As Orioles assistant pitching coach Darren Holmes watches members of his staff warm up to enter a game, he scrolls through a mental checklist.
An attentiveness — found after a demotion to the minor leagues, used during a lengthy pitching career and expanded upon in medical settings after it — prompts him to first watch their feet, then their knees, and on up, tracking each link in the chain of their delivery.
He knows from experience how vital they can be. When the Orioles hired Holmes as their bullpen coach before last season, he inherited baseball’s worst relief corps.