RSTR IQ

The Roster Intelligence Platform Built for College Baseball | Everyday GM | Better Decisions, Faster

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

A big one here! We were lucky enough to check out @HogsPlayerDev Pitching Lab, and talk to @Hobbs_38 about how they utilize their resources to build their pitching staff. This is a great look at what it takes to build one of the best pitching staffs in the country!

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

Early in a coaching career, everything is about the dogpile in Omaha and the next big job.

The last ten or fifteen years, @CoachDaveLawn started taking joy in the joy of his players.

The real reward lives in the wins that aren't yours.

New BDH · one of the truest lessons from 40 years in the game.

[NewtForce @newtforce]

The pitchers who make the biggest velo jumps in the shortest time are the ones with a strong back leg and a broken block.

This is exactly that profile. Z Back 1.48. Y Front 0.90. The fix lives downstream of the block, not the back.

#BuiltInTheLab

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

The mistake most pitchers make when they're trying to command it is throttling the effort down.

A pitcher with a real arm throws worse at 80% than at 100% because the delivery is built around the conviction of full effort. Once the intent gets soft, the sequence unravels.

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

The people who have worked with Skenes will tell you the same thing.

Same spot at release, every single pitch. It's a timing thing. Command is downstream of a synced delivery.

When a day feels off and the timing gets thrown off, the pitcher doesn't know where the ball is going. And when a mechanical adjustment changes the arm slot, the whole chain resets.

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

Paul Skenes will be good for eternity as long as he has command.

The velocity dip isn't the story. The command dip is. And the second he trusts the mound again, the Skenes we know is back — even if the fastball sits 97, or 92, for the rest of his career.

New BDH Podcast

[Ryan Christian @Christian_Ryan3]

This philosophy is the reason why the @RavikSports Spin Command Baseballs were created. Pitch design for too long relied on solely on cueing from coaches followed by trial and error, in other words, it was inefficient. The Spin Command Balls help clean up the inefficiency.

[Preston Benedict, CSCS @Coach__Benedict]

The sport is in the best place it’s ever been, with the most money it’s ever had, and the places that are applying technology, research-backed science, biomechanical interventions, etc. are continuing to set the standard for what modern athletic development is.

[NewtForce @newtforce]

A college pitcher came into the NewtForce lab looking for the velo he lost. The ground force said he was fine.

The block was upstairs. Shoulder abduction 69.9°, hip-shoulder separation below average.

Two drills, two weeks, +1.5 mph. Built in the lab.

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

College baseball is the best injury prevention environment in the sport right now.

Programs with integrated biomechanics on the mound, water bags, med balls, plyo routines, bullpen sessions flag the warning sign before the pitcher feels it. Hip's off, pull him back, training room, fix it.

The minor league pitcher on a road trip doesn't have that. The college guy does.

Tech > workload conversation.

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

@mlbcurious https://t.co/0sWiDXF9la Also on spotify!

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

"College coaches don't care about pitcher development, just winning baseball games."

The data doesn't agree. The labs don't agree.

The pushback on the MLB Draft proposal misses what college development has actually become.

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

Player development doesn't trickle down from the big leagues.

It trickles up.

Spin. High-ride fastballs. Every "cutting-edge" idea a big-league announcer treats like a breakthrough, college was running it two years before MLB caught on.

The narrative is upside down. The PD innovation lives in the college game. The big leagues are the late adopter.

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

No doubt, and at least in college the players have a choice to ask the right questions and discover that information to figure out the best fit for them. Would a pitcher be better served at Arkansas or with the Angels? Would Elijah Greene have been better developed under the previous Nats regime or Vanderbilt?

The main point we are trying to emphasize is there is good and bad on both sides. Feels like the public reaction following the proposal is college = bad, abusing pitchers for wins. Pro = good. It's just not that simple, and there are great scenarios in college baseball that are way better developmental operations than pro orgs.

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

@ShawnGillespi No question! What UCSB has done on the pitching side is awesome, and definitely a program we need to highlight if the chance arises. Fired up to see what the Coastal staff does with South Carolina tech and resources

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

I love that perspective and everyone has a different opinion. There isn't anything wrong with either side to us, we just believe there are a lot of great developers of talent in college and are catching strays as we bracket all college coaches in the same "will do anything to win" bucket.

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

Completely fair, the trickle down affect will impact the next Rhett Lowder who was barely recruited to Wake Forest, will not be on the roster any more. Also combine the transfer portal as I have heard an SEC coach say "Age wins in this conference." All that means some of the elite programs might not even take freshman to develop with limited roster spots.

All of that is fair push back that will impact player development and limit how many players make it to the top programs with those resources, but the point is the negative push back on college development is the problem we have. Based on our experience, College baseball is a great developmental opportunity, and is not quite the negative the public reaction makes it out to be.

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

They have that at every minor league location? Yes they have them at the MLB level and Spring training sites, but the beauty of college baseball is they spend all of their development time under that roof. They don't have to go on the road for weeks at a time and lose access to those resources. At most, they go on the road for a weekend, and come back home to the same resources they had before.

Ultimately this isn't about MLB development being bad, it is more just to compliment how great college baseball programs also are at developing talent. The negatives surrounding the proposal should be focused on limiting employment opportunity, and financially restricting draft selections. The development at both levels is elite when under the guidance of the right coaches. The beauty of college baseball is the player has a choice to play under the best coaches, who are highly coveted by MLB orgs, like Hobbs, Wes Johnson, Max Weiner, etc.

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

You are correct about the incentive structure, but I don't agree that college baseball development isn't player focused. We interviewed Matt Hobbs and listening to him talk about Jake Faherty's developmental, and how he had the stuff to pitch as a Freshman, but they didn't believe he had the ability to withstand the workload and force he created. That is our biased perspective on college baseball development. I just don't believe that coaches like Matt Hobbs don't develop pitchers with a primary focus on their individual development, and Faherty's example shows they will take care of these athletes long term health and development.

Are there bad actors in the space who abuse pitchers? 10000%. But unlike professional baseball, players have a choice of where they play and develop. It is the player and the agents/families job to find the best situation for the player. Is a pitcher better with the Los Angeles Angels or Arkansas? I would take Arkansas 100 out of 100 times, and in college baseball the player has a choice of where they develop unlike the draft.

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

Would rather have a player realize that they aren't good enough in college baseball with the opportunity to transfer and find their level compared to learning that in pro ball with no fallback plan and just getting released. Do pro orgs continue to pay and invest development in players with no chance of making the MLB?

Also, Skenes went to LSU as a legit 2 way prospect. Yes the potential was there as a pitcher, but he developed so fast on the mound that he became the best arm in the country in one fall. In 2022 his FB averaged 94.7, and in 2023 it averaged 98.3 mph. That development happened in college with the support system of nutrition, tech, and strength development to maximize his ceiling. He wasn't always the best arm in the country, it happened through elite development

[RSTR IQ @rstr_iq]

How about the kids who get drafted, willow away in the low minors, burn through their signing bonus, and are released within 4 years with no fallback plan? Both happen all the time, and there is risk associated to both sides. Our perspective is development is better in the ecosytem of the top college programs with labs, nutrition, recovery centers, weight rooms, and professional level coaches, compared to the low minors with 8-12 hour bus trips, gas station food, and sleeping in hotel beds. Access to resources can offset any workload concerns, which isn't as common as the public seems to want to make it