Brian Cain asked Corbin Burnes a question in August 2019 that the mental skills coach has asked many of the game’s top pitchers over the years.
“What’s your process between starts?” Cain wondered.
Burnes was stumped.
It was the most entry-level question Cain could ask during their first session together midway through the 2019 season, when Burnes visited Cain in Arizona. There are five days between starts in the major leagues — 120 hours with which to prepare for the next time a pitcher is in the spotlight.
That time, the Orioles ace now knows, is valuable — if you use it correctly. But at that point, midway through a season in which he finished with an 8.82 ERA for the Milwaukee Brewers, Burnes didn’t know any better. Instead, his between-start regimen was far from detailed.
“No fault of his own; the process is something that gets coached. The process is something that gets taught,” Cain said. “The mental game is not something you just go figure out on your own, although a lot of people approach it that way. The mental game can be taught and can be trained, just like pitching mechanics.”
Beginning with that visit five years ago, Burnes set out on a trajectory to make himself one of the best pitchers in baseball. The development of his mechanics and arsenal — namely, relying on a cutter rather than a four-seam fastball — was a requirement to reach the level of success Burnes has.
But the other critical piece was his mental preparation, with an uber-specific between-start routine that Cain and Burnes created together.
It is all documented within three notebooks — originally paperback but now computer files — with a to-do list, progress markers and a by-the-minute breakdown of how he will spend his time between starts. Burnes tracks data, both analytically and anecdotally, from each throwing session or weightlifting exercise. And, within those files, Burnes can track how he feels throughout the course of a season with exacting specificity.
This is why Burnes is starting Game 1 of the wild-card round for the Orioles on Tuesday at Camden Yards. It’s why Burnes is a four-time All-Star and a Cy Young Award winner and why he has pitched nearly 200 innings in three straight seasons.
Before Burnes steps on the mound, all of that success is plotted out in his notebooks.
“The reason I do all my process during the week, all my notes, the game planning, the journals, whatever it is,” Burnes said, “is so, when I’m on the mound, I’m clear-minded.”
Without this, Burnes said, he wouldn’t have turned around his career so quickly. “Definitely not,” he said. With intense focus on his preparation, Burnes feels less pressure on the mound. He’s already done all he can do; he can relax and pitch.
“I just go out and execute it,” Burnes said. “I’m not thinking about, ‘I wish I would’ve done this more this week.’”
His three files, which are digital to make travel easier, are as follows:
- A journal to document everything he does at the field
- A notebook tracking his keys to success start to start
- An execution journal, which he fills by studying his game film to track every pitch he throws in a season and rate it on how precise it was
By adopting a comprehensive view of his week, Burnes unlocked a new level. Almost immediately, with the focus on preparation, Burnes found more success. His ERA dropped to 2.11 in 2020. And, over the next four years, his final ERA never rose above 3.39.
“We started diving into what it looks like and assigning every day a checklist,” Cain said. “He has his day one checklist, what it looks like for him. His day two, three, four and five, so that he knows, when he goes to step on the field every five days, he’s the most prepared version of Corbin Burnes that he can be, and that does a tremendous amount for your confidence.”
When Burnes began the exercise in late 2019, every 30-minute window was timed out in his journal, both at home and at the field. “And then you have kids and things change a little bit,” Burnes said. Now, the journal helps him flip from dad to ballplayer and back again. It keeps him focused on what he must accomplish that day.
In the file tracking keys to success, Burnes notes a one-word focus statement that generally boils down to: “health.” He lists three keys to keep his preparation and approach simple. He types out three affirmation statements.
At the end of his day, Burnes writes three wins — whatever he accomplished — and three things for which he’s grateful.
“And, usually, I’ll pick an objective for the year, or the month, whatever it is,” Burnes said. “Most of the time it’s something about staying on the attack, just something to keep my mind in a positive light, in attack mode, versus, ‘Let’s try to limit the walks.’ … Pitching, when you can boil it down to that, becomes a lot easier.”
Cain can keep track of all of this during the day. Burnes used to take pictures of his journal and text them to Cain, but now, doing it digitally, Cain can keep tabs himself. He gets notifications as Burnes checks off items, such as making his bed in the morning.
Cain also challenged Burnes as part of his between-start routine to visualize success. He wants Burnes to close his eyes and watch himself pitch, mapping out pitch execution to each hitter in his head. After Burnes warms up in the outfield, he does a “shadow bullpen” — something Cain picked up from working with fighters, who shadow box in preparation for a bout — to practice his pre-pitch routine.
All of this has led Burnes back here: to the postseason again.
He knows there’s a different energy to October baseball, with adrenaline pumping and even less room for error than usual. But he also knows, if he maintains his routine, if he sticks to the preparation that turned around his career four years ago, he will be ready.
“I go probably overboard on things that you need, information you need, things to do, just so, when you get on the mound, I know I put in a good five days and am as prepared as I can be to go out and basically have fun and execute,” Burnes said. “I’ve done a good job of that now for basically the last four years, so I don’t have any reason to do anything differently now.”
