Matt Williams discusses pitching philosophy, working with new staff
Matt Williams has been coaching in baseball for a long time with a handful of teams. He’s seen a lot of success in his 18 years of working with pitchers before heading to the Gamecocks’ program.
But while he’s done a lot of good, he hasn’t coached in the SEC Before. It’s a different type of beast. Only one team batted below .270 this season. Ten of the 14 teams made the NCAA Tournament.
While Williams, South Carolina’s newly-hired pitching coach, has never coached in this conference, he understands what it will take to be successful.
“I think the biggest thing is attacking the plate. Especially in this league, if your stuff doesn’t play over the plate then it’s going to be tough for you here,” Williams said.
“I want to make sure we’re attacking the plate, we’re being aggressive. Our approach is going to be aggressive. If your stuff’s not playing then we either got to look at making some changes, some adjustments. Just finding the right stuff to play over the plate is going to be the big thing for me.”
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It’s a strategy that Williams has used before and seen good results with. In nine seasons at the Division I level, his pitching staffs have averaged 8.55 strikeouts per nine innings. Opposing teams have hit .248/.347/.364 during that span.
Excluding the COVID-shortened season, his staffs have had an ERA below 4.50 five times with a sub-4.00 ERA four of those years.
Before coming to coach the Gamecocks, Williams had coached at UNC Wilmington and Liberty, where he seemingly got the most out of his arms. He’ll be looking to do it again with the Gamecocks.
“I mean, it’s looking at things. Maybe there’s some characteristics on a certain pitch that may fit in our bullpen. Maybe their fastball’s got some outlier characteristics or their breaking pitch is really good, and we can see them in a role,” Williams said.
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“It’s just kind of us watching them and seeing what the metrics say and envisioning something down the road and just making a decision on them.”
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At the same time, Williams will be working with 18 to 22-year-old kids that most likely learn differently from one another. And he knows that.
“Some guys learn in the weight room, some guys learn just talking mechanics and some guys learn in the bullpen. Some guys can learn with metrics. It’s a different deal getting to know each individual guy,” he said.
It’s still unclear how Williams will utilize his new pitching staff. Many players still have to decide if they’ll return to the Gamecocks’ program next year or head to the professional ranks. He said it’ll be a “year-to-year thing” when making those decisions.
“You find out what pieces you got going through the fall. I mean, some years you may have guys that are starters that get you deeper in games and you don’t have to use the bullpen quite as much,” Williams said.
“Sometimes you have guys that maybe you have to piece the game together. I think that really will be determined with us going through the fall and finding out what pieces are there.”
