4 ms·

This is from Driveline Baseball. My understanding is that they've really revolutionized the ability of pitchers to put spin on the ball. (Sticky stuff aside)

Kon-Peki 4y ago
The MVP Machine [0] has a lot of interviews and background with Driveline folks, including their now-disgraced-turns-out-hes-a-terrible-person headline player (Trevor Bauer). What's unclear is how long-lasting the performance improvements are (can the pitcher maintain spin rates without constantly going back to the data and coaching staff?). One very positive thing I've seen is applying the analytics to young athletes as a future injury prevention tool. We now can, with high probability, identify kids who are on the path to permanently ruining their arm long before they cause lasting damage and give them an intervention - "You can dominate in Little League, but you'll never be a pro if you keep doing it this way. You must either change the way you throw or stop trying to be a baseball pitcher" [0] https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/ben-lindbergh/the-mvp-machine/9781541698956/ https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/ben-lindbergh/the-mvp-mach...
- clusterhacks 4y ago
  Good book! I think the Driveline blog is a better source for folks working with youth athletes. The MVP Machine was a little bit more Moneyball than player development oriented . . . Bauer. I had a bit of a meltdown about him - I was momentarily worried that his name alone would bring a huge negative reaction to people associated with Driveline training methods. That seems to have not come to pass. I very much like the Driveline "Skills that Scale" training approach. I took several brand-new-to-softball middle schoolers into 50+ MPH bat speeds with overload/underload training and bat sensors. One great athlete hit 60+ in training in her very first year of playing the game. Course, she looks like a D1 athlete as well, so she may have gotten there just by putting a bat in her hand . . .

Kon-Peki 4y ago

The MVP Machine [0] has a lot of interviews and background with Driveline folks, including their now-disgraced-turns-out-hes-a-terrible-person headline player (Trevor Bauer). What's unclear is how long-lasting the performance improvements are (can the pitcher maintain spin rates without constantly going back to the data and coaching staff?). One very positive thing I've seen is applying the analytics to young athletes as a future injury prevention tool. We now can, with high probability, identify kids who are on the path to permanently ruining their arm long before they cause lasting damage and give them an intervention - "You can dominate in Little League, but you'll never be a pro if you keep doing it this way. You must either change the way you throw or stop trying to be a baseball pitcher" [0] https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/ben-lindbergh/the-mvp-machine/9781541698956/ https://www.basicbooks.com/titles/ben-lindbergh/the-mvp-mach...

clusterhacks 4y ago
Good book! I think the Driveline blog is a better source for folks working with youth athletes. The MVP Machine was a little bit more Moneyball than player development oriented . . . Bauer. I had a bit of a meltdown about him - I was momentarily worried that his name alone would bring a huge negative reaction to people associated with Driveline training methods. That seems to have not come to pass. I very much like the Driveline "Skills that Scale" training approach. I took several brand-new-to-softball middle schoolers into 50+ MPH bat speeds with overload/underload training and bat sensors. One great athlete hit 60+ in training in her very first year of playing the game. Course, she looks like a D1 athlete as well, so she may have gotten there just by putting a bat in her hand . . .