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Texas Tech baseball pitcher Trendan Parish beefs up in bid for healthy season
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- Texas Tech baseball pitcher Trendan Parish beefs up in bid for healthy season
For three years, Trendan Parish has had a key role on the Texas Tech baseball pitching staff, everything from closer to starter to handling high-leverage innings in between. All three years, he's been sidelined by injuries late in the season.
To change the pattern, Parish figured, he had to change his body. So when Texas Tech opens the season Friday through Sunday at No. 8 North Carolina , the Parish who takes the mound will be 26 pounds heavier than last year.
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The on-field portion was only part of his fall baseball preparation.
"I'd wake up at the 3 o'clock in the morning," Parish said, "and I would eat ground meat and eggs. I eat every six hours. I cut out sodas. I cut out sugars. ... We were on the carnivore diet, besides eggs and some milk here and there, protein shakes and stuff like that. It's been a huge change for me."
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The 6-foot senior righthander has gone from 180 pounds to 206. He's optimistic that more muscle will yield fewer injuries.
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"My body feels better," he said. "I feel like after I get done throwing, I'm not so sore. My bounce-back time is just immediately. It's super quick.
"It's something that I should have done a lot earlier, but glad I kind of opened my eyes and was like, 'This needs to be something to change so I can be healthy all year and give my team the best chance to win.' "
Trendan Parish has had his moments when healthy
Texas Tech's Trendan Parish (32) pitches against Stephen F. Austin in a non-conference baseball game, Tuesday, March 26, 2024, at Rip Griffin Park.
Parish has a career record of 7-6 with a 5.93 earned-run average and nine saves. He's struck out 107 batters in 112⅓ innings. But the good times have never lasted long. As a true freshman in 2022, he had five saves and a win by mid-March, exciting everyone connected to Tech baseball with the results and his exuberance when nailing down the last out.
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That year, he last pitched on May 3, missing the last two Big 12 series, the conference tournament and an NCAA regional with an elbow injury that led to a UCL-wrap surgery. The next year, he last pitched on May 19, missing the Big 12 tournament and Tech's NCAA regional trip with a shoulder injury.
Last year, Parish didn't appear in a game from April 2 through May 16. He did finish on the mound, however, and gave the Red Raiders reason for renewed optimism. In a season-ending 4-0 loss to Oklahoma State at the Big 12 tournament, Parish made his first start and took it into the seventh inning, holding the Cowboys to two runs.
He finished 2-2 with a career-low 3.33 ERA and two saves.
Trendan Parish hoping diet change unlocks door to a full season
Texas Tech's pitcher Trendan Parish (32) pitches against BYU in game one of the Big 12 baseball series, Thursday, March 21, 2024, at Rip Griffin Park.
Scouts and everyone else, though, ask Parish about his arm and how he can keep it healthy for a full season. He thinks building up his body is the answer. The idea was hatched not at the ballpark, but under his own roof.
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"It was all on my own," he said. "My fiancee and I got together and she said, 'Hey, it's time for a change,' and I said, 'You bet.' I said, 'I can't be this small and have a rubber arm. There's nothing to protect it.' I said, 'It's time to get after it.' "
When fall baseball ended, Parish said he stuck to the new diet, even on a two-week vacation to Arkansas.
"Even during that time, I still ate clean," he said. "Thanksgiving meals came around, I didn't eat that. I ate what I needed to eat to stay on my regimen and to keep pushing forward, because I knew if I stay at the same weight, my (probability) of getting (an) injury was more likely. But now I've got a little bit more fluff around me."
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Tim Tadlock said in late October he liked what he was seeing.
"He's throwing the ball as good as he's ever thrown it," Tadlock said, "so that's exciting to see."
Parish relies mainly on a fastball in the low-90s and a slider in the low-80s.
Asked how his body change has affected the velocity of his stuff, Parish said, "I feel like I've been throwing the ball well. I feel like it's been coming out good and maybe a little bit up from what I am usually and what probably you guys have seen me, but I feel overall like I'm strong and ready to help the team."
Trendan Parish
Parish's new look even includes his hairstyle. Having sported bleached-blond locks for much of his Tech career, now he's reverted to his natural brown hair color.
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"I'm a pretty big superstitious guy as most baseball guys are," he said, "and I went with this haircut because I had a really good fall, I felt like. I was like, 'Man, I don't want to change anything up. I want to keep everything exactly the same.' But I've got some in my back pocket if I need it, for sure."
This article originally appeared on Lubbock Avalanche-Journal: Texas Tech baseball's Trendan Parish beefs up in bid to stay healthy
