On The Road With Pat Neshek: Welcome

Daily Arm Update: I had a great bullpen session today, mechanics are starting to come together finally...it's tough to replicate the motion...don't laugh! Velo was up, no gun but rehab master & catcher Lanning Tucker told me it was coming in fast and heavy. My confidence is going up:)

Just kidding, I'm just messing around, I haven't talked to Mauer at all...I needed to get some more hits and I figured Google's algorithm would put me on the top search!

I've made some huge strides in the last couple days with my mechanics and I have another bullpen tomorrow.  I'm probably the most excited for this one because I think I figured out what I wasn't doing and that I might have some mojo back...I'll tell you one thing though, it's been very hard to figure out how I threw that way...I think I have it down though.  I'll let you know how the bullpen session goes.  

I got back from Twinsfest late Sunday night and went right to bed...got in at 11:50 pm.  Yesterday I played catch and got back into the swing of things working out.  Today I threw another bullpen session and it went well but something mechanically still feels off.  I think today I was rushing my windup and when I do that things can get out of whack pretty easily.  My next bullpen is on Friday and I can't wait.  Right now at the field they are having Red Sox and Orioles fantasy camp.  I didn't recognize anyone but heard Rico Petrocelli and Steve Finley were in town, later in the week Jim Palmer is suppose to show up.  

Twinsfest Sunday went just as good as the previous couple days.  I signed with Jeff Manship and we signed non-stop for an hour then nobody came through the lines.  I picked up some sweet heavy metal cds, a Death Row Rap shirt and some more signed cards from fans.  After I got done signing I walked around the dealer tables and came across a sweet Burleigh Grimes signed baseball and added it to my collection, a nice way to end the weekend.

I thought I would include this pic of my interview on XM...I didn't know they updated it for every guest...pretty cool stuff. 

Last week was Twins caravan and I went on tour with Joe Vavra, Ron Gardenhire and Matt Tolbert...plus TC Bear.  This year was probably my favorite of the 3 caravans I have been on.  The weather wasn't bad cold wise...we did get an ice storm that cancelled a couple stops.  Highlights of the tour...our bus driver drove most of the participants in the MN Vikings boat scandal and had some funny stories.  The bus we drove was one of those party buses that had lights that lit up to the music, big screen TVs and everything else you could think of in a party bus...I did get some pretty incriminating pics of TC Bear haha.  The stops this year were fun, we went to some great schools, great nursing homes and had some great nighttime stops.  The least favorite stops on tour are usually the radio stations because most of the time there aren't too many fans and they make you read these things called liners...stuff like "Hey it's Pat Neshek of the Minnesota Twins and you are right at home at WAAA".  One of the stops the radio guy thought he was funny and made me say Mower County about 20 times...I was pretty sure I was saying it right but he disagreed.  In the end it was a great trip, got to see my friends at Wincraft in Winona again, picked up a nice signed Robin Yount ball from a guy in New Ulm and picked up some sweet autographs from fans in Winona including a Steve Liddle and Wayne Haddaway signed minor league card.  

Once caravan got over I flew back to Florida for the week to keep working out and threw another bullpen.  When I got back my dog Kirby must have thought I was gone a month because he went nuts when I came through the door.  My bullpen session went great.  I thought I was doing excellent the week before but that week of rest during caravan really helped my arm.  Throwing long toss I felt myself again...not to say I didn't feel like this before but man I really felt like the ball was doing things I wanted it to do.  Sure enough I threw my bullpen and it was my best one yet.  I was still doing something weird with my mechanics (not that my mechanics are great in the first place) like opening up my shoulder too quickly or popping up to quickly...I really can't wait for Rick Anderson to get down here so he can check it out.  I think in the meantime though it will iron itself out...a lot of pitching is doing things over and over again and that is where you will start seeing things do what you want.  All in all though last week was a pretty good one confidence wise knowing I can build off of this and I'm pretty close to game ready.

This week is Twinsfest...the Twins invite nearly everyone in the org...probably over 60 players to come sign autographs.  The players do not get paid but do get a hotel room and coach plane ticket to get up here and back.  Last night I got a ton of cool things from fans.  A Telsa (The band) signed photo, a sweet homemade patch card of myself that looks better than something Topps can produce and also picked up a Johnny Bench Rookie card in a trade on my message board.  Yesterday I signed for about 1.5 hours and it went by really quick.  At night I got a firsthand tour of Target Field from Twins Director of Public Affairs man Kevin Smith.  The place is pretty incredible; they didn't skimp in details on that place.  Today I sign later in the day and have to go in around 1pm for the yearly team physical...all the other guys go as well.  Give me a shout if you head out to Twinsfest.

I don't know what's going on but for the past week in FL it has been 30 degrees everynight...you're right though, that's nothing compared to up north.  I just find it unusual for South Florida.  Things are going great for me, I took a week off for the holidays and I'm at the point where I don't even think about my arm being hurt anymore.  For me the one big thing that is missing is facing hitters and getting that competitive fire inside...I can't wait because sitting here thinking about baseball and mentally wearing myself out got old about 14 months ago.

So far there are only a handful of guys working out down here.  There have been a couple guys from other teams here as well...5 total guys so far, pretty boring.  Next week I'm going to start throwing light bullpen sessions.

We put in a good charge but John Gordon just missed out being added to the HOF ballot for announcers.  I didn't see the final vote total but the 3rd place finisher Joe Nuxhall got 1,100 votes...I know we were close.  Hopefully tomorrow Bert will be added to the Hall, if not this year then next year for sure.  

Thanks to everyone who is following me on Twitter, I thought having a website, message board, myspace & facebook were enough but I was wrong...Since myspace isn't cool anymore I'm going with Twitter.

Once again be sure to get on the message board right above this and chat about anything baseball and collecting.

I just got back from the Colorado College - Cornell hockey game.  It was cool having ranked teams come to Ft. Myers and play a couple games...we don't get much hockey down here.  Colorado College was really good and controlled the entire game.  When I got home I was surprised to realize that tons of guys on the CC team were from Minnesota.  I really liked the play of Nate Prosser from Elk River, he nailed a bunch of guys and got in their faces after the play was over.  I can always remember the MN Gophers being the top college hockey team...what the heck happened...I can see that a CC team full of Minnesota guys might have something to do with it. 

Not much else is new, killing time down in Ft. M

The Baseball Hall of Fame is letting fans vote on the Ford C. Frick award this year to be a finalist on the ballot.     Please vote for JOHN GORDON by clicking here

Merry Christmas to everyone.  This year we stayed down in Florida and it really doesn't feel like Christmas at all...but at least we don't have to worry about feet of snow coming our way.  This is about the last week of relaxing in the offseason for most guys...once January 1st hits it is go time for most baseball players.  This is about the time of the year when guys will start getting into their throwing programs and eventually start to throw bullpens.  It's amazing to think how quickly the offseason has went by already. 

I last threw a couple days ago and am taking a couple days off to relax and enjoy the holidays.  My arm is getting closer and closer to feeling like I never had the surgery.   I can't wait for spring training to come along so I can get some of that adrenaline flowing...I think that's when I will really find out where I am at.  It's been nearly 2 years and I can't wait to get back on the mound and strike some guys out.

I decided to bring this back after a long time off.  This is a very rough list of stuff I've listened to in the past month.  For the most part these albums have all been released in the past month or so.  Of course this list is a lot of Metalcore and hard rock.  I'm not a big death/dark metal fan but if it has a catchy riff or sound to it I'm sure I'll be into it.  Be warned there's a lot of screaming and it's a strange genre that's not for everyone.  Here's the first installment, I'm hoping to make this at least a bi monthly deal.

 Top 20 - November 29th, 2009

20. Devildriver - Bitter Pill
19. Earth Crisis - So Others Live
18. Between The Buried & Me - Desert Of Song
17. Nile - Kafir
16. Scar Symmetry - Ascension Chamber
15. Texas Hippie Coalition - Pissed Off & Mad About It
14. Poison The Well - Are You Anywhere?
13. Converge - Damages
12. Scar Symmetry - Radient Strain
11. CKY - A#1 Roller Rager
10. Earth Crisis - So Others Live
9. The Red Chord - Hour Of Rats
8. Isis - Hall Of The Dead
7. Despised Icon - MVP
6. Skindred - Stand For Something
5. Gwen Stacy - A Dialogue
4. We Came As Romans - Roads That Don't End
3. Dredg - Pariah
2. Pelican - The Creeper
1. Texas Hippie Coalition - Leavin

I threw my last bullpen session until January yesterday and it went really well.  Technically it was called a simulated game.  I took the mound and two minor league guys, Nick Freitas & Max Kepler (16 year old) stepped in to face me on the mound.  It was a rush just to be on the mound looking into the catcher's mitt with a hitter in the box.  I threw about 30 pitches and it went really well.  I was pretty happy with my slider as my velo went up a bunch since my last pen.  I also gained a mph on my fastball but I got a little ways to go still.  I think the rest this next month and a lot of long toss will really stretch me out & help me a ton in the velo department.  As of today I have 3 months until spring training starts up.  This next week I'm going to take a few days off and get back at it on Saturday.  My program now consist of doing the same shoulder exercises & stretches that I've done all year followerd weights and conditioning and throwing long toss every other day.

Today I got a phone call from the Twins about doing the Winter Caravan.  I was asked if I wanted to go out on the first leg of the caravan and I accepted.  I'm not sure where I am going or who's coming with but I thought I would let everyone know. 

I've been doing a lot of message board maintenance lately adding sections and I am getting ready to give stuff away on there.  If you are a sports fan or collector of anything it's a great community and I think you will be very happy you joined, there's a ton of info inside.  Today I added an upcoming autograph signings section by state on there.  If this stuff interest you, you have to check it out.  You can get there by clicking on the message board logo above or on the side tool bar that says message board.   Takes a minute to sign up and a day or two to get accepted and is free.

I got a pretty cool letter a couple weeks back.  It came from the 2008 Topps Ginter Code Champion.  He wanted me to sign up a card of me from 2009 Ginter.  He also included 2 of his cards signed and inscribed. Check it out below.

For the past 2 months my schedule has been going like this, throw long toss, the next day is a bullpen followed by an off day of throwing.  I still come in and work out and do all my arm maintenance exercises.  This stuff gets really repetitive and I think this is why my year down here has went by pretty quickly in my mind if that makes sense...my days seem to run together.  Today I had a bullpen session...my second to last one until January.   It went ok, my velocity was down a little from where I want it to be but my slider's speed picked up a bunch and was starting to run a lot more.  At this phase of my rehab most guys are considered about 80% good.  If I had to guess right now I would say I'm a little past 80%.  I'm throwing max effort and working on all my pitches and location.  The next part of my rehab starts on Tuesday and will be a rest phase.  This is where a lot of guys say they get back their velocity and feel good.  Starting Tuesday for nearly the entire month of December I will be alternating throwing long toss with conditioning afterward by a day of not throwing with a ton of conditioning.   Lanning Tucker our rehab coordinator here thinks once I hit January is when I'm going to start feeling great, not that I don't feel good right now but I'd like to add a couple more MPH's

For one really messed up kid's baseball video click to watch

I had another really good bullpen session today throwing all three pitching really well.  We had the radar gun out but for some reason it wouldn't work right.  The other radars were locked up in the equipment room and the man that had the key wasn't around.  The speed for me really doesn't mean much I just want to know where I am at...if I'm throwing 87 and thinking I'm throwing 93 or vice versa, throwing 93 when I feel like it's 87.  If I had to guess I'm in the 89-92 range right now but that's just a guess.  My slider today was still a little slower than I like and I think it will get faster with time and throwing it more...I've only been throwing it for 3 weeks right now.  At the field the past couple weeks there have been tons of teams from around the country playing in the Roy Hobbs World Series.  They have tons of different age groups, I think one is 29 and under, one is 39 and under, another is 49 and under and right now they have the 50 and over leagues going on.  It amazes me that guys can still throw really well, no offense to anyone but it's pretty cool to see...I noticed tons of sidearmers out there slinging it up.  The teams are from all over but over the past week I met people from 3 different teams in Minnesota...say hi if you are down here. 

For all you metal heads you are going to be happy.  I'm working on a new top 20.  Right now I'm in the gathering process and might have something out soon.  For me music has always helped me relax and escape and in some cases blow some steam off after a tough game.  Over the past couple years the music kind of got away from me a little bit and I feel this was one part of me that helped me get to the big leagues.  Maybe if I can find some awesome songs with riffs we can vote on my "walk in" song for next season.

Another couple weeks have gone by and my arm is feeling great.  I threw another great bullpen session on Saturday.  I'm still ironing out my slider because it's such a feel pitch for me but I'm really surprised at how easy I picked it up after surgery.  I'm very curious to see the velocity on my fastball because I think it might be coming in pretty hard...I'm going to try and get a radar gun out for my bullpen session tomorrow.  It's hard to imagine but I have 1 week left of rehab and then I am done.  On Wednesday it will be 1 year since my surgery, hard to imagine how fast the time went by.  My last day is the 23rd and after that I plan on playing catch every other day until January hits and then approach it like any other season to get ready for spring training.  I will be staying in Florida the entire winter working out with MN TWINS strength coach Perry Castellano and I know he is going to work me. 

I've had some pretty good autograph successes lately.  My brother & I drove up to get NHL autographs in Tampa last week and did pretty good going for the Wild.  The highlight was getting Tony Esposito on a stick.  The week before that I met Gary Puckett from the Union Gap, he had hits in the 60's like Young Girl...very cool guy.  He signed 5 items for me and posed for a pic.  I also met Jewel and got two autographs from her.  I also had a couple failures...one involved Smokey Robinson...just didn't see the guy.  This past week I went for T-Pain and Juvenile & now I see why there are so few autographs of rappers out there, those guys are tough and I wonder if they ever sign that's all I'll say haha, it was a mess.  All in all it was a blast getting stuff signed again, during the season I am so focused on ball that I don't get the chance to do this type of stuff.

I've been messing around with the site and changed the look up a little.  Let me know if you want more changes...looks pretty good for me.  I would like to add a cool banner on top...not that the one up isn't cool but was thinking it would be fun to see who could submit a cool banner that actually matches...write to me on the message board.

I think for the most part I will be updating this site very often from now on.  There seriously wasn't much to talk about with the injury and it got old answering the same questions, I'll go into all the stuff down the road in updates.  For right now though I just wanted to mention a quick update that things are going really well on the mound.  I've been throwing fastballs and change-ups at full speed off the mound and my arm feels better than it did before I went down during the season in 08.  This week we start with sliders and I'm excited because that's my pitch!  Last year I was hesistant when we started messing with breaking balls but this year I'm ready to go because mentally I know I'm good.  The trainers down here say if I didn't do anything the rest of the year I would be good to go for spring training.  It excites me because I'm at month 11 on the rehab and most guys say it takes to months 12-14 to feel 100%.  I'll keep you updated...

Got lots of autograph stories and other stuff, be sure to start checking in on the site often.