Daniel Latham

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Daniel Latham once put Tulane in a College World Series. Can he do it again?

The Tulane baseball bus rolled somewhere through Houston when Daniel Latham sat near pitching coach Chad Sutter.

This was 2004, back when Latham was a college sophomore well on the way to becoming one of the all-time NCAA leaders in saves. Included among his 43 career saves was the one that ended with a foul-out to the third baseman against Rice that put the Green Wave in the 2005 College World Series.

But on this day, while riding a team bus, the Covington native began to think about the next chapter of his baseball career. The next chapter would come after his two seasons of being a professional baseball player. By then, the pro career would be what it was — an experience worth having but not something he wanted to continue. While on the bus, he talked about being a coach.

“I went and sat by him for a little while and started picking his brain on it,” Latham said. “Just kind of brought it up to him and he was like, ‘Yeah, you’d be great at it.’”

That talk, he said, “just kind of got me spinning a little bit.”

By that point, Sutter already saw something different in Latham. This went beyond his steely-nerved approach to finishing games. According to Sutter, Latham had a curiosity about the game that went beyond what most players have. Especially pitchers.

During practices, if a pitcher isn’t throwing to hitters or throwing in the bullpen, he typically leaves the field, but not Latham. He stayed and watched the infield position drills being led by then-coach Rick Jones.

“If coach Jones was running a defensive discussion, he would stand there and listen,” Sutter said. “When it was over, he would pull one of us aside and said, ‘Hey, why do it this way? What about this?’ Which was kind of how you knew he was going to do well.”

Not only as a pitcher, but also as a coach.

On Friday, Latham begins his first season back at his alma mater, where he has a pitching staff that ended 2018 with much to improve upon. Tulane ranked last in the American Athletic Conference in walks, wild pitches and hit batters. Leadoff batters hit safely nearly 40 percent of the time. The team ERA was nearly a full run higher than the next-worst team in the conference.

Clearly, Latham has his work cut out for him.

Before coming back to Tulane, Latham’s pitchers ranked in the top 100 nationally in strikeout-to-walk ratio in each of the last five seasons, all while at Southeastern Louisiana. In 2018, those pitchers ranked seventh nationally with better than a three-to-one strikeout-to-walk ratio.

Before then, Latham was the pitching coach for one season at Virginia Military Institute in 2011. He worked for two seasons before that as a volunteer assistant coach at High Point University in North Carolina, which was where he learned many of the coaching principles he took to his next two coaching stops, and then again when Tulane hired him last June to join coach Travis Jewett’s staff.

High Point coach Craig Cozart hired Latham for the 2009 season with a recommendation received from Jones, the former Tulane coach who retired in 2014 after 21 seasons at the school.

Cozart trusted Jones because of the rapport they had when Cozart coached pitchers at Central Florida. Back then, UCF and Tulane were in Conference USA together. When Cozart applied for the head coaching job at High Point, he listed Jones as a reference. When Cozart needed a volunteer assistant, Jones had a name for him.

What Cozart got from Latham was an assistant who knew what a winning baseball program looked like. He could help set a standard while also doing some of the grunt work that came with being an unpaid assistant. What Latham got from Cozart were the benchmarks and pitch-tracking methods he continues to use with Tulane pitchers he inherited and recruited.

Everything revolves around throwing strikes. As simplistic as it sounds, it’s how that point is emphasized that makes a difference. Beginning with the first Tulane workout in the fall, Latham began charting pitches, breaking them down into categories.

For any pitcher to be effective, he should throw a first-pitch strike 65 percent of the time, Cozart said. Fastballs should also be strikes 65 percent of the time. Breaking pitches should hit the zone 60 percent of the time.

“If you’re not successful doing those three things, then it’s a problem of stuff,” said Cozart, under whom 33 pitchers have been selected in the MLB Draft since 1998. “Then you have to change arm angles, change what he’s doing on the mound to create more deception.”

Another statistic tracked by Cozart and passed along to Latham are “two-by-threes,” which is the measure of either getting to two strikes or forcing the batter to put the ball in play within the first three pitches of an at-bat.

“When you accomplish that,” Cozart said, “82 percent of the time it results in an out.”

Throwing strikes and creating contact are the things pitchers can control, Cozart said. Everything is incidental, which is what Latham tells his pitchers.

“We don’t talk about how many hits they give up, how many runs they give up, hard contact,” Latham said. “We don’t talk about those things. We just kind of stay a little bit more processed: How many strikes am I throwing? Am I getting ahead in my counts? Am I throwing strike one? Am I creating early contact? Am I keeping my pitch count in a good manageable spot? We believe the results will come if we’re getting the results we want to see.”

Those statistics have been tracked since the fall. Pitchers can see their individual numbers just as well as they can see how the entire staff is trending. According to both coaches, those numbers can be used to create more competitive situations during workouts and throwing sessions.

The other element to quality pitching requires a good mental focus. Channeling the negative energy that comes with a missed call by an umpire into a positive belief that a good pitch was thrown, for example. Latham excelled at that as a pitcher, his coaches said, which is what made him such a dependable reliever.

“Our coaching careers wouldn’t have been as good if Daniel wasn’t part of the team,” Sutter said.

Tulane unveils 2019 baseball schedule: Which in-state schools will Green Wave face?

So far, results are encouraging. Jewett sees more movement on pitches, he says. “We’re not walking a lot of guys,” the third-year Tulane coach said.

Kaleb Roper and Keegan Gillies, who both started 14 games on weekends for Tulane last season, drew praise for the work they did in the fall. Connor Pellerin, who had nearly as many walks (40) as strikeouts (46) in a team-high 28 appearances last season, walked one batter in the fall, Latham said.

Chase Solesky is another potential weekend starter “starting to show some low to mid 90s,” Latham said. As is Trent Johnson, another returning pitcher.

Justin Campbell pitched 1-1/3 innings last season. In a fall scrimmage against South Alabama, the sophomore struck out five in two innings. “You’re going to see him a lot this year,” Latham said.

Landing this job at Tulane came after seven seasons at Southeastern, where he coached under former Tulane teammate Matt Riser. In his five seasons as a head coach, Southeastern has played in three regionals, twice qualifying as an at-large team in the NCAA Tournament.

"He was pushing me: ‘You got to take this job,’' said Latham, who remembered Riser also saying, “I don’t ever want to lose you here, but you got to take this job. It’s a great opportunity for you. You got a chance to go back home.”

Now, when Latham sits in third-base side home dugout at Turchin Stadium, he sees a place that’s been rebuilt since the last time he played there, back before Katrina put the old park underwater. He also sees the 5,000-seat ballpark for the potential it could hold as a NCAA Regional host. He’s seen it done before.

“I would love to have that experience here again," he said.

That’s the other benchmark Latham brings with him. It’s more ambitious than establishing a desired first-pitch strike rate. But it’s a start.


golfnut69
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golfnut69
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headin' to Stetson U....where the OJ is always fresh
https://gohatters.com/sports/baseball
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tpstulane
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Yes. That’s the Florida school. Congrats and best of luck!

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I'm not sure what to think of this move. Stetson is not an upgrade. If they offered more money than Tulane was playing, we have a real problem. I have to believe JU asked him to find another home and has his own Pitching coach in mind.
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winwave
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He was let go.
BAYWAVE&Sophandros are SPINELESS COWARDS
YOU NEED LEVERAGE TO BE PROACTIVE!
Small time facilities for small time programs
6-4-23:Now all of the mistakes Tulane has made finally catches up with them as they descend to CUSAAC.
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tpstulane
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Pepper wrote: Sat Jun 11, 2022 6:32 am I'm not sure what to think of this move. Stetson is not an upgrade. If they offered more money than Tulane was playing, we have a real problem. I have to believe JU asked him to find another home and has his own Pitching coach in mind.
Daniel lined up the Stetson job soon after Jewett was let go. With the uncertainty of a new coach coming and expecting Tulane to clean house he sought out this new opportunity. He’ll be making the same as he did at Tulane.
Be proactive, being reactive is for losers..
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golfnut69
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tpstulane wrote: Sat Jun 11, 2022 8:20 am
Pepper wrote: Sat Jun 11, 2022 6:32 am I'm not sure what to think of this move. Stetson is not an upgrade. If they offered more money than Tulane was playing, we have a real problem. I have to believe JU asked him to find another home and has his own Pitching coach in mind.
Daniel lined up the Stetson job soon after Jewett was let go. With the uncertainty of a new coach coming and expecting Tulane to clean house he sought out this new opportunity. He’ll be making the same as he did at Tulane.
All the best to Daniel and his Family.... I wish him and his family success, happiness and great health to enjoy life....
Be a Hero Today.... Adopt a Shelter Pet... The Beatles once sang "Can't Buy Me Love"... I disagree, unconditional Love can be bought, for the nominal adoption fee at your local Pet Shelter !
anEngineer
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Maybe they just want to raise their family in Florida. That's reasonable.
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tpstulane
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anEngineer wrote: Sat Jun 11, 2022 8:48 am Maybe they just want to raise their family in Florida. That's reasonable.
Fresh start, new opportunity, the life of a coach.
Great family. I wish him nothing but the best.
Living in Florida a bonus!
Be proactive, being reactive is for losers..
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Two guys each go for the same job.

Rarely does the one that isn’t selected stay.

Latham will be more than OK. Stetson is a really good program.
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RobertM320
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anEngineer wrote: Sat Jun 11, 2022 8:48 am Maybe they just want to raise their family in Florida. That's reasonable.
Definitely better than New Orleans.

"That mantra is the only consistent thing that never needs to ever change for the rest of this program’s existence because that is all that matters & as long as that keeps occurring, everything will handle itself" -- Nick Anderson
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tpstulane
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Daniel Latham Joins Stetson Baseball Staff
https://gohatters.com/news/2022/6/14/da ... &fs=e&s=cl
Be proactive, being reactive is for losers..
Tulane Class of 1981
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