Mizzou Baseball Insider: Bedell Improving One Percent Each Day
9/27/2019 10:34:00 AM | Baseball
Tiger RHP coming off outstanding 2019 campaign
COLUMBIA, Mo. - The routine was the same each time he made a start. Waking up around 9 a.m., junior right-handed pitcher Ian Bedell would walk downstairs, eat two muffins and begin working on his online class. Netflix followed. Sandwiches were the lunch of choice — Bedell didn't want to spend money and his host-family's house was always stocked with bread and meat.
After lunch, he'd head to the field for the team meeting and 30 minutes later, around 3 p.m., he'd head back home and watch more Netflix. Returning to the field at 5:20 p.m., warm-ups began at exactly 6 p.m. 45 minutes later, Bedell made his way to the dugout for two to three minutes of sitting prior to heading out to the mound.
For the Wareham Gatemen, "Bedell Days" as Gatemen and Mizzou teammate junior right hander Trey Dillard called days when Bedell started, gave the team a chance to relax.
"He was in cruise control all summer," Dillard said. "We were just like, 'oh we're not losing today, we got Bedell on the mound.' He went out there and did his thing, and it was pretty remarkable to be honest."
Coming off of a dominant sophomore season at Mizzou, Bedell went to Wareham, Mass., to play in the prestigious Cape Cod Baseball League, a premier summer stop for college baseball's brightest stars.
In the small town of an estimated 23,000 residents, Wareham, unlike other towns on Cape Cod, isn't a tourist destination. Everything, according to Bedell, shut down around 9 p.m. outside of a pizza place and the grocery store. There were no outside distractions; just baseball.
Getting experience as a starter for the Gatemen, Bedell shut down opposing offenses, collecting 36 strikeouts with only three walks and a miniscule 0.56 earned run average over 30.2 innings. His performance resulted in him being named the All-Star game starter, All-League and Cape Cod Pitcher of the Year.
The honors came as a culmination of years of work, all being put toward the goal of becoming a little bit better each day.
The Kid From Davenport, Iowa
Bedell knew he had something special when he played varsity baseball as a freshman at Davenport Central High School. He was throwing harder than most of his peers. His sophomore season, he began to blow people away.
With a 1.70 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 53.2 innings as a sophomore, Bedell garnered attention from major college programs including Mizzou and Virginia. He was recruited by then-Tiger head coach Tim Jamieson. Committing prior to his junior year, he knew Mizzou was the right fit.
Despite being highly scouted and expected to be picked in the 2018 MLB First-Year Player Draft, Bedell was confident that college was the correct path for him. He didn't want to miss out on the college experience and for an Iowa native that made annual road-trips to Omaha, Neb., each June, an opportunity to play for the College World Series could fulfill a childhood dream.
Bedell continued making a name for himself playing for the Midland Redskins club team out of Cincinnati, Ohio, and competing in showcases including the Perfect Game National Showcase and the Perfect Game All-American Classic.
Going into his senior year at Davenport Central, he was ranked as the No. 32 overall prospect in the Class of 2018 recruiting class. Before playing his senior season though, he was presented with the opportunity to reclassify. He could start college early and play at Mizzou the following spring.
At first, he dismissed the idea. But with the structure of his classes, he was able to graduate after the fall semester and with Iowa high school baseball not being played until the summer anyway, Bedell rethought the decision.
"It turned out to be one of the best decisions of my life," Bedell said.
Trial by Fire
Bedell doesn't do well with bad grades. Both of his parents received master's degrees and raised his brother and him to compete in the classroom and on the field. He left Davenport Central for Mizzou with a 3.9 grade point average. Arriving on campus in January 2018, Bedell's intelligence caught Mizzou pitching coach Fred Corral's eye.
Given less than two months to get accustomed to his new team and learn its game plans, philosophies and culture — not to mention acclimate to going to college — Bedell had to learn on the fly.
Posting a 6.17 ERA in 11.2 innings with 13 strikeouts over seven outings, the learning curve was steep. Afterall, he was a high school senior pitching in one of the most talented baseball conferences in the country. But for Corral, Bedell's success wasn't shown through on-field results.
"To come in, take his lumps and bruises, and see them for gains; he didn't pout, he didn't become frustrated," Corral said. "As a result of looking at them in the manner that he did, that's why you see the Ian Bedell that you do. For me, that's beyond his years in terms of intelligence."
Throughout Bedell's freshman year, he and Corral began working on developing his other pitches. When he arrived on campus, he was known as "the guy with a fastball." In high school, that was all he needed to be successful, but being a one-pitch pony would no longer be enough.
The changes were made incrementally. Corral champions the idea that getting one percent better each day will result in a larger rate of improvement. With Bedell it was no different. Instead of starting from scratch, the pair worked with what was already present, continually making strides to improve physically and mentally.
"It was learning what I was doing wrong and replacing it with what I did right," Bedell said. "That's what took the monumental step forward."
Corral also wanted the Iowa native to have confidence in himself. The mental hurdle for Bedell was believing he could do it. To help with that, Corral turned to the trick in his back pocket: an analogy that compares a baseball at-bat to gambling, in which the pitcher is the house and the house always wins.
The mentality allows the pitcher to attack the strike zone without a fear of getting knocked around the yard because, ultimately, even the best hitters will get out at least 60% of the time. As Bedell subscribed to the idea, he changed his approach. Instead of trying to strike every batter out, the focus turned more toward producing quick innings.
Veterans like former Mizzou left-handed pitchers Michael Plassmeyer and Iowa native T.J. Sikkema also helped Bedell in the development of his mindset. He learned how to take bits and pieces of their games and implement it into his game.
Throughout the next fall, Bedell continued to improve and as spring came, the dominance he carried through high school returned.
Unleash the Bedell
Playing in front of over 5000 fans at then-No.11 Texas A&M a season ago, Bedell was called in from the bullpen to pitch the 11th inning. Mizzou had come back to tie the game, 2-2, two innings earlier following a clutch two-run home run to force extras, and Bedell was tasked with prolonging the game.
As the Aggie fans tried to intimidate the sophomore reliever by chanting his name, a tradition at Blue Bell Park that has haunted opposing pitchers on multiple occasions, Bedell couldn't help but laugh as the fans struggled to figure out how to distribute the syllables in his name through the chant.
Instead, Bedell was the one who haunted the Aggies, only surrendering two hits and striking out four over four scoreless innings in Mizzou's thrilling 3-2, 15-inning victory.
It was one of many shining moments for the right-hander in a year in which he became one of the go-to arms out of the bullpen. He pitched to an impressive 1.56 ERA in 40.1 innings while recording five saves. Opposing batters hit just .193.
With his new-found change-up and slider to supplement his fastball, Bedell wasn't just blowing people away anymore; he had become the house, and he was winning. The breakout sophomore campaign was highlighted by a 19.0 consecutive scoreless innings streak, which included outings against the Aggies, Kentucky, then-No. 8 LSU, then-No. 6 Georgia and South Carolina.
Instead of taking the summer off, Corral sent Bedell to Wareham to be coached by Corral's mentor Jerry Weinstein, who's lifetime of accolades includes coaching Team Israel in the 2017 World Baseball Classic, and pitching coach Jim Lawler.
Weinstein and Lawler had front-row seats to watch Bedell make light work of his competition across Cape Cod.
"He's the first guy I've seen in several years that has a little bit of a Maddux strike zone," Lawler said. "He can throw strikes with three pitches; other guys are throwing harder with better stuff, but he's got the command, and the command makes the difference for him. He pitched instead of throwing and there's a big difference there."
Coming back to school for his fourth semester — while considered a junior by the NCAA, he is still a sophomore academically — Bedell will have the fall to continue improving each day. With a full class schedule, he is still learning how to balance the time requirements of a Division I student-athlete, the normal grind of the school obligations, and like most 20-year-olds, not getting side-tracked by his phone.
His personal goal for the 2020 season is to keep his numbers where they were during his sophomore season, just stretched out as a starter. While Bedell acknowledges that it's a high bar to attain, he'd rather set goals that are harder to attain than settling for easy marks.
Corral's plan for Bedell will be focused on the further development and refinery of his pitches. With Fall Ball starting Oct. 18, Bedell and the Tigers will have plenty of opportunities to continue getting one percent better each day.
"It's not so much necessarily an end goal because goals can be overrated," Bedell said. "It's the process of getting to that goal which is what is needed. Like Coach Corral talked about, it's not getting to Mount Everest, it's the step that gets you closer."
