The Ever-Evolving Pitching Program

Each February, pitchers migrate to Florida and Arizona to their respective spring training facilities. Florida, without pitchers, is weird enough as it is. Throwing a league full of pitchers into the mix can only come with dangerous consequences. The result this year seems to come in the form of weird-looking balls thrown in weird-looking ways against weird-looking mats. If you see this, don’t be alarmed. These pitchers are evolving, like every other wild species. This evolution comes with many questions. What are these fantastic beasts doing? Why are they doing it? And why are we just now noticing?

The funny-looking balls you see pitchers using throughout the south this spring are weighted balls. They are likely invoking the wisdom of DriveLine, an arm care program that focuses on developing arm strength and maintaining health. Like the pitchers themselves, the training balls they use come in many different shapes and sizes ranging from 3 ounces to 4.4 pounds! For reference, a major league baseball is just about 5 ounces. In the DriveLine program, the light ball acts as an accelerator to develop fast-twitch muscles and promote faster arm movement. Paired with the added strength of throwing weighted balls, it creates velocity for pitchers. Pitchers can also target specific muscle groups by following a series of funky-looking motions separate from their natural windup.

This is the same method used during weight-lifting. For example, during a leg day, you most likely will squat first, then work a smaller, specific muscle group like the hamstrings. Although it feels like organizations seem to have added this into their spring training schedule overnight, weighted ball training has been a part of baseball for a long time.

Weighted ball training started to gain some notoriety in 2016 when LHP Aroldis Chapman warmed up in the bullpen with a 10-ounce ball before each of his World Series appearances. Although this was the first time most average baseball fans saw weighted ball training, it was far from the first time it had been used. Some of the earliest users of weighted ball training came from last year’s World Series teams. In 1974, then-Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Dr. Mike Marshall threw weighted balls into a mattress. Later, in 1999, Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Jeff Sparks used a 15-pound ball. Yes, 15 pounds! Then, of course, MLB’s tyrants the New York Yankees have reported nearly every Cuban pitcher in their organization used weighted balls as part of their training program from 1996-2005. Although not Cuban-born, RHP Mariano Rivera was also known for using weighted balls as part of his training program. Some of the best current pitchers in the league use weighted balls, including SP Trevor Bauer, SP Félix Hernández, SP Corey Kluber and LHP Zack Britton. While it is all good and fun that weighted ball training has a deep history, why is it that we are just now seeing it break onto the scene publicly in spring training?

For some reason, DriveLine and weighted ball training had previously been a secret major league recipe reserved for the select few special enough to join the prestigious fraternity. However, since the dawn of DriveLine, weighted ball training has become the most popular form of arm conditioning for ballplayers of all ages. DriveLine is a company that produces many products and programs that involve weighted ball training, and they have done a few things that have made this form of exercise and their company take off. For one thing, they created training information available to the masses for little to no cost, depending on the program. Before DriveLine, amateur players could not acquire the necessary information to perform weighted ball training safely. DriveLine’s transparent, science-based platform has made this information readily available. Next, they made their product synonymous with their company. Just like iPhones are synonymous with smartphones and Kleenex is synonymous with tissues, DriveLine is synonymous with weighted ball training. Finally, with this newfound popularity, DriveLine created a movement. For young baseball players, if you aren’t doing DriveLine training, you are missing out; but if you are doing it, the world is your oyster. DriveLine thrives off the old American proverb that you can achieve anything if you work hard enough. They consistently market the idea that anyone can throw 95 mph if they follow their program, to the point where even major league ball clubs and players are buying into their marketing. Although we don’t have exact numbers, if you follow MLB pitchers on Instagram or Twitter, you will see many of them use some form of weighted ball training. The crazy thing is, DriveLine’s “anyone can throw 90” marketing tactic might be proper. Pitchers at all levels are throwing noticeably harder than at any other time in baseball history.

To finish it all off, let me state on the record that pitchers are weird creatures. Still, they are creatures nonetheless, and creatures must evolve. They are wild, territorial to their mound of dirt, and beautiful to see in their natural habitat. However, like all creatures in the wild, their world is fiercely competitive, and they must do what they can to survive. With their new poses, throwing motions, and savage grunts, these young pitchers may not be as aesthetically pleasing as SP Noah Syndergaard and the beautiful tribe of pitchers that stake their territorial claim in Queens, New York. However, if they continue to evolve, they may create a beautiful tribe of their own in your hometown. Or maybe, and most likely, they will end up in New York City or Tampa Bay, and you will be left, yet again, with young, hopeful, unevolved prospects.

**cough** Tyler Glasnow **cough** Gerrit Cole ** cough ** Charlie Morton ** cough ** Jameson Taillon **cough**

Cover photo courtesy of Conor E. Ralph/The New York Times