re: LSU hiring Wes Johnson as new pitching coach

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Since when has Vitello ever been a pitching coach?

To my knowledge he has always been a hitting coach and recruiting coordinator before becoming a HC.

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I thought he was at Mizz, but IDK his exact title.
I once read this from Max Scherzer's wiki.

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Early in his time at Missouri, Scherzer exerted so much effort in his windup that his head whip constantly caused his cap to fall off. One of Scherzer's coaches at Missouri, Tony Vitello, had helped to recruit him, and eventually persuaded him to pitch with more balance and control, and to stop leaping at hitters, which frequently caused him to miss up and in to right-handed batters. He did not pitch the final 50 days of his freshman season, choosing instead focusing on working out and doing long toss, while gaining velocity in the process. Vitello and head coach Tim Jamieson trained him in a drill to balance on his back leg with more coordination and not to fall over his front foot. Scherzer modified his delivery and worked constantly over the following winter, leading to a 1.86 earned run average (ERA) and 131 strikeouts in 106 innings pitched over 16 games during his sophomore season.[3] In 2005, he won the Big 12 Pitcher of the Year Award.[5]

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Since when has Vitello ever been a pitching coach?

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Early in his career at Mizzou. Jamieson is also a pitching guy, so it wasn’t without supervision, but he was a pitching coach there.

Id expect that to continue. Johnson doesnt seem to like to let leaks out on his hires. His inner circle is probably very few.

Which isnt surprising i guess when you see his lack of communication with the media regarding injuries

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dont see how anyone can dispute that.

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No matter what, some people will never be happy.

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No matter what, some people will never be happy.

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exactly....everyone says...hire a new school coach that uses science and data to develop pitchers like the best mlb pitching coaches....lsu goes out and hires one of the best from a division leading team.....same people...i guess he is ok, State fans say he cause TJ surgery for their pitchers.


its laughable that anyone is dumb enough to beleive that and the lack of understanding how muscle imbalances, lack of lat development and lack of stability in the reverse lunge are what cause the extreme valgus stress causing the UCL tear is amazing to me. We have all of this data and all these old school guys still say....not how we did it

bottom ine is Wes is a dynamic coach and is one of the best int he business at using data to develop modeling when it comes to pitchers and where they are currently and where they need to get to in terms of development. He just also happens to be one of the best at using that data to form a program for each individuals development.

we just hired one of the best coaches in the major leagues. I actually expect this to be a much more common occurance because many orgs dont pay their top assistant coaches what the SEC can and will in the future.

Tons of MLB clubs are way way behind the times in both player development and what they feel assistants bring as far as player development. Many dont feel like assistants make a big enough impact.....they are 100% wrong. The twins are not one of those teams, but 90% + of mlb orgs are not willing to pay 750k for a pitching coach. Which is lauhgable when you think about what they pay prospects.

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Why would a sitting major league pitching coach leave for a lateral move to college, especially in the middle of the season on a first-place team?

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Johnson will receive a $750K annual salary from LSU, Gleeman and Hayes report, a major increase over the approximately $350K per year that the coach received from the Twins. Johnson will indeed leave for LSU when the Twins’ series in Cleveland concludes on Thursday.

doubling his salary and giving him a shite load more control while giving him a better work life balance

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For those that are asking why he came, he’s getting 500k a year from us and was making 350k with the twins . Plus he’s probably looking to get a head job im college after a few years

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Actually a Twins reporter on Twitter posted that he's actually taking a minor pay cut to come to LSU. He was making around $400k a year with the Twins and he will be making around $380k with post-season incentives at LSU. Twins reporter twitter post

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its laughable that anyone is dumb enough to beleive that and the lack of understanding how muscle imbalances, lack of lat development and lack of stability in the reverse lunge are what cause the extreme valgus stress causing the UCL tear is amazing to me.

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Oh really! Go read that again, dippy. It’s amazing to me that ANYONE understands that - at least anyone on here.

Wow! Glad LSU got Wes. He was a couple years behind me in college. Position player at UA-Monticello.

Very nice guy, sort of quiet back in college. He immediately found his niche’ as a pitching coach and, when I’d caught up with him, was at DBU, then MSU, Arkansas and onto the Twins. Well respected for his knowledge and approach in both college and MLB and that’s why he’s advanced rather quickly.

Four years with the Twins means he got experience but didn’t want to hang around long enough to get retirement. Good move for Wes, his family and certainly for LSU.