Tye Waller on Big Arms and Discipline
A baseball lifer unveils the secret to honing the craft
Welcome to Warning Track Power, a weekly newsletter of baseball stories and analysis grounded in front office and scouting experiences and the personalities encountered along the way.
Last week’s look at outfielders’ arms evolved into a discussion involving many of you as to who in the history of the game possessed the very best arm.
Great players were mentioned — from Roberto Clemente to Ichiro, Ellis Valentine to Mark Whiten.
I spent a lot of time thinking about (and watching) a throw that Yoenis Cespedes made at Angel Stadium on June 10, 2014. With Howie Kendrick on first in a 1-1 game in the bottom of the 8th, Mike Trout doubled to left field. Cespedes clanked the ball when he attempted to glove it on one hop, and, well, you can see the rest for yourself right here.
There’s no way anyone could have expected that result, right?
“It wasn’t a surprise to us because we knew what he was capable of doing,” says Tye Waller, a lifelong baseball man who was a coach for the A’s from 2007-2015. Bench coach in 2009 and 2010, Waller was the first base coach and outfield coach in the other seasons.
“That throw… it’s in my mind,” he says.
“There’s a unique story in Cespedes,” Waller offers up. He explains how Cespedes’ mother was a softball player (she appeared in the 2000 Summer Olympics for Cuba). When she was in the stands at her son’s Major League games, the slugging outfielder would toss the ball to her — underhand — from about 150-200 feet away.
“She would snag that thing,” Waller says.
Funny that her son’s inability to field a ball cleanly is what set up one of the greatest throws of the century.
Waller rattles off names of the best outfield arms for his money. In addition to Clemente, Valentine and Whiten, he includes Dave Winfield and Jesse Barfield.
The conversation, though, is no longer about release points or an outfielder’s body positioning. It evolves into the lessons learned by a man who began his professional baseball career in 1977.
Waller played parts of four seasons in the big leagues with the Cardinals, Cubs, and Astros, and then he spent 19 years in the Padres organization in various capacities in player development, including six years as the department’s director. And that was all before his time on the field with the A’s.
With nearly 40 years in the game, Waller has seen close to 10,000 games from a variety of vantage points. What he’s processed transcends baseball.
“There’s a discipline — not only in pro baseball but in life — to show up and improve… Most people aren’t willing to put in the time, even when they get paid for it,” Waller says.
“How many people are willing to do that for an entire career? That’s what separates the elite professionals.”
He cites two Hall of Famers — Tony Gwynn and Trevor Hoffman — as the players who properly practiced their crafts daily in order to sustain excellence.
With Cespedes, whose career was cut short due to injuries suffered both while playing and away from the field, Waller saw noticeable gains in accuracy when his outfielder began putting in the everyday work. His natural athleticism, of course, wowed everyone.
Waller would notice opponents watching Cespedes in awe, looking around as if to ask Who is this guy?
In fact, if you watch the play at the plate in which Cespedes guns down Kendrick from more than 300 feet away, it looks like the on-deck batter for the Angels — none other than Albert Pujols — is caught spectating. On the fourth angle, though, we see that Pujols has suddenly realized the need to actively participate in directing Kendrick home.
Albert’s good intentions were no match for Cespedes’ cannon.
The throw inspired Baseball Prospectus to publish an analysis of the physics of ball flight. You can read all of it here, or — if you’re not into the math — I’ll tell you that the author concludes that the ball was released at a speed of 97-99 MPH — having traveled about 318 feet in 3.17 seconds — with an initial launch angle of about 12-14 degrees. (Wow, who invited that guy?)
That arm strength?
“He came with it,” Waller says.
Waller retired after the 2015 season.
These days, he spends his time with family, overseeing real estate investments, and participating in MLB events. I remember that, as farm director, he was rarely in the office during our time together with the Padres. On the occasions when he was in San Diego, he was always smiling, and he always seemed to have the same answer when asked how he was doing.
“Grinding. I’m grinding.”
Now I understand that part of his secret is marrying the grind with passion and discipline. That’s the life force behind greatness in the game.
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