Bieser: Simmons' progress anchored in preparation

Shae Simmons said his call up to the Atlanta Braves on Friday night was unexpected.

But that doesn't mean the former Scott City High School and Southeast Missouri State pitcher was unprepared.

In fact, his improved preparation is the thing that, more than anything else, has helped transform him from a 22nd-round draft pick to a major league pitcher in less than two years, according to Southeast baseball coach Steve Bieser.

"The biggest difference I saw from when he was at Southeast to when he came back and worked out with us over the winter is his preparation now is just unbelievable," Bieser said.

Bieser said the change was obvious, even as he prepared to throw an offseason bullpen session.

"All the way from the minute he walks out on the field to get ready to throw a bullpen, it's very structured, it's very disciplined. That's something that I think all players at one point -- the good ones -- they figure out that there is a process to everything and that you've got to take everything -- getting loose and stretching to a pregame routine -- all that has to be a routine and has to be designed with the end goal in mind."

Southeast players, including Skylar Cobb, who played with Simmons for three seasons at Scott City and was a member of the Redhawks' Ohio Valley Conference championship team this season, paid attention to the way Simmons worked.

"When he came here he threw a couple bullpens and just the way he warmed up, like the band work he did," Cobb said, referring to rubber bands pitchers use for stretching and strength exercises. "We knew that he had learned that from the minor leagues and the pro system with the Braves, which is one of the best organizations you can be brought up in, especially as a young pitcher. We paid attention. We picked his brain with whatever we could, just with the way he warmed, the way he threw his 'pen, the way he approached it. I think it helped us as far as what we did this year."

The type of preparation done by Simmons wasn't unheard of to the Redhawks, but watching a former teammate who earned a major league spring training invite after just one year in the minor leagues had an impact.

"Now days, it's so structured to where there's a throwing routine, there's bands and stuff that you do to help tighten up the rotator cuff area and loosen it up and kind of get everything right, and he does that all," Bieser said. "We teach that, but not everybody buys into it and works at it religiously as hard as he does now. It's just his overall preparation from start to finish, and a lot of that is very mental. It's just being able to visualize and having a plan in place. I think that's what he has now. He just has a great plan in place and follows it every single day."

Although he never had a major injury, Simmons was plagued by elbow pain and problems that limited his ability at times. According to Cobb, Simmons has had acupuncture and other treatments on his elbow since becoming a professional that have eased that issue.

"I'm pretty sure once he got there he realized that he had a shot," Cobb said. "Once he realized he had a shot he really buckled down and really got after it and with the treatment they get -- because he had always had arm problems -- in the minor league system, obviously it's a lot better than he had ever gotten in his life. That kind of quit with the arm problems, helped that. He said that the conditioning is what's helped him a lot."

Bieser said it was surreal that Simmons, an undersized pitcher drafted in the later rounds, would even have that opportunity to reach the major leagues with "all the cards that were stacked against him."

But Bieser also said that recalling Simmons' struggles at Southeast -- he was 0-5 with a 6.68 ERA in 31 innings pitched during his sophomore season -- is just as important to current Redhawks as all of his success.

"We've got players that are still on our roster that played with Shae," Bieser said. "They kind of saw how he was at the earlier stages of his college career and now they see where he's at now and they can look back and say, 'I saw Shae when he was struggling. I saw Shae when the Ohio Valley Conference was difficult for him to compete in.' They saw him at those times where he wasn't his best, and they know that them going through their ups and downs -- that there's a chance that if they can just work things out and get focused to having the preparation and stuff that he has that they can make that same jump to professional baseball and possibly work their way through professional baseball to get to the major leagues.

"So it's really good for our players that are here that played with him just as a motivational standpoint, but it also does a lot for our program, a lot for our conference."