Bullpen Dictionary: Getting Hot
The world of baseball has a language all its own to describe, compliment, and complain in equal measure. To an outsider observer, the vocabulary of ballplayers can be impenetrable. That’s why we want to decipher the code, and let everyone in on the linguistic shenanigans. -T
GETTING HOT, verb.
(get-ting hot) (gE-ting hAHt)
Definition — The practice of a relief pitcher, who’s about to enter the game, throwing as many pitches as they can as fast as they can to be ready to face live batters. In these situations, there’s a high probability that runners are on base and a lead hangs in the balance, but there are times when analytics support a certain pitcher entering as a better matchup. The warm up routine varies from player to player, but the plan, ideally, is to ramp up by starting at half effort throws, transitioning to full effort, and finishing with secondary pitches, such as curves or sliders, if time permits. Besides being a good place to hang out and shoot the shit, this is the truest and most practical use of the bullpen.
Synonym — Getting Warm, Warming Up
Antonym — Shut It Down
Related — Getting Up, Getting Loose
Related (cont’d) — The process of getting hot begins at getting up. This is the first step that a relief pitcher will take to physically and mentally prepare themselves to enter the game. Depending on the location or level of play, it might mean, literally, getting up to go into the bullpen. Once in the pen, there are a number of things player can do to continue in the effort of getting up. Simple arm stretches or studying the lineup, specifically who they might be facing soon are most common. If whatever factor that necessitated their getting up has persisted, the bullpen coach will direct the pitcher to start getting loose. The procedure of getting loose is to lightly toss pitches off the mound without ever approaching max effort. After getting loose, a pitcher could be told to move right into getting hot or, just as likely, be told to shut it down because the pitcher they were going to replace managed to work themselves out of the inning. Different managers have different approaches when it comes to the idea of “getting… purgatory,” but conventional wisdom says that getting a guy up and loose too many times before getting hot and entering a game should be avoided because it will negatively impact their performance on the field. However, desperate times can call for desperate measures.
This all just goes to show that there’s more to getting hot than meets the eye.
Use in a Sentence — *into bullpen phone* “Hey, the pitch count is already pretty high, and [the starter] is laboring, so we need someone getting hot in a hurry.”
