MLBlogger — 29th overall in the Latest Leaders just posted on the community blog at http://mlblogs.mlblogs.com
That was for Feb. 17-23, and I think this blog was only active for about half of that time…so will zoom much higher next week at this pace.
Mark/MLB.com
http://mlblogs.mlblogs.com
http://www.twitter.com/mlblogs
Daniel,
As a long time Pirates fan I’d like to 1st by saying thanks for doing this blog as I think it’s a really cool thing to reach out to the fans.
The question that I have is do you set any kind of goals for yourself for the upcoming season, and if so what kind of goals did you set for yourself for the upcoming baseball season?
Thanks for answering my question and best of luck in the upcoming season.
Dave
OK guys, per request of my girlfriend i will make a legitimate attempt to capitalize letters and use better spelling and punctuation. I promise I’m not an idiot, just try to type too fast sometimes.
Anyways……….
If it isnt the infamous Aaron Canada. Good to hear from you buddy. I will certainly make an attempt at letting everyone know where players are going. I definitely dont want to get into trouble by doing so though, so I will only make comment if it is 100 percent accurate. Glad to hear you finally got out of Lynchburg, I’m sure you were absolutely ecstatic. We will see you in Bowie.
Julia- No i wasn’t kidding, my trainer is a madman, but i love it. Yes it really helped my grandfather out through some tough times. I just hope that he does ok with me gone, and of course thank you for your sympathies.
Daniel, thank you for your candid response to why you think you struggled during the past two years in the minors. However, doing a little research I discovered the following statistics for last season for pitchers taken in the first round during the 2007 draft (exluding your stats):
ERA: 3.07
K/9: 8.0
And here are your numbers:
ERA: 5.95
K/9: 6.4
Mark- I’m glad someone can sort of share in the pain i was going through. The wheel of death was really bad because the wheels always wanted to roll out from underneath you. Thanks for letting me know about the pest control. Hopefully we wont have too many issues with that kind of stuff. Oh WOW how about that, thats pretty cool. Thanks for the update.
Dave- I completely agree, i think that this is a tremendous idea. That way fans can get to know players, see what they go through, and then once they make it to the big leagues already have established relationships with them. To answer your question, yes i do set goals. However, they are probably not in the sense that you are thinking. I dont tell myself that i have to make it to the bog leagues this year. One particular goal for me this offseason was that I was going to come into spring training in the best shape of my life. I got that one. Second for this season, I am going to not overthink on the mound, that was a huge problem for me last year. Another goal is to stay healthy, not have to miss starts. Things like that, would I love to make it to Pittsburgh this year, absolutely, but the season wont be a failure if i dont. Hope that helps.
cybixler- i understand that those stats can be discouraging. But as I stated previously a major reason for my late season struggles was due to fatigue. Also, the pirates philosophies for pitching do not revolve around the strikeout, they revolve around pitching to contact and have the batter on or out in 3 pitches or less. Sure strikeouts look real good, but alot of the best pitchers in the game are not strikeout pitchers. Lets wait for this year to come around and we should be able to get a better idea of how my stats really add up to the competition. Just trust me on this one.
Dan,
Im encouraged. Your willingness and ability to now capitalize and use proper spelling and punctuation shows your ability to make adjustments.
No problem with the steroid question; I sort of suspected i was inching towards matters best left unspoken.
Lets try this one, much easier; the Pirates have a long and illustrious tradition. Youre part of that tradition now. If you were to look back, who would you say is your favorite Buc of all time and why? Thanks. (And if you like, who was your favorite player of all time, assuming he wasnt a Bucco?)
Me, my 2 favorite players of the past are Clemente and Jimmy Piersall. One because he was great, the other because he was certifiably nuts.
let me tell you right now my dude that this has officially become my study break website. i’ve been telling all my bucco-fan friends about this. i think it’s awesome how much you update your stuff and reply to people. i knew that from being a first round pick and from the scouting reports that you have the talent to succeed, but just by reading this blog over the past week it’s clear you definitely have the mindset and drive that makes up a champion… and being a bucco fan, we need more people like you.
haha ok, im done kissing ***, just wanted to let you know that youve gained atleast one huge fan out of doing this blog. so MLB.com has a customizable jersey t-shirt up for sale. say i wanted to get a Danny Moskos jersey shirt that i can wear now to show i believe in the future of the franchise but won’t be outdated when you actually make the bigs… what’s a good guess to what your MLB number will be?
Hey Dan – Congrats on “entering” the Pro bloggers list at #29! Keep up the great blogging and we fans appreciate you taking the time to answer!
Julia
http://werbiefitz.mlblogs.com/
orrington- You are right. We will leave those discussions to those that need to have them. I dont need to be on anyones bad list for saying things i shouldnt. Favorite bucco has to be Clemente. He is truly a great player, model citizen, and played the game the way it was supposed to be played. My favorite baseball player of all time is probably John Smoltz. I have always loved watching him pitch, and he was always unselfish, did whatever the organization asked him to. Sounds familiar, hahaha only kidding, no way i could compare myself to him.
the doc- i really appreciate it man. Yoou are too kind. But please do tell your friends, i love the interaction from fans, it has actually been overwhelming how many followers I have. I would have to say either 14 or 41. those have always been my numbers growing up. Always love to have positive fans such as yourself doc, so thank you.
Thanks Julia, i will keep up the work for sure.
Thanks for the response, Dan. Youre turning out to be a real mensch (ask Grabow what it means).
Ive given this a great deal of thought and Ive decided youre going to have an All Star career. Yes, I have that cosmic power. You think Doumit is an accident? Nope. That was me. And he doesnt even have a blog, which frankly now, because of you, is starting to tick me off.
Reading this blog has really given me restored faith in your career. I can tell based on the parameters you had to pitch within last year don’t reflect your actual talent. Going to see you pitch this year should be a treat. I think that with your full array of pitches, and increased conditioning, you will start to shut the mouths of all the doubters. Quick ? Pedro Alvarez steps into the box to face you, what’s the result?
Your the man, Moskos. I’ve been telling everyone about your blog. Again, whenever you want to do something with each of our sites, just let me know.
http://theburghblues.mlblogs.com
Orrington- hahaha, I don’t even know what that means, but it sounds pretty funny. I will have to ask him. Well my friend I hope you are right, that would be a dream come true, Maybe if the minor league blogs turn out to be successful they will ask a big leaguer from each team to do one.
aso- Thank you so much for the positive input, it is quite refreshing. Wow, great question. I think that it would be a great matchup, with me having the slight edge because it would be a left-on-left matchup. I think that I would get ahead with a fastball away, then go hard sinker down and in on him to back him off the plate a little bit. Next I would go slider away for a strike, followed by a 2- strike slider for a ball. To finish I would throw a fastball away that he fouls off, and end the at-bat with a change-up that he rolls over to the second baseman. Now how is that for an answer?
Burgh Blues- thats awesome man, keep spreading the good word. Like I said whenever is good for you, lets try to get something done this week.
Exactly the way any real pirate fan would love to hear for one reason, you backed the hitter off the plate by going inside even if it is Pedro “mini-pops” Alvarez.
What do you have in mind? I’d just love to ask you a couple of questions and post your responses on my blog. What would be the best way to send you those questions?
Here’s some examples:
Interview with Tim Dierkes (MLBTraderumors.com) http://tinyurl.com/cefmbz
Interview with Bryan Wiedey (Pastapadre.com)
http://tinyurl.com/88koqq
You’d be in elite company! You can contact me at: jjbehr@gmail.com.
aso- I am glad you enjoyed the answer, I worked hard on that one. He is a very good hitter, the kind that you have to be careful with. Mark my words he will be a special baseball player in this game for years to come.
Burgh- I will email you tomorrow morning. That way you have my email address, and you can just email me the interview questions. Is that ok with you?
Perfect sir. I’m hoping we’ll get all of this done by Friday, post it on the site by Friday afternoon.
This is a post for everyone. I hope that the new and improved grammar and capitalization make this easier to read. I went back and looked at the posts and it was pretty brutal to have to read. So I’m gonna stick with educated looking typing. i think that I was a little bit overwhelmed with the quantity of responses and was making sure that I got to everybody’s comments.
Apparently the lack of capitalization and spell check actually made some people upset. So here’s to the new and improved Moskie Madness
Burgh- Sounds good to me my man
i can’t believe how your blog has taken off! you should feel good that people do support you and believe in you. i think that it is great how you take time to respond to everyone’s posts, it has to really take up alot of your time.
thanks for a great blog and keep up the great attitude!
Hate to ask another ? but, who is a prospect you have played with in your two years in the organization that you think is flying under the radar and could break out this year? Tom Boleska maybe?
Daniel first of all good luck this season. I’ve been going to Bucco games for 20 years now (I’m only 3 years older than you) and I am ready for this club to return to how it was in the early 90s.
I’ve only been able to catch limited video of you pitching but this is what I noticed
– you pitch much taller than you are, meaning you seem a lot bigger on the mound than most guys your size. for this reason, I would compare your delivery more to a shorter John Smiley than Eric Bedard
– in college you were a protypical power pitcher. Last season, you still had power numbers but not so jaw dropping with the K/BB ratio. Is this just working on new pitches? or what you you attribute it to?
-I also noticed you had a wide stance on the mound in college. Have they closed it in at all since you joined the organization?
-hows the pickoff move these days?
sorry for the mass amount of questions. I just get so amped this time of the year!
Uci- you and me both, I keep saying it, but I really am overwhelmed with the popularity of the blog. To all the fans out there keep up the good work, it has been fun so far. It is time consuming, but I also enjoy it. It would have been really cool to be able to do this when I was just a youngster. Also, I think that people take fans for granted sometime.
Aso- do not worry about it.Thats what this blog is all about. Lets see, for total sleepers. Maybe a guy like Andrew Walker, I would love to see what he can do if he is healthy for a full season. His catching ability is off the charts, and he can swing it too. Boleska is another one that is possible of this. He has really good stuff, and also fell victim to the injury bug last year. His plus fastball and breaking ball make him a potential back of the bullpen option. There is always Ronald Uviedo, but I wouldn’t call him a sleeper because I know how good he really is. My ultimate sleeper that I think everybody has given up on is Duke Welker. He has a got a huge body and an above average sinker. I really think he is going to bounce back this year. Hope that helps.
You are the man no doubt about it.
Md- Thank you for the good luck, and wow that’s impressive, you got started at a young age. I would like that more than anyone if the Pirates returned to that status.
Well thank you for the comparison. Fun fact: I have an uncle who’s name is John Smiley.
In college I had more prototypical power numbers most likely because I was a reliever. However, I have never been much of a strikeout pitcher, rarely averaging more than 9 K’s per 9 innings. With that being said some of the drop off could also be explained by pitching to contact. In pro-ball we don’t get 115 pitches every start, and whether its 75 or 85 we have to make the most of them. I would much rather get a first pitch groundball than a 5 pitch strikeout. Not working on new pitches, we arent trying to re-invent the wheel, more a matter of fine tuning. My did close in a lot last year, and I am actually going back to a wider stance this year.
The pickoff move is a work in progress. I have never had a good one, but I am always working on it. A better way for me to control the running game is by holding the ball, and mixing in quick steps. Don’t worry about it, I am more than happy to answer questions, and you should be amped this time of year. All baseball fans should be, it’s a great time of the year.