There is one place we have talked about a lot in passing when discussing the Washington Nationals coaching hires. That place is Driveline Baseball. So many of the Nats new coaches have ties to the famed baseball lab. I wanted to do a deeper dive on Driveline and talk about why so many Nats coaches are coming from there.
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In short, Driveline is an incubator for some of the brightest young baseball minds out there. Paul Toboni clearly wanted to build a staff full of bright young minds, so Driveline is a great place to look. ESPN actually did a great profile on Driveline last week which was a great read. It dug into how Driveline is trying to change the game for hitters.
Driveline Baseball emerged as the place to go for players who wanted to improve their game. It was founded by Kyle Boddy back in 2007, but did not really emerge as the place to be until about a decade later. As the Moneyball era evolved into the Statcast era, Driveline was the place to be, especially for pitchers.
It was where pitchers went if they wanted to increase velocity or learn new pitches. Driveline’s state of the art cameras and high level instructors help players learn more about their bodies. If they have a mechanical flaw that costs them velocity, Driveline will fix it. If they need to overhaul their arsenal, Driveline will show them new pitch grips. A good example of the ladder is Luis Severino, who totally overhauled his arsenal which helped him get a big contract.
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New Nationals pitching coach Simon Mathews actually worked at Driveline for a bit. He was also involved in another similar pitching lab. After doing that, he found his way into pro ball. He was a rehab specialist for the Reds before becoming their assistant pitching coach last year. After a year of being an assistant, he took the pitching coach job with the Nats.
Mathews is far from the only Nats coach to have Driveline connections. Minor League pitching coach Luke Dziados also came from Driveline. However, the Nats went even more Driveline heavy on the hitting side. While Driveline started as mostly a pitching lab, they have been changing the game for hitting development lately as documented in the ESPN story.
With that in mind, the Nats took two of Driveline’s top hitting minds. The first guy I want to discuss is Travis Fitta, who is now an assistant hitting coach in AAA. Earlier this offseason, before he was hired by the Nats, Fitta was working with Jacob Young. Driveline put out a really cool video of their session together.
Fitta’s main emphasis was trying to translate the athleticism Young has on the field to his hitting. The way he talks about hitting is so impressive and high level. It is so scientific which really interests me. Young seems to be leaving a lot of meat on the bone from a biomechanics standpoint, and Fitta was trying to fix that. His specialty is optimizing these players’ swings.
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I think this will be very helpful for Nats in the MLB and in the minors. One guy that stands out to me that Fitta will be working with is Yohandy Morales. The former second round pick has so much raw power, but his swing is not optimized. He hardly ever pulls the ball and hits it on the ground a lot. This tells me that Morales is not on time consistently due to his swing. Hopefully Fitta can change that.
At the MLB level, Andrew Aydt was added as an assistant hitting coach. Aydt was the assistant director of hitting at Driveline and helped players like Ivan Herrera take the next steps in their development. Now, he will get the chance to work with the likes of James Wood, Dylan Crews and Daylen Lile every day.
After looking at Driveline, and the kind of people they attract, it is easy to see why Paul Toboni is poaching their employees. They are full of young people who are at the cutting edge of baseball. That certainly fits the Toboni ethos of creating a player development monster.
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Toboni wants the Nats to be a place to be for young, up and coming minds. It is only natural then that he is poaching from Driveline, which is currently the place to be for those people. The Nationals will be all in on things like adding pitches or making data backed swing changes. That should really excite you if you are a Nats fan.
For players that want to improve their game, Driveline is the place to go. You can only go to Driveline in the offseason though. Toboni is bringing Driveline into the organization so players can improve their games in season. The Drivelineification of the Washington Nationals is very exciting and will be something to watch this season in the MLB and on the farm.
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