Athlete highlight: Lefty Pitcher Ryan Malone is Up 12 mph, Touching 87 mph

Lefty Ryan Malone, rising senior at Burke Catholic High School, started training with us during the summer 2022, and has gone through quite the transformation. After training remotely for a period of time, he decided to drive an hour each way to our facility during the past off-season and joined our in-house training program. Beginning this spring he went back to training remote.  Since he began his training, he has improved his velo by 12 mph, touching 87 mph recently this summer.

How did he do it?

At the time he started his training with us, the objectives were to gain velocity, overall size, and improve overall pitching mechanics. Let’s quickly review what we’ve worked on since he joined:

• • Improving lean muscle mass
  • Improving mobility / stability
  • Improving strength and power
  • Improving delivery and mechanics

Lean Muscle Mass

At the time of his initial assessment in June of 2022, the 5’9” lefty weighed 156 lbs. His weight to height ratio was 2.26x, which was below our 2.5-3.0x target for high performance athletes.

Often times, weight gains can be the lowest hanging fruit for young athletes looking to improve their velocity and Ryan is a really good example. By the Summer of 2023 (one year later) Ryan weighed in at 185 lbs. and has since maintained his weight gains, putting his weight to height ratio at 2.64x.

Mobility

The movement screening portion of the assessment is essential in identifying mobility and / or stability issues that may hinder the pitcher’s ability to get into optimal positions throughout their delivery. In most cases, the issues that are presented in this portion of the assessment will be visible when we are evaluating the pitcher’s mechanics in the latter part of the assessment.

Ryan had a movement screen in June 2022 when he initially joined RPP and a reassessment in November of 2023. Some key findings in his mobility stood out when looking for what Ryan has improved on.

A few things that did improve were his anterior core control and lat length tilt which were initially creating a big anterior pelvic tilt. A few other “big players” were improvements in his cervical flexion/rotation, and his T-spine extension. Usually with an athlete that gains a lot of size and strength over the course of a year, it’s natural to be a bit tighter. However, this was not the case with Ryan.

Strength and Power

An increase in lean muscle mass usually comes with an increase in strength and power.  Ryan has improved in every way with his strength and power since starting with us.

When Ryan started with us his deadlift max was 351lbs. During his reassessment in November, it had increased to 425 lbs. Ryan then continued to increase his strength even more throughout this winter and was able to hit 5 reps for 500lbs during his most recent max strength phase in January which would equate to around a 575lb 1 rep max Dead Lift.

Ryan’s upper body strength increased as well going from a 195 lbs. 1RM in 2022 to 231lbs in his reassessment in November 2023.

At RPP we use CMJ jump testing and Squat Jump testing to judge how much lower half power an athlete is creating. Ryan has continually improved his power levels since he joined.

One area of low hanging fruit was Ryan’s Decel which is identified both with his single leg squat test above and the decel numbers presented in his Front Leg RSI Test below:

Ryan Malone (‘25, NY) • LHP with a live OTP arm up to 87mph with 2100 RPM and 16 IN IVB. Works a power CB to compliment the FB. #uncommitted #NEWorldSeries pic.twitter.com/utFTTQfQI1

— Prospect Select Scout (@PSBaseballScout) July 27, 2024

Pitching Mechanics

The final part of Ryan’s assessment was his mechanical breakdown with motion capture and video analysis. The motion capture data is great for helping us uncover possible issues that may be difficult to see with the naked eye such as angular velocities.

When Ryan came into our pitching lab this November, there were a few disconnects in his mechanics that needed to be addressed.  At the top of the list was his long arm path.  One of his other disconnects was to be more linear and not pull his glove side too early before foot strike. Ryan was prescribed the following movement drills to help improve his delivery patterns on the mound:

• • Figure 8 Rocker

• •  Toss-in Drill

• • Step Back Drill

• •  Step Behind Drill

Addressing Ryan’s disconnects with movement drills were generally productive.  However, getting Ryan to shorten his arm path had proven more difficult. The breakthrough was when we were able to look at videos of MLB Pitcher Lucas Giolito recent drastic arm path change that he made a few years back resulting in him being able to be more connected with himself at foot plant. Once Ryan was able to visually see that example and understand it better he was able to make it translate to his arm path. Below are before and after images of this long and shortened arm path.

Ryan has also improved his overall tempo on the mound, which needed to be a bit faster to help him become more linear down the mound and optimize his movement. With Ryan’s tempo being a bit faster it was important to make sure he was doing so while still staying relaxed to avoid muscling up the baseball.

Summary Results

Ryan has improved dramatically since he joined RPP. First and foremost, he has improved his overall physicality by adding significant lean muscle mass, strength and power.  In addition, he has improved his pitching mechanics which have resulted in significant gains in his velocity, from mid-70s to touching 87 mph recently at the Prospect Select Showcase.

Congrats Ryan… Keep up the hard work!

By Mike Brizzolara (RPP Pitching Coordinator and Remote Coach)

 

 

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