Play Ball Kid Baseball Development Podcast

Baseball players have shared the importance of strong forearms and grip strength for years. But recently, Daryl & Adam Moreau have taken it to the next level by developing the Flex Pro Grip, that allows specialized protocols to measure and improve each joint in each finger. They spent the last year working with the San Diego Padres organization and they join us to share some of what they have discovered in those trials. Discover how their device trains the 3 flexors muscles that are responsible for keeping our UCL safe, how different finger strength should influence your pitch design and where arm care and performance are headed in the coming years.  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Rick Strickland is the Cubs AA hitting coach and the owner of Train Right Academy in St Louis. He has coached travel teams and was a former Yankee draft pick. When Rick Strickland broke his hand in his Junior year of college at Austin Peay, he was Top 10 in the nation in Batting Avg. and Stolen Bases. It was a blow missing the season, but like he tells his players when one door closes, another opens. He got a chance to play in the Cape Cod League with some amazing talent. “I played with great players and future Hall of Famers. Frank Thomas, Mo Vaugh, Tim Salmon, Jeff Kent, and Denny Neagle. Playing with top talent elevates your game and your mind” Rick came back and tore it up his Senior year leading the team to its first winning season in a decade and helping turn the program around. “The leadership, that’s what really stays with me. What the team and I helped do for the program was immense.” Rick’s standout play caught the attention of the Yankees, who drafted him. After spending time in their farm system, Rick brought his passion for player development and innovation to coaching. Rick is driven by improving players and helping them battle through challenges – mental and physical. “If you want to hit hard or throw hard, you have to train hard. You have to push your past what you think you can do to achieve more.” Baseball is a game of speed and power. What you do in the gym, will show on the field. His obsession with making improvements and player feedback took him down the technology path, where he has been a pioneer. He worked in early-stage development with Blast Motion, Rapsodo, Diamond Kinetics, and Uplift. A true student of the game, Rick grew up in Chicago as a two-way guy – a player AND a sports reporter. “Starting at 6 years old, I played constantly, but I also had to give my uncle complete recaps of the Cubs and White Sox games. I was his ESPN. What was the score? How did they get their runs? I had to tell him the story behind the game.” After years of playing, coaching, and “reporting,” Rick can readily spot the story behind each player’s swing and throw. For him, and the CRTR staff, understanding how a player moves in training and practice is key to unlocking how they will perform on the field. Their collective job is to make players better. With over 375 college commits, 78 professional players, and 2 All-Stars in Andrew Benitendi and Jake Odorizzi, Coach Strickland’s obsession with player development is the centerpiece of every training program. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Steve Janssen is becoming the new manager of the German Baseball National Team. His assignment officially starts on January 1st, 2019. He also will be responsible for the German U23 National Team. Coach Janssen worked as pitching coach in the Chicago Cubs organization during the 2018 season. Between 2013 and 2017 he was the manager of the Netherlands. Between 2003 and 2012 he worked as pitching coach for the Netherlands on multiple occasions. With the Dutch team he won the 2011 Baseball World Cup in Panama and led the team to back-to-back European Championships in 2014 and 2016. He also was successful as club coach with Neptunus Rotterdam. He has spent the last few years exploring the concepts of Natural Motor Preferences to innovate baseball player development and injury prevention. This episode should help you understand some of the key differences that explain why some cues are amazing for some players but disastrous for others. You can learn more at his website https://www.baseballactionid.com. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Coach Jacob Tobin is the head coach at SUNY Ulster, a JUCO in the Hudson Valley area of New York. He is the founder of the recruiting account @BUncommitted on Twitter, where he shares videos of student athletes with over 530 coaches and professional scouts.  Jake Tobin was born and raised in the Greenwich Village Section of New York City. Jake played high school baseball at Dwight High School where he is currently the head coach. As a Sophomore, Junior, and Senior Jake was an All-Conference selection. He played college baseball at St. Joseph’s College Brooklyn. Jake has served in many roles in scholastic and collegiate sports. He began his coaching career in the Hamptons League as a volunteer assistant for the Sag Harbor Whalers. Since then he has served as assistant coaches for St. Joseph’s College Brooklyn, University of Connecticut Avery Point and Saint Peter’s College. Currently Jake is also the head coach of the Sag Harbor Whalers of the Hamptons league where he has coached numerous drafted players. Jake also founded a baseball analytics team of college interns to collect, analyze, and distribute graph’s charts and reports to players and coaches. While a coach at University of Connecticut Avery Point Jake founded a baseball recruiting platform called @BUncommited. The platform was created for his Junior College players during the pandemic. Jake’s platform has helped over 300 kids find college placement. Jacob lives in Brooklyn, New York with his wife Emily, his daughter Mia and their two bulldogs Otto and Mays. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Marcelo Alfonsin, is the Astros Dominican League Manager and Field Coordinator. He is also the pitching coach for the Argentinian National Team that recently competed in the World Baseball Classic qualifier in Panama. Marcelo grew up playing baseball in Argentina, that as you can imagine does not have a lot of baseball players and has worked his way to be a Manager in the Houston Astros Organization. If you are a fan of the underdog story, you will not want to miss this episode.  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Jarrett explains the outcome of an assessment on the Proteus Motion and how they relate to sport specific force for baseball players. Getting an assessment on the Proteus allows for targeting the strength or acceleration deficient areas of our athletes. Jarrett Phillips is the owner of TrainPMT Southlake in Southlake, Texas. He trains athletes of all ages including PGA pros, Greg Chalmers and Brendan Todd.   Website: https://www.trainpmt.com/ Instagram: @trainpmt_southlake --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

A conversation about helping kids become mental warriors on and off the field. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

“My life goal is to have a positive impact on 1 million people through baseball, education, and exercise.” - Tyler Gillum  Tyler Gillum enters his 13th year coaching college baseball and his 11th year at South Mountain Community College in Phoenix, AZ. He is the Associate Head Coach at SMCC primarily working with the infielders and coaching third base. He is also a coach with the Savannah Bananas. Gillum is also Health & Wellness faculty where he oversees exercise science, nutrition, health & wellness, and physical education programs. He is a certified strength and conditioning trainer, holding certifications in FRC (Functional Range Conditioning) and TPI (Titleist Performance Institute) and leads the baseball strength & conditioning program at SMCC. SMCC Accomplishments: 80 D1 transfers 7 draft picks 344-194 overall record 28 all-conference players Cumulative Team GPA over 3.0 (10 Total Years) 2017 lead the country in Stolen Bases (200) 2018 finished 2nd in fielding percentage (.974) 2019 14 D1 Transfers (Most in program history) Baseball Systems, Camps and Courses Creator: The GreenLightSpecial Baserunning System “All You Can Eat” Infield Camps The Growth Toolbox “Developing Skills to Change Your Life” Gillum is a mainstay on the summer coaching circuit. He currently enters his 11th year coaching summer baseball. He will be returning to the Coastal Plain League with the Savannah Bananas for his fifth year. In his four summers in Savannah, he has compiled an overall record of 139-53 leading the entire league in wins in that time frame. In 2021, the Bananas won the CPL Championship going 40-10 on the summer with 13 ALL-CPL Selections. He spent the 2017 summer with the YD Red Sox in the Cape Cod League (27-16) where they led the league in stolen bases (68). 2014-2016 was spent with the Brazos Valley Bombers in the Texas Collegiate League, winning 3 TCL championships with an overall record of 138-31. With Gillum coaching 3rd base, the Bombers led the TCL in many offensive categories highlighted by breaking the single-season stolen bases record with 161. Gillum has spoken at many coaching clinics around the country including the American Baseball Coaches Convention in 2016 and 2018. Some of those topics are Infield Play (Developing Dudes on the Dirt), Baserunning (The GreenLightSpecial System), and Player Development (The Growth Toolbox). He has also been interviewed on multiple podcasts such as “ABCA:Calls from the Clubhouse”, “Ahead of the Curve”, and "Dugout Chatter". Gillum graduated from Latta High School in Oklahoma in 2005, where he was a member of four state championship teams. He then spent two years at Seminole State Junior College. He finished his playing career at East Central University earning a degree in Kinesiology (Teacher’s Certification) and a Master’s in Education with an emphasis in Sports Administration. He and his wife Danielle have a 1-year-old boy Camden. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

This episode was recorded live on Twitter Spaces with Colter Bostick, Javi DeJesus and Corey Gardner.  Colter Bostick is the former pitching coach at Rice University. He is the co-author of Play Ball Kid: How to develop baseball players from middle school dreamers through committed college recruits. As both a coach and as the director of his baseball performance program, Maximized Baseball, Bostick has worked with professional and collegiate pitchers to accelerate their abilities and talents. He has also consulted with major league organizations in their talent evaluation and acquisition. Bostick developed and refined a program focusing on mechanical diagnostics, pitch design and individualized throwing programs resulting in maximized player development.  Maximized Baseball’s focus on guidance and pitching development produced over 30 all-state selections and 100+ pitchers committed to college programs or drafted as top-rated prospects. As an area scout for Prep Baseball Report, Bostick built an extensive network of coaches throughout the region while evaluating and scouting talent. He pitched collegiately at Midland College and St. Mary’s University in San Antonio where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.A. in English Communications. He launched his post-playing baseball career with the Glens Falls Dragons of the Perfect Game Collegiate League in 2015. Later that same year he founded Maximized Baseball in San Antonio. Bostick grew up in the northwest region of the country, primarily residing in Cody, Wyoming before he moved to Texas to pitch collegiately. He and wife, Lauren make their home in Houston. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Corey Gardner is currently the Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Southern Wesleyan University, where he coaches hitters & infielders. Corey had previous stops at The University of Rio Grande and Kentucky Christian Univeristy. He previously owned a travel baseball program as well. In this episode we talk about how student athletes can project confidence when speaking to college coaches on the phone or in person. Corey shares the 1 question he would ask over 10,000 student athletes every year on the recruiting trail. Corey shares advice on how to connect with coaches on email and social media. We also answer a few audience questions since this was recorded live on Twitter Spaces. How coaches evaluate hitters through social media videos What are the best ways and angles to capture video of your hitters The 3 things you must capture in video Should you show only your best swings or also ones where you are fooled Why showcases videos may not be enough to get coaches attention The key things Corey wants hitters to understand about their swing How he enjoys using a flat bat to help hitters Some of the best drills for hitters What gets kids crossed off his list when he is out recruiting What are 2 key things he looks for in hitters on the recruiting trails Why even if you go 0 for X in his at bats, you can grab a coaches attention The 3 character traits a coach wants for their recruit --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Tracy Hayes, aka “MobilityChick” is the founder of Amplified Movement and a Movement + Mobility Specialist most known for her 12-Week Baseball Mobility Series launched within the MLB community in 2020 that has garnered the attention of players and strength coaches from 24 of the 30 MLB organizations, from A-ball to All-Star. In less than 2 years since her mobility series’ launch, Tracy has had nearly 1k enrollments in her various mobility routines and programs within pro and non-pro baseball. Tracy has been featured on MLB.com for her work with the Orioles and for personally mentoring their Strength Coach, Liz Pardo. Tracy has been a featured guest on several podcasts.  Tracy has a unique perspective as a former “baseball wife”, is a mama to 4 young children, two of whom currently play Little League, and she has made it her mission to create a healthy, fun, and effective youth sports experience for all of her children and the millions of other kids who love to get outside and play the game of baseball. Make sure to check out her Youth Warm Up series. Tracy’s vast background includes Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, and Linguistics during her studies at Northwestern University, a professional career in Research at McKinsey & Company in addition to advanced studies in biomechanics for athletes. Her methods incorporate fundamentals from PRI, FRC, ELDOA, Physical Therapy-based functional yoga (LYT), in addition to Classical Pilates, and over 1,000 hours of specialized yoga training. Tracy is a Master Pilates instructor and published author, an NLP Practitioner, trained in EFT (Tapping), and is a regular with Vipassana meditation. Please share this episode with every baseball mom and dad that you know. Let's help our kids move better. The payoffs will be amplified. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Javi DeJesus was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico where he learned to love the game of baseball.  His parents moved to Beaumont, TX where he had a lucrative high school career throwing the schools first two no-hitters, District 22-5A MVP and earned a scholarship to the University of Louisiana-Lafayette. From 1990-1992, Javi amassed a record of 23-1 (22-0 as a starter), with a 13-0 junior season which earned him  1st Team All-American Teams Coach’s Poll, 2nd Team All American Collegiate Weekly, and 3rd Team All America Baseball America. He also earned 1st All Louisiana and Sun Belt Co-Pitcher of the Year award. In 1992, he was invited to represent Puerto Rico in the Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain. His junior season helped capture the attention of the Minnesota Twins who drafted him in the 17th round.  He played 10 years in the minors with a record of 54-33 and a 3.99 ERA earning 4 All Star appearances and Minnesota Twins Pitcher of the Month in 1994. After retirement, Javi began coaching and working with young men throughout the Northeast Indiana and Northwest Ohio area.  He along with the late Charly Butcher founded the Fort Wayne Cubs, nka FW Diamondbacks, which has helped over 300+ young men of playing at the collegiate level with over dozen drafter to play professionally and two current MLB players, Kevin Keirmaier and Zack McKinstry. Currently, Javi is the Pitching Coach at Ivy Tech CC where helped lead his staff finish 30th in the country in Pitching.  His passion for teaching the game and developing pitchers has led mat Peters to be considered as an MLB Draft prospects taking him from 89-93 mph to touching 103 and sitting 96-98mph over the course of the spring season.  His work ethic and constant use of video analysis apps has helped transform his pitchers into formidable prospects for 4 year schools. In this episode we discuss: What he is looking for when recruiting pitchers What parents and student athletes should look for in a program when evaluating how will they develop players Some of the tools Javi brought into his pitching lab at Ivy Tech (PitchAI, The Kinetic Arm and the PitchLogic Smart baseball). What he is doing with the 16 year old pitchers he coaches this summer to help their development and recruiting. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Corey Gardner is currently the Assistant Coach and Recruiting Coordinator at Southern Wesleyan University, where he coaches hitters & infielders. Corey had previous stops at The University of Rio Grande and Kentucky Christian Univeristy. He previously owned a travel baseball program as well.  In this episode we talk about how student athletes can project confidence when speaking to college coaches on the phone or in person. Corey shares the 1 question he would ask over 10,000 student athletes every year on the recruiting trail. Corey shares advice on how to connect with coaches on email and social media. We also answer a few audience questions since this was recorded live on Twitter Spaces on May 27th, 2022. Question include: "If you get an introduction email from a player and you are not allowed to respond due to age restrictions. How does player know if you are interested or not." and  "As Corey mentioned, parents aren’t around their child when in college….  With the surge of student athletes who have taken their own lives, what are some things a parent/athletes can ask when looking for a program in regards to supporting your athletes mentally or safeguarding the athletes whole self?   Second- how do college coaches makes sure their athletes are mentally and emotionally balanced/ being supported with the pressures of being a college athlete?" --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Patrick Jones is the host of the Patrick Jones Baseball podcast, a private hitting coach, as well as a former MilB coach & high school coach. Patrick is the first guest on this podcast to be interviewed by both Sammy (3 years ago) and Bryan. Patrick has been spending a lot of time speaking to college coaches, travel ball coaches on his podcast recently and is also helping families with the college baseball recruiting process.   --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Kirk Cabana is the founder of Pursuit 4 Purpose and the recruiting coordinator and assistant coach at Carolina University. The Pursuit 4 Purpose podcast brings together the world’s most passionate athletes together to encourage our goals and aspirations. By using the principles of the greatest minds before us, our athletes will become champions of character. Kirk is also the head coach of the Carolina Disco Turkeys independent baseball team. Kirk has a remarkable baseball journey returning to play when he was 30 years old and now coaching just a few short years later. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Sarah Howard, is the founder of Elite Mobility Training (EMT). We spend time talking about how to incorporate recovery routines, why they are so important, why Yoga seems to be taboo, what are the benefits of mobility training and her use of the inexpensive Yoga Tune Up and Coregeous balls with baseball players from youth to MLB players like Jack Flaherty. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Rick Saggese, XFS, CSAC, played his collegiate baseball at the University of Miami; one of the top collegiate baseball programs in the nation.  At Miami, Rick battled back from his third knee injury while getting hurt in Honolulu, Hawaii to open the season.  He kept his goals in sight once again and became a three-year starter, played in three College World Series, was a Collegiate All-American, and accumulated a career .302 batting average with 21 home runs and 101 RBI’s.  In 1996 Rick played in the National Championship game against LSU which was arguably the best College World Series title game in history, as LSU won in the ninth inning on a walk off home run.  During the 1997 & 1998 summers Rick started for the Hyannis Mets (now Harbor Hawks) in the Cape Cod Amateur Collegiate Wooden Bat League and played with former MLB stars Eric Hinske, Eric Byrnes & J.J. Putz. In 1999 Rick transferred to FIU (Florida International University) for his senior season.  He finished his collegiate career by hitting a game winning homerun against South Alabama at the Houston Astros AAA stadium.  He played with Alex Cora (Boston Red Sox Head Coach), Pat Burrell (Phillies/Giants), Aubrey Huff (Rays/Giants) and Jason Michaels (Phillies/Indians) during his playing days at Miami.  Rick was coached and trained by some of the finest coaches in the country including Walter Hriniak (former Red Sox/White Sox batting coach), Jim Morris (Miami) and Mark Calvi (South Alabama)!  Rick has trained athletes in core/strength training with the same exercises that are used at world renown athlete’s performance centers and uses the Mattes Method (AIS) to help increase flexibility and explosiveness.  Rick was an associate scout for the Cleveland Indians for 5 seasons and knows what scouts look for in players to excel at the professional level. Rick is an EXOS Certified Fitness Specialist as well as being certified to perform the Functional Movement Screen (FMS) and Y-Balance Test (YBT).  He uses FMS prior to the majority of strength and agility training to assess the athlete for possible “weak links” associated with their movement patterns.  He also not only goes over past injury history with the athlete on the initial session, but does a postural analysis as necessary to find deeper related movement limitations.  He has participated in some of the top speed/quickness camps in the country and is an Certified Speed and Agility Coach by the National Sports Performance Association.  Rick has attended and learned from events taught by various top success and peak performance coaches including Tony Robbins, Dan Lier, and Jim Fannin. Take your game to another level on and off the field as Rick will help you remove any barriers that may be holding you back to get the success you want.  Rick has helped many of his clients play at the collegiate and professional levels (view testimonials tab). He offers personal consulting services to coaches, parents and players on the methodologies he has successfully implemented in his training the past 19 years with over 15k athletes he has trained. Rick is the author of "Baseball For Building Boys To Men"  and owner of Think Outside the Diamond training center. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Will Carroll writes about sports science, sports medicine, and sports. We chat about his latest book "The Science of Baseball." His “Under The Knife” column was called “essential reading” by Hall of Famer Peter Gammons. Author of two award-winning books (Saving The Pitcher and The Juice), Carroll currently writes about injuries for his own newsletter and consults with several professional teams and players on sports science. His work has been seen on ESPN, Sports Illustrated, Baseball Prospectus, and the New York Times. He lives in Indianapolis and is @injuryexpert on most platforms. Will and I discuss how our athletes could benefit from data and using science to develop and reduce injury. He offers a great tip for anyone evaluating programs to choose in their collegiate journey. We explore what the future might look like with his NorthStarr.ai project as well.  --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Juan Palacios is a professional baseball trainer with over 30 years of experience working with pitchers, catchers and hitters.  He has worked with some of today’s most talented MLB players such as Carlos Correa, Francisco Lindor, Edwin Diaz, Jesmuel Valentin and Yadiel Rivera.   Juan was born and raised in Caguas Puerto Rico and graduated from the Eloisa Pascual High School in 1988. He went on to play baseball his first two years at George Fox College in Oregon, a NAIA Division I program. There he lettered both years. He then transferred and finished out his collegiate baseball career at Turabo University in PR.  Juan was named to the NAIA Div 1 All-American Team.    Juan played for the World Champions Puerto Rican National Team in 1993. During his Semi pro career, Juan was the Rookie of the Year in 1988, MVP in 1993 with the Coamo PR Double AA team and National Pitcher of the year with a 8-0 record, and a .063 ERA in 102 innings pitched (1993).  After a short stint in the business world, Juan decided to return to his passion of teaching and coaching baseball. Juan became an assistant coach at Archbishop Spaulding High school in Maryland,  a baseball coordinator and head baseball coach at Notre Dame High school in Caguas PR. He also served as a volunteer assistant coach and baseball coordinator with several organizations in Maryland.   Over the past 10 years, Juan has been a part of programs that have made it to at least the MIAA Division 1 playoff in Maryland.  Juan is the also the former National coach for the 5 star team National mid Atlantic taking Maryland baseball to levels that haven’t been seen before in the state.    He is a former International Pitching Association Coach (2002) with a reputation for turning pitching staffs around.  In 1996, got his first job as a pitching Coach with Halcones de Gurabo semi pro league in PR and took the pitching staff from a 2-8 record at the time with 6.13 ERA to an impressive 12-2 turn around and .082 ERA after starting his role.  He developed two of his former pitchers to become part of the National team that year.     He has also had the honor to work with some local Maryland talent such as Tyler Blohm and Zach Thompson from the University of Maryland, Jordan Carr from North Carolina and Jordan Geber at ST. Marys University., Josh Moylan’s at ECU and Jackson Merrill, a first round pick by the SD Padres 2021.  Juan’s diverse background includes being an IFA certified Personal Trainer and a Massage Therapist  who graduated in 2008 in Caguas PR.     Juan is extremely excited about the opportunity to work with kids of all levels and is building his Palacios Clinics baseball program from the ground up. He sets very high expectations for each of his players both indoors and on the field. He and his beautiful wife Evelyn have been married for 12  years. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message

Baseball players need to understand how to see the ball in order to hit the ball. We discuss how to train those skills for best results with Dr Peter Fadde from GameSense Sports. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/playballkid/message