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Inside Look at Cleveland Indians Northeast Private Workout at RPP

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RPP and Rozema Baseball recently had the pleasure of hosting the Cleveland Indians as they conducted an invite-only workout for some of their top northeast prospects in anticipation of the upcoming 2017 MLB Draft.  On behalf of everyone at RPP and Rozema Baseball, we would like to thank the Cleveland Indians again for allowing us to host their event.  The representatives from the Indians were extremely professional, respectful, informative and truly a class act.  The following individuals from the Cleveland Indians attended the session for the evaluation:

  • Brad Tyler – Regional Supervisor
  • Mike Kanen – Northeast Area Supervisor
  • Clint Longenecker – Coordinator, Amateur Scouting
  • Scott Barnsby – Assistant Director of Amateur Scouting
  • Bobby Malkmus – New Jersey Scout

Continue reading “Inside Look at Cleveland Indians Northeast Private Workout at RPP”

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5 Reasons Pitching Velocity Increases during the Season

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Prior to the start of the off-season we always assess every pitcher’s mechanics and pitching velocity. We feel that this can give the athlete a good idea of the progress that was made during the off-season. In regards to velocity, many often see the same velocity at the end of the program as in the beginning, causing slight looks of panic among the mortals. Continue reading “5 Reasons Pitching Velocity Increases during the Season”

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Pitching Shoulder Pain… Strength, Mobility, Mechanical or Overuse

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It seems that just about every pitcher, these days, has experienced pain at various points of their pitching career. For a pitcher or a position player, pitching shoulder pain can be a result of one or a combination of three things, lack of strength/mobility, mechanical disconnects and/or overuse.  Does the following scenario sound familiar? Continue reading “Pitching Shoulder Pain… Strength, Mobility, Mechanical or Overuse”

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Interview with Jeremy Sheetinger (College Division Liaison w/ABCA)

Top Joint ImageToday my interview is with Jeremy Sheetinger, the College Division Liaison with the American Baseball Coaches Association (www.abca.org).  I had the pleasure of meeting him recently at the “Be the Best” Conference in Atlantic City.  Jeremy has a wealth of  knowledge that I think is extremely relevant to what we are doing here at RPP. Continue reading “Interview with Jeremy Sheetinger (College Division Liaison w/ABCA)”

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Growth Doesn’t Happen Without….

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As we look forward to hopefully another great year here at RPP, it’s a good time to review where we have come from and how we got here.  RPP’s youth clientele has increased nearly 6-fold since 2012. By any measure, that’s great and we are very proud of what we have accomplished.  But explosive growth doesn’t happen for NO apparent reason; it certainly doesn’t happen overnight, and it definitely doesn’t happen without sleepless nights. Continue reading “Growth Doesn’t Happen Without….”

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Increasing Velocity and Command with a more Stable Stride Pattern

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Many coaches believe that throwing strikes is more important than increasing velocity and that the two can’t be trained at the same time. I disagree. I believe that training both are equally important and can be trained at the same time. Sometimes it comes down to increasing the efficiency of an athlete’s throwing motion, so that their body works more in sync. Continue reading “Increasing Velocity and Command with a more Stable Stride Pattern”

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Half-Kneeling Overhead Med Ball Throw

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One of the biggest mechanical disconnects I see when analyzing video from many of our pitchers is the ability to increase leverage on the front leg, from the time of first foot-strike to ball-release. Everyone has different opinions of what is an adequate amount of extension. For me, after analyzing hundreds of high school, college and pro pitchers, I’ve come up with what I consider to be an appropriate range of 20-30 degrees of additional knee extension between first foot-strike and ball-release. Continue reading “Half-Kneeling Overhead Med Ball Throw”

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Identifying Leaks in the Delivery – Knee at First Foot Strike

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At our recent Pitching Seminar held at RPP, I presented a PowerPoint presentation on Identifying energy leaks in the delivery. The response from players and coaches alike (thanks Sean McGrath – Pitching Coach at U. Mass Lowell) made me realize there is a bit of a void when it comes to reviewing mechanics based on movement. This prompted me to start a series on the topic. Today is about “Knee at First Foot Strike”. Continue reading “Identifying Leaks in the Delivery — Knee at First Foot Strike”

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The Best of 2016 – Baseball Articles

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As we begin the new year I would like to look back on 2016 and get a bit reflective. A few years ago I started a series in which we posted the most popular blogs of the year. These are the pieces that received the most traffic, according to our hosting statistics (you can click on the title of each to read the article). It seems to be a favorite of everyone so here we go again… Continue reading “The Best of 2016 – Baseball Articles”