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Marlins Are Keene on Swamp Bat Star Conley

July 7, 2016 - New England Collegiate Baseball League (NECBL) News Release


"When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways."- St. Paul.

Adam Conley's story seems to be straightforward.

Conley came to the Keene Swamp Bats in the summer of 2009 and dominated the NECBL like no other pitcher before or since. In 34 innings, the Washington State freshman allowed 0- ZERO!- earned runs.

"My freshman Fall, I was sitting at 84 or 85 with my fastball," the rising Miami Marlins' star remembered. "By the time the season ended, I was consistently around 89 to 92. I had a nice little bump coming out of the bullpen. A year of lifting and of growing up helped too.

"I had a great experience in Keene. Watching myself throw that summer, I know I was throwing the ball a lot harder. I could see it in the hitter's swings," Conley continued. "I could see it in their reaction time."

Conley returned to Pullman from Keene and routinely clocked 95. "After that first week, they said 'You're our closer' and I spent the majority of my sophomore year closing," Conley smiled. "It was pretty cool how all of that worked out. I'll try and paint a picture of why it was such a weird summer."

The lefty described his clowning around in the Keene bullpen early in June. "I decided that I was going to go through my pitching delivery, and I was going to jump down the mound as far and as fast as I could to see what that felt like," he remembered. "I did that maybe 15 or 20 times without the ball and each time I did that, I felt a little more comfortable.

"At the time, I don't even remember why I did that," Conley said candidly, "but now that I've gotten better at learning why things happen, I can see what I did. My lower half was getting down so fast that it made my shoulder rotation really late, which meant the hitter was seeing the ball later. Getting down the mound faster created more separation between my hips and my shoulders- more torque- and coaches will tell you that the vast majority of the velocity and power that you create is from the separation between your hips and shoulders."

Conley threw a 14 strikeout, one hit shutout against North Adams in mid-July. He faced one batter over the minimum to get a four inning save in late in the year against North Shore.

"Adam Conley was one of the great players in Swamp Bat history," said Keene president Kevin Watterson. "His special talents were obvious to all. What separated Adam from the upper echelon of players that have passed through Keene in the past twenty years was his desire to win.

"His teammates recognized what he brought to the mound every night and were motivated to match his effort. A teammate like that is who every player," Watterson concluded, "wants to emulate."

In some years, it is very difficult to pick an NECBL Top Pitcher, Top Prospect and Rookie of the Year. Conley's dominance, in which he surrendered just 14 hits all summer, made those three decisions extremely easy.

"I don't want to call it a coincidence because I believe everything happens for a reason," noted Conley, a devout Christian, "but it can appear very coincidental that I happened to be messing around one day doing everything wrong and I happened, seemingly out of thin air, to end up with something that would make such a huge positive impact on pitching. It did a lot for my athleticism and for generating power."

Conley was the Marlins' second round pick in 2011, made All-Star in both Class A and Double-A, and won the Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Week on July 6, 2015. In that season, he went 9-3 with a 2.52 ERA for the Triple-A New Orleans Zephyrs.

Promoted to the Marlins five days later, he has been a mainstay in Miami ever since. Conley was lifted after 7.2 no-hit innings against the Brewers on April 29. In his next start, he allowed just three baserunners and struck out six in 5.1 shutout innings against the Diamondbacks.

"Conley is willing to throw either pitch (changeup or slider) to anyone. The placement of those pitches doesn't change much -- down and to the glove side with the slider; to the arm side with the change -- but that wrinkle, that willingness to stray from the norm, allows Conley enough variety to turn a lineup twice," wrote R.J. Anderson on CBS Sports.com.

So that's Adam Conley's story, right? A dominant freak of nature destined to rocket up to baseball's highest echelons?

The amazing part of Adam Conley's story isn't his complete mastery of NECBL, and now MLB, batters...impressive as that is.

The amazing part is to hear 2016 Adam Conley describe 2009 Adam Conley. The 2016 version of Conley is not too kind to his 2009 counterpart, using words like "dumb," "immature," and "selfish" to talk about himself.

That's because the Adam Conley story is not as simple as a kid who tweaked his delivery and magically became a threat to throw a Major League no-hitter. The Adam Conley story is one of a kid who completely gutted and transformed the person he was during his first two years of college.

Conley was all set to land a spot with Team USA in the summer of 2010. The night Washington State got bounced from the NCAA Tournament, Conley broke his pitching hand at a party.

No Team USA.

No baseball.

"It was the first time that baseball had ever been taken away from me," Conley noted. "I realized that baseball was a god that I had worshipped my entire life and it had let me down my sophomore summer. It scared me to death. And it opened my eyes to the fact that this was going to happen again...and I wouldn't come back.

"I may be 28 or 35 or a Hall of Famer, but that doesn't matter. Baseball was going to go away for good some day and it scared me to death," Conley repeated, "because this was the most important thing to me in the world. It made a big change in me and when it happened, I turned to the only permanent thing I knew about and that was Jesus Christ. From that point on, my mind and my heart started to change about why I was doing things."

His new faith matured him. Conley fell in love with his now wife Kendall, also a Christian. The two married on 9/10/11.

"I had grown up a ton and had cleaned up my act. God had done a lot of work in my heart in redeeming me," Conley said. "If you saw me before and after, you wouldn't believe I was the same person, that's how unrecognizable I was.

"My junior year, I still obviously wanted to be drafted since I was so passionate about it," he continued, "but the motive behind it had all changed drastically. That is when it started to shift for me: from being about myself to being more about others: my wife, my family and my faith."

"In Keene, Adam was a quality human being," Watterson insists. "That he took himself to another level is all the more impressive."

As Conley grew as a pitcher, he also grew in his character. "I came into Spring Training 2015 with the mindset that I was going to get a small group together, live a lot more seriously and realize that ultimately the reason I play baseball is to be a disciple of Jesus Christ- in the clubhouse, on the field, in my interviews and in everything I do," Conley shared.

His fellowship group with the Zephyrs grew by the week, so much so that Conley admitted something that would shock most baseball fans. "I was so moved by what God was doing on the New Orleans Zephyrs that I actually prayed that I wouldn't get called up to the Big Leagues," said Conley, who wanted to stay in the Big Easy and disciple his teammates. "My faith in my heart had finally gotten more important than baseball."

Three days later, Conley got promoted to the Big Leagues.

Conley is 5-5 with seven no decisions this year. One of the victories came at Fort Bragg on ESPN, in the first ever Major League game played in North Carolina and on a military base.

In those five wins, Conley has a 0.28 ERA, a 0.79 WHIP and 24 punchouts in 33 innings. Some nights, Conley makes MLB hitters look as silly as NECBL hitters in 2009.

"What I've noticed, in the games that go really well, is when I don't execute the pitch that I intend to execute, it wasn't far off. I consistently make good misses," Conley observed. "When I'm trying to throw a backfoot slider to a righty and it misses, it's in and closer to him and not down and over the plate. If it's a fastball up and I don't quite get it up, it's a miss that I can still use.

"I want to throw pitches to the hitter that he doesn't want to hit. As a hitter," Conley concluded, "he is trying to force me to throw pitches that he does want to hit."

Conley leads the Marlins' team Bible Study outside of the foul lines. "Baseball is a game that can be so distracting. It's easy to lose your focus. It's been a crazy two years but there is definitely a lot of growth that I don't take credit for," Conley concluded. "Like I said, if you were to see me a few years ago, you wouldn't recognize me.

"God has been so faithful in redeeming me and changing my heart. Now I'm blessed to be responsible for being a disciple in the Major Leagues. It's been amazing."

Adam Conley's Advice to the NECBL: "I would say, don't make baseball the most important thing in your life because that is going to be a roller coaster of a life and it's going to be really hard to live. You have to make a list of your priorities. I'd encourage them to think very hard about where baseball is.

"Baseball can't hold the weight of being the highest priority in your life. It's going to let you down. You're not honoring the design of baseball. There is a certain amount that baseball is meant to be enjoyed, loved and pursued. If you hold it in too low of a regard, you're not going to reach your full potential. If you make it too important, then when you fail, it will crush you and destroy your identity.

"Baseball is what I know best. If baseball is going to demand your full love, trust and knowledge, I'd warn them from my experience that that is a trap, and when you get caught in it, your life can get pretty dark. I'd encourage them to find something in their life that is more important than baseball so that when it doesn't work out, they will have something to live for. In my experience, and my beliefs, that is faith in Jesus Christ. For me, that is where I've found my peace, my joy and my comfort. I have peace in my marriage and in being a father to my daughter. I've found peace in my failures in baseball. It's not that you're OK with it. I get angry when I fail, but it's an appropriate anger and frustration. More than anything, it's a motivating factor to learn, to get better and to fight through it, more so than to feel crushed or to feel like I've let people down or I've let the game down. That would be my encouragement to them."

About the New England Collegiate Baseball League

The New England Collegiate Baseball League is a wooden bat college summer league that fields teams in all six New England states. Partially funded by Major League Baseball, the NECBL started play in 1994 and has sent over 100 alumni to the Major Leagues.

Chris Aliano | Director of Broadcasting/PR | NECBL | 973-632-1342 | caliano@necbl.com

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New England Collegiate Baseball League Stories from July 7, 2016


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


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