Bowling Green State University Athletics
Badenhop Prepares for 2006 Season
February 19, 2006 | Baseball
Feb. 19, 2006
By JACK CARLE, Sentinel Sports Editor - It doesn't get much better than this for Burke Badenhop.
Badenhop, a graduate of Perrysburg High School and Bowling Green State University, is getting ready to leave for Florida.
However, he's not going to spring break and there's not going to be much beach time.
Instead, he'll be working.
Badenhop is preparing to start his second season as a pitcher in the Detroit Tigers' farm system.
"I won't be doing this to make money, that's not the case," Badenhop said. "I'm happy I can play baseball and do something I love."
The first official day for Detroit's minor league pitchers in Lakeland, Fla. is March 5, but Badenhop plans to be there a week early, so he can do some throwing outside.
He currently is working about 30 hours with the Falcon Club at BG's athletics department, helping at Falcon football, basketball and hockey games.
"I'm really enjoying my time off, but I'm really looking forward to getting back to baseball," Badenhop said. "I couldn't ask for more in terms of flexibility with my job."
Badenhop, a 6-feet-5 right-handed pitcher, finished his college career last spring and was drafted by the Tigers in the 19th round. He was the 570th pick overall.
In his final collegiate season, Badenhop led the Mid-American Conference in wins, finishing 9-2 with a 3.73 earned-run average and 57 strikeouts in 72 1/3 innings pitched. He also earned several academic awards and graduated with a 3.94 grade-point average in economics.
Badenhop then spent the summer with the Oneonta Tigers of the New York-Penn League, Detroit's rookie league franchise.
With Oneonta he started 14 games and went 6-4 with a 2.92 ERA. He allowed 69 hits in 77 innings with 55 strikeouts and only 26 walks.
"It was a really good experience. Our team was a very good team," Badenhop said. "I got to meet a lot of guys and make a lot of friends. A lot of guys (in Oneonta) played college baseball and were older guys like myself."
While with Oneonta, Badenhop was able to develop a slider with the help of Bill Monbouquette, a veteran minor league coach and a former Major League pitcher. Badenhop had been using a fastball and change-up in his first three starts. But without a good curveball, he needed a third pitch as hitters were fouling off the fastball and change-up, or hitting those pitches through the hole for base hits.
"All the way through college, I really didn't have what I would believe to be an average breaking ball," he said.
Badenhop worked on his slider in bullpen sessions, got some confidence in it and it became his second-best pitch by the end of the season. In the first game he used it, Badenhop said he threw it 10 times and got three called strikeouts with the pitch.
"It worked out pretty well, from there I just kind of grew with it," Badenhop said. "It was more of a put-away pitch. It was nice to have another weapon in the arsenal."
This winter, Badenhop has been lifting weights four times a week at the Fort Meigs YMCA in Perrysburg, running six or seven days a week and throwing at the Perry Field House.
After pitching 150 innings last season and playing from the end of February until mid-September, he did not go to the fall instructional league. He took about 10 weeks off before starting to throw again.
"Usually there would be someone to play catch with and the baseball team is practicing now and I jump into their practices," Badenhop said about his workouts at the Field House.
"I've been able to throw off the mound three times a week and have been able to play catch four times a week."
Badenhop is looking to be more consistent when he pitches.
"At this point in professional baseball, where you go with it, is kind of up to you," he said. "They can point you in the right direction, but you need to take the reins.
"I knew my fastball could use a couple of miles an hour. So I've been lifting harder and trying to clean up some mechanics."
The Tigers have two Class A teams, the West Michigan Whitecaps, a low A team, in Grand Rapids. Mich. and a high A team in Lakeland.
"I would like to be in Lakeland sometime by the end of the year," he said. "That's just a goal. I have to work on getting better and if things progress, maybe that can happen."
