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What is a Seam-Shifted Wake Pitch (in simple terms)?

You may have heard of the “Laminar Express” as Trevor Bauer used to call it, or the Seam-Shifted Wake (“SSW”) as it has been called more recently. During the past few years, we have begun to really understand the seam-shifted wake.  If you’ve been wondering what it’s all about and how it impacts pitcher’s ball movement, this article is for you, as we cover:

    • The History
    • How to Throw a SSW
    • Technology and SSW
    • How it’s Observed
    • Examples

Continue reading “What is a Seam-Shifted Wake Pitch (in simple terms)?”

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What is the Most Effective 4-Seam Tilt Axis in MLB?

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There is certainly no shortage of data available from MLB for on-field performance by pitchers and players. In this article, we have combined data from several sources, including FanGraphs and Baseball Savant, to help identify the most effective pitch movement patterns in Major League Baseball. More specifically, we analyzed the performance of 4-seam fastballs from major league pitchers during the 2021 season (392 right-handed), by comparing slugging averages against horizontal, vertical movements and tilt axes of fast baseballs.

Continue reading “What is the Most Effective 4-Seam Tilt Axis in MLB?”

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What are the Most Common Pitch Movement Issues… And the Fixes

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Having observed hundreds of pitchers on our Rapsodo Pitching camera during the past several years, it’s fair to say that there are a few tendencies that most high school and collegiate pitchers exhibit. While every pitcher is different with their skillset, we generally tend to observe similar opportunities for improvement in pitch movement.

In this first of three articles… Continue reading “What are the Most Common Pitch Movement Issues… And the Fixes”

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Pitch Design with Seton Hall’s O’Neill… How to Turn Good into Great

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Pitch development is a big part of the overall training culture here at RPP. Once athletes have developed a good base of body awareness in the weight room as well as throwing volume it’s time to steer the focus on getting guys out. In other words, getting pitches to move while throwing strikes.

Seton Hall’s Brennan O’Neill came to us this July, during the summer unlike anything any of us have ever experienced before.  However, even with a shortened period of time we managed to get a lot done. Continue reading “Pitch Design with Seton Hall’s O’Neill… How to Turn Good into Great”

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Baseball Spin Axis, Spin Rate, Spin Efficiency Explained

baseball spin axis

We’ve all heard it, “pitching wins games”.  Well, some pitchers are about to win a lot more games. For eons, pitching coaches have talked about mechanics, command and control.  Then came velocity and threw out all the old adages and wrecked the house.  Today, it seems like everyone wants velo first, and then everything else as well.  I am here to say that things are about to change again!  The advent of equipment like the Rapsodo Pitching camera and all the talk about baseball spin axis and spin rate is changing the game and doing it fast. Continue reading “Baseball Spin Axis, Spin Rate, Spin Efficiency Explained”

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Summer Throwing Program; A Look at Pitch Design

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Our Summer Throwing Program has many components, including pitch design.  For pitchers looking for more than just velo, we incorporate a Pitch Design component in the program to help improve their overall movement pattern.  The program not only teaches you the science and data analytics that go into pitch design but also how to implement it on the mound. Continue reading “Summer Throwing Program; A Look at Pitch Design”