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Baseball Beginnings: It seems like the amateur cycle is entirely about lighting up guns, yet when you walk through the glass doors, command becomes important even at the lowest pro level. It seems to me that the transition between amateur and pro, especially when you sign early, is a difficult one in that you’re told as an amateur that if you don’t throw hard you’re not a premium pick. If you grind through a tired period, trying to pitch to the corners and learn, that you get deemed as a let down. Do you see that as a disconnection between scouting and player development? How do you feel about that whole process in hindsight?
Hobgood:  Take myself. I hit 95-97 on a good day in high school and I was 91 in Bluefield. From the average fan view, they’re going to ask, ‘What the heck, why can’t he (throw 96-97).’ I just turned 19. I’m still not really in baseball shape. I still have another two or three years to grow into my man body. I think body awareness is a good term for it. I think there’s just a lot more to it than running, lifting and throwing so you can hit 96. Going from high school to the (Appalachian League) is a pretty big jump. I think everyone has a different opinion. It doesn’t mean it’s right or wrong.

Baseball Beginnings: When we talked immediately after the draft, you told me that because you wanted to sign right away and get at it that you wound up perceived as a guy who went as a first-round pick only because you wanted to sign. In other words, I had the feeling that you felt like the idea that you were a signability pick was a slap in your face as far as talent goes.
Hobgood: Yeah, I didn’t really get it. There was Matzek, Turner, Wheeler and there’s me. If it was questions about weight, I don’t know. I hit 95 in every high school outing. I know it’s from the right side, but I didn’t know what else they were looking for. I was a gamer. I had pretty good composure. But it didn’t bother me for very long. At the end of the day, I’m happy where I went and I’m happy where I’m at.

Baseball Beginnings: Tell me about the workout routine you committed yourself to this winter.
Hobgood:  I went out to Athletes Performance Institute and started there after instructs. I’ll be doing that routine through the winter. I dropped eight pounds of fat, added eight pounds of muscle and lost three percent body fat in a little over a month. The way I look at it, I’m still developing as an athlete. They always try to keep your heart rate up. You try to set the bar higher each week in terms of what you can do each week. Gradually you increase your stamina without trying to do so much that you can’t come back the next day and do it again.

Baseball Beginnings: Do you feel you are a better athletic that you are given credit for?
Hobgood: Yes.

Baseball Beginnings: Why?
Hobgood: Because of what you see on paper. If you see me on the field, you might say, ‘eh.’ If you saw me run, you might think differently. At Area Codes, I’d go up against guys who were 50-60 pounds lighter than me in the 60s and I’d still only be a stride behind them.

Baseball Beginnings: Do you think the Orioles see athletic projection in you?
Hobgood: I think they’re thinking is to get me down to really low and in really good shape and then try to maintain that for as long as possible. I think it’s good. I don’t know that I’m growing any more height wise, but I’m still putting on muscle and losing fat. I think I can get down to 240. If I go in at 260-250 and my velocity isn’t there in spring training, they’re going to say I’m out of shape. If I throw 90-94 at that weight, there won’t be questions. I really think the majority of it is a performance thing, but some isn’t. I think I have to prove that it’s not a long-term issue. 

More on Matt Hobgood:
Read Part I of Matt Hobgood interview
Watch Matt Hobgood Scouting video
Read Matt Hobgood Q&A
Read Matt Hobgood Scouting report
Catching up with Matt Hobgood
Watch Matt Hobgood vs. Jake Marisnick Video

Hobgood has always pitched with a chip on his shoulder. As an amateur, he believed he belonged in the same company as the other power arm starting pitchers in his draft class. He has heard the comments that his body is too big to allow for success over a long career. In all our conversations with Hobgood, he has made it a point to express his differing opinion.

Baseball Beginnings caught up with Hobgood recently, moments after the right-hander finished a winter workout. What we found was a young pitcher who recognizes that he wasn’t lights out in Bluefield, but on the other side of the coin, Bluefield is rookie ball for a reason.

Hobgood examined his numbers – 26 2/3 innings, 32 hits, 8 walks, 16 strikeouts, 17 runs, 14 earned, 0 home runs – and took them for what they’re worth. He doesn’t discount that it wasn’t what people wanted, but does dispute that it indicates that his ceiling has arrived.

Hobgood believes his velocity is still his main weapon, but also believes that last summer produced strides in command and off-speed. He believes he showed his competitive side by pitching through fatigue and the dead-arm period that often hits young pitchers when there is a layoff between the end of the spring season and the start of the summer season. 

Nor does he use it as an excuse. A winter conditioning program has already had results for Hobgood, who is eager to prove that he’s ready to continue growing into the workhorse major league starter the Orioles envision. 

Baseball Beginnings: You break it down for us. What was good for you when you went out, what was bad, and how did you feel you threw the ball?
Hobgood: On a small note, I think one of the things I did well was throw a lot of ground balls. I didn’t have much velocity. I think one of the best games I had was against Princeton when I threw a one-hitter in five innings. I was throwing, I think, 86-88, the whole game. I wasn’t blowing anyone away. I was just hitting corners.

Baseball Beginnings: People were worried because the velocity was down. Can you explain what factors led to that?
Hobgood: I was tired. The first time I started pitching (in 2009) was in late January at the workout at the Urban Youth Academy. That was the earliest I had ever started a high school season. I hit 96 or something there, but my arm wasn’t really ready for it. I think I caught up with myself a little bit in the high school season and got some control of the velocity. I think what hurt me most was taking off a month from the Mater Dei game to the June 6^th when I went out to Baltimore and threw a bullpen.

Baseball Beginnings: The Mater Dei game seemed to be where the power started to slip. Dead arm periods often happen to college pitchers between the end of the school year in early May and the start of summer baseball in early June. Do you think that played a role in the reduced velocity?
Hobgood: It took me a little over a month just to get back to feeling where I could actually throw good, and even then, I think I topped the whole year at Bluefield at like 91. I was trying to throw hard, but I wasn’t trying to look like I was throwing hard, if you know what I mean. I talked to (Orioles scouting director) Joe Jordan a little bit. He came down and he said somebody asked him why high school pitchers loose velocity as rookies. Joe said it’s just different. We’re not used to throwing every day.

Baseball Beginnings: What did you work on? When you say you were ‘trying not to look like you were throwing hard,’ it sounds like you were trying to let the ball come out of your hand naturally instead of going max effort and losing command.
Hobgood: I was trying not to be too herky-jerky. I changed up my motion when I first got there and we looked at video, so I was pitching through those adjustments. We slowed my motion down some so I could feel like I was in more control. I never really got in a groove, but I never felt bad about it. I felt like it was a rookie year and I learned a lot, even though it was short.

Baseball Beginnings: So now you get to develop as a professional instead of an amateur and balance your own progression against these external expectations.
Hobgood: I think that’s what gets lost. There’s so much more than lifting weights for three months, throwing and running. Some guys are different. I was in instructs and 90 percent of the guys threw as hard as they could all the time. Some have good arms and good tools, but don’t take the time to learn the game or learn to apply tools into skills. Like I said at the press conference in Baltimore, I think there’s a lot of good players who have lots of tools but don’t know how to use them. I don’t think I fully know what to do exactly, but I’m still trying to learn. If a guy isn’t afraid of 94-95, well, then I need to throw 91 and put it where he can’t pull the trigger. It’s not always about speed, but it’s what you get judged on. I do think the velocity will come back once I get the high school out of me.

Baseball Beginnings: Stuff wise, did you add anything or delete anything?
Hobgood: I started throwing a change-up for the first time. I threw it a couple of times against Riverside Poly against Jake Marisnick.

Baseball Beginnings: I remember that pitch. Was that the split-change?
Hobgood: That was the best it looked all year in high school and I used it against Marisnick and I think Blair Moore. I started playing with a circle change in Bluefield, just a straight change-up, not looking for a lot of movement but more for a miles-per-hour difference.

Come back Friday for Part II of catching up with Matt Hobgood.

More on Matt Hobgood:
Watch Matt Hobgood Scouting video
Read Matt Hobgood Q&A
Read Matt Hobgood Scouting report
Catching up with Matt Hobgood
Watch Matt Hobgood vs. Jake Marisnick Video

Watch Matt Hobgood Scouting video
Read Matt Hobgood Q&A
Read Matt Hobgood Scouting report
Catching up with Matt Hobgood
Watch Matt Hobgood vs. Jake Marisnick Video

Baseball Beginnings covered Hobgood this spring more extensively than any other national source. Here in Southern California, the consensus was that Hobgood was not going to get out of the first 10 picks.

For example, when I spoke to the Angels a week before the draft and asked if he would be there for them at 24 and 25, the answer I got was “not a chance.” Mock drafts had him going anywhere from 15 to 70. But Orioles scouting director Joe Jordan decided that if Seattle took Dustin Ackley with the second pick, he was going to draft a staff anchor from the right side to complement 2008′s No.1  pick, left-hander Brian Matusz. Matt Wieters, another Jordan pick, will be waiting to catch. 

Jordan is going back to basics. Back in the Jim Palmer-Mike Cuellar-Dave McNally days, Baltimore was always built on pitching first.

Hobgood’s stock rose this spring because he never dropped off. He has shown in several starts the ability to pitch at 93-95 for strikes late in the game. He also has a power curveball and the makings of a change-up and a cutter. The Orioles view him as a hard-thrower with a good mechanical foundation, a great make-up, and project him as a front-end starter on a contending team.

Baseball Beginnings asked Hobgood how he would introduce himself to Baltimore fans.

“I’d tell them don’t listen to Baseball America or whatever else they read or hear,” Hobgood told Baseball Beginnings. “Don’t base it off what someone else says. Base it off what (scouting director) Joe Jordan sees in me. I don’t throw 88-90 mph; that’s obviously not what I throw. I think people are a little confused about what they’re getting in me. I’m looking forward to getting it going right away and I think if people give me a chance, I’ll show them why Joe Jordan picked me at that spot.”

The Camden Yards bullpen video of four pitches, while a scoop, is literally a drop in the bucket. It is Hobgood essentially playing catch. That last pitch, he’s fiddling with a cutter.
 
For a closer view of how he looks when he’s firing at full speed, our full video is a better indication of why he was selected where he was. Most notable is Hobgood’s arm extension and arm speed, indicators of power stuff. He should be fun to watch develop.

“You have to look at the entire kid, his character,” Hobgood said. “Look at what he’s like on and off the field, what he can do on the field and what kind of player he is.”

Hobgood’s a gamer, a reputation earned among other top players in his area.

Centerfielder Jake Marisnick, a 4th round pick of the Toronto Blue Jays considered one of the top baseball athletes in Southern California in 2009, believes Hobgood was the most competitive pitcher he faced as an amateur.

“He’s a competitor and he’s not afraid,” Marisnick said. “Some guys will go out and just want to ring up the radar gun. He’ll do that and then drop in a curveball. He’s a bulldog. Nice kid off the field. On the field, he wants to win more than anyone else I’ve ever faced.”

Hobgood built his reputation on the West Coast. Now his goal is to prove it on the East Coast

Read Matt Hobgood Q&A
Watch Matt Hobgood Scouting video
Read Matt Hobgood Scouting report
Watch Matt Hobgood vs. Jake Marisnick Video
Watch Matt Hobgood’s Camden Yards bullpen session

Read Matt Hobgood Q&A
Watch Matt Hobgood Scouting video
Read Matt Hobgood Scouting report
Watch Matt Hobgood vs. Jake Marisnick Video
Catching up with Matt Hobgood