Wichita State pitching coach Mike Steele fights fear on the mound

Wichita State pitching coach Mike Steele wants to talk about fear, diagnose fear and free his pitchers from the weight of that emotion.

He might do this with meetings where players discuss fear and ask questions about fear. He might work on fear with a baseball version of wrestling matches.

Well-controlled, careful wrestling matches, to be sure. Two pitchers grappling, protecting their arms, with Steele coaching and prodding.

“Just competing with one another,” said Kyle Friedrichs, a seventh-round draft pick of the Oakland A’s in 2015. “He would be right there in the middle of it, trying to talk you through it, how do you get out of it. It brought all of us together. He’s a different guy, but it works.”

Wichita State hired Steele, 37, last month and he started in early July with the Shockers. Friedrich’s advice to Steele’s new pitchers is to trust him, even through the unusual times, and wait for it to make sense.

Dominic Taccolini, a senior at Arkansas, describes Steele as part philosopher, part mixed-martial arts fighter.

“He has so many good theories, how you should feel about yourself,” said Taccolini, who worked with Steele while in high school in Sugar Land, Texas. “Yet, there’s an edge to him. He gets you fired up, telling me to trust my stuff and let the big dog eat.”

Steele already feels knowledgeable about his new staff, courtesy of video, and is talking with them while they play this summer. Wichita State’s pitching performance slumped the past two seasons, contributing to consecutive losing records (21-37 in 2016). Steele’s job is to raise their level to couple with a promising group of position players.

“We’ve had a couple 30-minute phone conversations,” said WSU sophomore Connor Lungwitz, who is in Alaska. “I’m really sold on what he’s telling me and what it’s going to be like. He’s not going to let us slack off at all. He went through some of the numbers with me and basically said they weren’t going to be acceptable.”

Get used to direct conversations.

Steele describes himself as a coach who always says what’s on his mind, even when it came to dealing with parents when he gave private lessons in Houston.

“I had a really bad business model for that, in that I told the truth to kids, but more importantly parents,” he said. “Sometimes they’re putting kids in a bad place because baseball’s not that important.”

Repercussions and questions don’t bother him. He sees improvement coming for the Shockers, although he does leave himself some room to alter his thoughts during fall practice.

“Willie Schwanke, I think he'll probably be one of the best pitchers in the country,” Steele said. “Cody Tyler, this kid's going to be a top 3-4 round draft pick. Zach Lewis, I think, is an animal, he's going to just slam down the end of the games and it's going to be beautiful. They have breaking balls. They have stuff.”

Coach Todd Butler wanted a coach with a professional and college background. Steele spent the previous two seasons at Long Beach State after working for seven years in the Pittsburgh Pirates organization as an instructor and scout.

Much like Brent Kemnitz, his predecessor, Steele developed a philosophy of working to boost confidence. Steele can instruct all about technique. The mind is the key to turning arm angles, grips and footwork into outs.

“You don't fix physical stuff by just attacking physical things,” Steele said. “You have to attack it mentally, so that they understand.”

Friedrichs came to Long Beach State with three fears — a fear of failure, a fear of not getting drafted and a fear of not reaching his dreams in professional baseball. He spent his early career as a reliever and missed the 2013 season after elbow surgery. In 2015, he earned second-team All-Big West honors and the A’s drafted him. He pitches for Stockton (Calif.) in the Class-A California League.

“He told me numerous different things that calmed me down and made me go back to work,” Friedrichs. “It was all mental. I don’t know how he does it. He knows exactly what to say and how to say it, every single time.”

Steele told him everyone fails. He told him that getting to Long Beach State — after Friedrichs didn’t play high school baseball until his senior season — represented a significant accomplishment.

“That right there just calmed me down — ‘I have nothing to fear and I need to go back to work, do what I need to do and whatever happens, happens,’ ” Friedrichs said.

Diagnosing those fears will start Steele’s look at Shocker pitchers. He takes over a group, returning most of its leading pitchers, that compiled a 5.97 ERA to rank last in the Missouri Valley Conference. WSU pitchers struggled with control most of the season, striking out 427 (third in the MVC), while walking 240 (also third) with 59 wild pitches and 50 hit batters. Schwanke’s return provides a No. 1 starter. Tyler earned second-team All-MVC honors as a sophomore.

“Just giving guys delivery stuff, talking to them about Xs and Os, they can't comprehend that, because they apply it as a way to not feel pain,” Steele said. “There's a level of fear and a connection to still staying a boy that these guys all carry with them that you have to break down and figure out.”

Steele, whose salary is $100,000 on a one-year contract, departed professional baseball when the travel and schedule affected his family life. Wichita State appeals to him and his family for similar reasons. He liked working at Long Beach State; Wichita offers perks for the family that California’s cost of living prohibit.

“I'm paying $2,700 a month rent for a 1,400-square-foot house and I've got two boys that need either a padded room or a giant field,” he said. “That's kind of reality setting in.”

Lydia, his wife — Steele calls her the Ben Kenobi of teaching — home-schools Margaret Grace (10), Caleb (9) and Merritt (5). Steele, from Michigan, sees Kansas as a moderate winter stop where his family can enjoy the change of seasons and a slower pace than in California.

“I miss winters and I miss fishing,” he said. “I miss being a little bit cold, down in the basement, getting the boys up to go do some fishing or cold-weather skating. Let’s go run around in the woods. I miss a little variety.”

This story was originally published July 15, 2016 at 9:59 AM with the headline "Wichita State pitching coach Mike Steele fights fear on the mound."