Rooney Baseball

The Intersection of Data-Driven Business Models and
Modern Velocity-Centric Mechanics is Creating a Long-
Term Decline in Sustainable Pitching Development

Over the last decade, two trends have converged in
amateur and professional baseball:
1. The monetization of player performance data as a
proprietary asset by organizations like Perfect Game,
PBR, and private training facilities.
2. The widespread teaching of short-stride, rigid-front-
side, velocity-centric pitching mechanics that
prioritize measurable output over full kinetic-chain
efficiency and long-term health.
Independently, each carries risk to player development.
Together, they create a feedback loop that accelerates the
problem.

1. How Data Ownership Drives Training Priorities
The business model behind large-scale data collection
values:• Quick, visible results that raise a player’s metrics and
make the database more marketable.
• Replicable measurements like radar gun velocity,
spin rate, and vertical break that are easy to
standardize but disconnected from context like
movement quality or injury risk.
• Volume over nuance — getting more players through
events to feed the database rather than slowing down
to teach complex movement patterns.
Because the value of the database comes from its size and
statistical “shine,” there is built-in incentive to push
methods that spike metrics quickly, regardless of their
long-term sustainability.

2. How Modern Mechanics Fit That Model
The modern velocity-first approach — short stride, rigid
front side, early hip swing, arm sling, vertical recoil —
aligns perfectly with the needs of a data-driven marketing
system:
• Fast radar gun gains without requiring athletes to
master deep hip hinges, front-side stability, or full 7-
primal-movement athleticism.
• Uniform appearance that makes video clips and
leaderboard snapshots comparable across athletes.• Lower entry threshold for young or underdeveloped
players, meaning more participants can produce
“marketable” metrics.
This method is attractive to organizations whose revenue
and influence grow when more players post impressive
showcase numbers quickly.

3. The Feedback Loop That Harms Development
When organizations profit from both data collection and
velocity-centric training, a reinforcing cycle emerges:
1. Players are trained in ways that produce immediate
metric spikes.
2. Those spikes make the database more impressive and
marketable.
3. More athletes and parents are drawn into the system
chasing those same results.
4. The mechanics are further normalized, even if they
compromise long-term arm health and skill diversity.
The result is a large pool of pitchers who can throw hard
at 16 but lack the biomechanical foundation, sequencing
ability, and movement durability to sustain performance
into college or pro ball.

4. The Long-Term Negative Effect
This convergence undermines true pitching development
in three ways:
• Injury Risk: Rigid, velocity-chasing deliveries
increase peak joint stress without distributing forces
through the full kinetic chain.
• Skill Ceiling Reduction: Athletes plateau earlier
because their mechanics are built for showcase
metrics, not sustainable command, adaptability, or
velocity growth.
• Athletic De-Evolution: Neglecting foundational
movement patterns (hinge, rotate, lunge) produces
throwers who cannot adjust when facing higher-level
competition.

Conclusion
The marriage of data as a commercial asset and
mechanics built for immediate metric gains is not
accidental — it’s a mutually beneficial business
relationship. But for the athlete, it’s a short-term path with a steep long-term cost. Unless the baseball development industry realigns its use of data toward actionable coaching and embraces movement-efficient pitching models like TripleSpin, the sport will continue producing more broken arms than complete pitchers.

Players Athletic Club DVS Baseball The Kinetic Arm Elite Functional Performance Dave Dagostino Jim Rooney

The Arm Action Trend Every Parent Is Copying (And Shouldn’t)

Watch a few innings of MLB right now and you’ll notice something: pitchers like Paul Skenes and Shane Bieber aren’t winding up big and long anymore. Their arm stays tucked in tight, elbow bent sharp, ball close to the head. It’s called the “short arm action,” and it’s everywhere.
Here’s the part nobody’s telling parents: that move only works because of what’s happening in the rest of the body first. Elite pitchers generate massive hip and trunk rotation speed, and the short arm is just catching up to that speed efficiently.
When a 14-year-old copies the arm without the rotation speed underneath it, the body doesn’t know what to do with the shortcut. The elbow ends up leading the whole show — dragging the forearm behind it under tension. That’s exactly the pattern behind Little League Elbow.
Your kid doesn’t have an “MLB arm problem.” He has an MLB-arm-on-a-13-year-old’s-body problem.
🎙️ We break down exactly why this happens — and what to look for — on the new episode of Toe the Rubber: Player Development for All Ages, on the Real Voices of the Game network.

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-real-voices-of-the-game-productions/id1624830660?i=1000786317575

Players Athletic Club The Kinetic Arm DVS Baseball Elite Functional Performance Dave Dagostino Jim Rooney Rick Dempsey

Episode 2113 Toe the Rubber with Jim Rooney and Dave Dagostino Podcast Episode · The Real Voices of the Game Productions · August 27 · 1h 5m

One of the benefits of an extremely large payroll is you can pay for high end interchangeable parts.

Los Angeles Dodgers (based on available mid-August 2026 data and patterns).
No single public source provides a complete, official, real-time leaderboard isolating only pitchers’ cumulative IL/disabled list days for the full 2026 season through mid-August. However, tracking from Spotrac cumulative IL data, FanGraphs RosterResource, InsideThePen rehab/roster-move logs, MLB.com injury updates, and team-specific reports consistently points to the Dodgers having among the highest (often the leading) volume of pitcher IL time.
Key supporting details as of ~August 17, 2026:
* The Dodgers have repeatedly placed multiple starters and relievers on the 15- and 60-day IL (e.g., Tyler Glasnow, Blake Treinen, Gavin Stone, Bobby Miller, Ben Casparius, Justin Wrobleski, and others earlier in the year such as Blake Snell before his return). Several were simultaneously on rehab assignments.
* Spotrac cumulative team IL data shows the Dodgers near the top in overall days and stints (high pitcher concentration historically and in 2026 reports). Other high-IL teams (e.g., Cubs with extensive rotation turnover, Blue Jays, Tigers, Diamondbacks) also rank high, but Dodgers pitcher depth and repeated stints stand out in transaction/rehab trackers.
* Patterns match prior seasons in which the Dodgers led MLB in total IL days (including heavy pitcher usage).
Players Athletic Club The Kinetic Arm DVS Baseball Elite Functional Performance Dave Dagostino

At Rooney Baseball, I have been using verbal cues to trigger movement intent, attention focus, and feel since the late 1980’s.

Here is the latest research:

The application of verbal cues to trigger movement intent and attentional focus in modern motor skill learning is most notably championed and synthesized by Dr. Nick Winkelman, alongside foundational researchers in attentional focus like Dr. Gabriele Wulf.

Key Figures and Concepts

1. Nick Winkelman (The Language of Coaching)

Core Contribution: Winkelman popularized how specific coaching language (cues and analogies) sets the intent of a movement rather than instructing body mechanics.
The 3D Cueing Model: He developed a framework defining how verbal cues should establish:

Direction: Where the movement is directed (e.g., toward or away from a target).

Distance: Near (proximal) vs. far (distal) external targets.

Description: Use of action verbs and metaphors (e.g., "explode off the floor like a jet taking off").

Intent-Driven Movement: Rather than giving internal mechanical commands ("flex your hip 45 degrees"), the verbal cue delivers a clear goal/intent ("punch the ground away"), allowing the nervous system to self-organize the motor pattern.

2. Gabriele Wulf (Attentional Focus & The Constrained Action Hypothesis)

Core Contribution: Foundational research on Internal vs. External Focus of Attention.

Mechanism: Wulf demonstrated that verbal cues directing intent toward an external outcome (the effect of the movement) free up automatic motor control mechanisms, whereas internal body-part cues constrain the motor system and disrupt performance.

3. Frans Bosch & Ecological Dynamics Practitioners

Core Contribution: Bosch and proponents of the Constraints-Led Approach (CLA) emphasize that verbal instructions should define the task intention and environmental problem, prompting athletes to explore degrees of freedom and self-organize without conscious micro-management.

Elite Functional Performance Players Athletic Club Dave Dagostino Jason Kimball DVS Baseball The Kinetic Arm Jim Rooney

WHEN DID THE RADAR GUN BECOME THE DEVELOPMENT PLAN?

Velocity matters. But it should be the result of development—not the definition of it.

We’re seeing younger pitchers chase numbers before they’ve learned how to move efficiently, create force, sequence the body, command the baseball, or actually pitch.

A radar gun tells you what came out of the hand.

It doesn’t tell you how efficiently the body produced it—or how sustainable that delivery will be.

That’s the difference.

Build the athlete.
Build the movement.
Build the delivery.
Then let velocity become the outcome.

We shouldn’t be trying to create the hardest-throwing 14-year-old.

We should be developing the pitcher he can become at 18, 21 and beyond.

Velocity is an output. Development is the process.

That’s where baseball needs to shift its attention.

DVS Baseball The Kinetic Arm Elite Functional Performance Players Athletic Club Dave Dagostino Jason Kimball Jim Rooney

Straight from the Inventor: The Science Behind Dynamic Arm Support 🦾 Jason Colleran engineered the Kinetic Arm after years of seeing athletes deal with the same problems he did when he was growing up. In this clip, Jason shows how the Kinetic Arm helps to offload stress from the elbow during throwing. Have a question for Jason? Drop it in the comments below 👇 #KineticArm #KineticArmInventor #DynamicArmSupport #ElbowSupport

VELOCITY DOESN’T START WITH THE ARM.
IT STARTS WITH THE GROUND.

One of the biggest mistakes we make in pitching development is focusing on what the arm is doing before understanding what the body is doing against the ground.

The ground is the first link in the kinetic chain.

And if that first link is inefficient, everything above it has to compensate.

In TripleSpin, we call this lower-half force creation.

Here’s the simplest way to understand it:

A pitcher must first create force into the ground with the rear leg.

That force helps move the center of mass down the mound.

Then, when the front foot lands, something very important has to happen:

The front leg must BRAKE.

That braking force is not wasted energy.

It is what helps transform linear momentum into rotation.

Think about the sequence:

GROUND → REAR HIP → FORWARD MOMENTUM → FRONT-LEG BLOCK → PELVIS → TRUNK → ARM → BALL

That is pitching.

The rear leg creates momentum.

The lead leg receives it.

The front hip becomes a temporary fulcrum.

The pelvis begins to rotate.

The trunk follows.

The arm receives the energy last.

That is proximal-to-distal sequencing.

And here is the part I believe coaches need to understand:

More force is not automatically better.

The pitcher needs the right force…

in the right direction…
at the right time.

A pitcher who simply pushes vertically off the rubber may create plenty of force but very little useful momentum toward home plate.

A pitcher who establishes a strong rear-hip hinge can orient that force more effectively down the mound.

Then comes the critical transition.

After front-foot contact, the lead leg begins braking the body while the center of mass continues progressing forward.

The front hip essentially becomes the pivot point around which the next phase of the delivery unfolds.

When this happens correctly:

➡️ Linear momentum becomes rotational momentum.

➡️ The pelvis accelerates before the trunk.

➡️ Hip–shoulder separation can be maintained longer.

➡️ The trunk accelerates later.

➡️ Energy reaches the throwing arm instead of forcing the arm to create velocity by itself.

This is why front-leg braking forces have repeatedly been associated with higher throwing velocity.

The lead leg isn’t simply something the pitcher lands on.

It is part of the engine.

And the center of mass matters just as much.

As the pitcher moves into rotation, the body must continue progressing through the front side rather than getting stuck behind the lead hip.

When the center of mass stays behind the front hip too long, we often see:

• Early trunk rotation
• Loss of hip–shoulder separation
• A soft or collapsing lead leg
• The arm racing to catch up
• Energy leaks throughout the kinetic chain

And potentially more stress being transferred to the arm.

This is why I keep coming back to the same principle:

Pitching velocity should be transferred—not manufactured by the arm.

TripleSpin begins by asking:

Can the pitcher create force?

Can he direct it?

Can he control his center of mass?

Can he accept and redirect that force through the front leg?

Can the pelvis rotate before the trunk?

Can the arm simply become the final recipient of the energy?

Because when those pieces occur in sequence, something remarkable happens:

The pitcher doesn’t have to try to throw harder.

The delivery becomes better at producing velocity.

That is a completely different way of developing pitchers.

Stop beginning with the arm.

Start with the ground.

Build the athlete.
Build the movement.
Build the sequence.
Then build the pitcher.

DVS Baseball The Kinetic Arm Elite Functional Performance Players Athletic Club Dave Dagostino Jason Kimball Jim Rooney

Your pitcher doesn’t have a shoulder problem. He has a hip problem.
I’ve spent 25 years in professional baseball — MLB scouting supervisor, minor league pitching coordinator, now working one-on-one with pitchers building the TripleSpin framework. And almost every “arm” issue I diagnose actually starts one joint lower.
Here’s the sequence that separates efficient throwers from injured ones:
Hip rotation → Shoulder rotation → Hand path.
In that order. Not together. Not backwards.
The pelvis has to fire first — and fire clean — while the upper body stays closed a beat longer. That delay is everything. It’s what creates hip-shoulder separation, the “stretch” through the core that lets the trunk whip through later at a higher speed than it ever could on its own.
Most young pitchers skip this. They spin the hips and shoulders together as one block. It feels powerful. It’s actually a leak.
When the pelvis doesn’t lead:
→ The upper body has to manufacture velocity on its own
→ The shoulder and elbow absorb load that should’ve been handled by the hips
→ “Arm problems” show up that were never really about the arm
What clean pelvic rotation actually requires:
• A loaded rear hip (this is why the hip hinge comes first — always)
• Both feet staying connected to the ground through the turn
• The back foot acting like a rudder, steering the turn instead of collapsing early
• A release, not a rip — the pelvis should unwind off the loaded hip, not get forced open
Force it, and you don’t get more velocity. You get more back stress and less separation.
The fix isn’t “throw harder.” It’s sequence better.
Build the hinge. Load the hip. Let the pelvis lead. Let the trunk catch up late. That’s where real velocity — and a healthy arm — actually come from.
⚾ Coaches, parents, throwers — save this one.
Tag a pitcher who spins everything together instead of letting it separate. 👇

DVS Baseball The Kinetic Arm Elite Functional Performance Players Athletic Club Dave Dagostino Jim Rooney Jason Kimball

His elbow hurt. His hips were the problem.

I've spent 25 years in professional baseball — MLB scouting, minor league pitching coordinator, and now working one-on-one with pitchers. Here's what I check before I ever look at an arm:

Can this kid hinge?

Most young pitchers can't. They bend at the knees and the lower back instead of loading the hips. The glutes and hamstrings never store energy. The pelvis never rotates off a stable base.

And the arm ends up paying the bill.

You cannot out-throw a broken foundation.

Here's the exact 3-step progression I teach. No equipment. Ten minutes in the driveway.

1. WALL REACH HINGE
Stand 6 inches in front of a wall, back to it.
Cue: "Push your butt to the wall like you're shutting a car door with it."
Soft knees. Neutral spine. If the knees shoot forward instead of the hips going back — reset.

2. PVC PIPE POSTURE LINE
Broomstick down the back, touching head, upper back, and tailbone.
Hinge without losing a single contact point.
That's what a neutral spine actually feels like.

3. ROCKER STEP HINGE INTO THROW
Rocker stance, hands in throwing position.
Cue: "Sit into your back hip like there's a chair behind you — then ride it forward."
Hold 2 seconds. On the clap, explode into the throw.

Feel it in the glutes and hamstrings. Never the low back.

Film it from the side. You'll spot the problem in one rep.

Master the hinge before you chase velocity. Force creation, energy transfer, sequencing — every piece of TripleSpin sits on top of this one pattern.

⚾ Coaches and parents: save this and run it this week.

Who needs to see this? Tag them below. 👇

DVS Baseball The Kinetic Arm Elite Functional Performance Players Athletic Club Dave Dagostino Jim Rooney Jason Kimball