Latest / The Layback Podcast / Matt Solter, Pro Pitcher and 8ctane Baseball Director of Performance (Ep. 64)

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Matt Solter, Pro Pitcher and 8ctane Baseball Director of Performance (Ep. 64) · The Layback Podcast

0:00
What's up everyone, Welcome back to the Lay Back Podcast.
0:03
Joining us today is actually a good buddy of mine, Matt Sulter.
0:08
Sulter and I got connected back during the 2021 spring when
0:14
there was question marks all around independent League
0:17
Baseball. No one really knew what was
0:19
going to happen. Sulter was returning from a
0:22
shoulder injury, not an elbow injury, but a shoulder injury
0:25
himself. And we just stayed in contact
0:28
after a little stint with what now became the Banana Ball
0:33
Circus. But Sulter was a part of that
0:35
original group for a few outings and he and I just became close.
0:39
And it's been cool to stay connected with him, talk about
0:41
the journeys, whether it's from the player side and now some of
0:45
the really cool stuff he's doing on the coaching side as well.
0:49
And the reason I say as well is because he is still a
0:52
professional pitcher in the Atlantic League, while he is
0:56
also the director of performance at Octane Baseball.
1:00
So with that, I'm going to kick it over to Matt, let him pick up
1:02
the pieces for anything I might have said mistakenly or screwed
1:06
up in the process. Matt, thanks again for coming
1:08
on. Looking forward to this one.
1:10
Yeah, exciting to hear. It was kind of cool how
1:12
something is. I don't even know the best way
1:16
to describe what Banana Ball started as when we were part of
1:18
it, but the friendships that created and and everything that
1:22
you've done and obviously helped me with and everything with flex
1:25
pro grip. So it's pretty awesome.
1:26
Been bouncing around pro ball for a long time now.
1:28
Went to Furman University, got my BS in Health Sciences there
1:31
and then classic senior guy hoping to get drafted didn't.
1:35
Then got to play some independent ball after that.
1:37
First year got picked up by the Giants, was with them for two
1:40
and a half, 3:00-ish years. Got released in spring of 18.
1:43
Indy ball. Signed by the Indians in 19.
1:47
Indy Ball. Indy Ball.
1:49
Venezuela, Mexico. Indy Ball.
1:51
Indy Ball. Quite the journey you.
1:54
You certainly become a little bit of a world traveler, at
1:57
least a traveler around the States at a minimum, with a few
2:00
South American spots mixed in. So maybe, maybe kicking it off
2:05
on the fun side, what have been some of the more unique places
2:09
you've gotten to play ball? Venezuela and Mexico for sure.
2:12
Going into Mexico is a little easier after having been to
2:14
Venezuela first. But with Venezuela, I had no
2:18
idea what it was going to be like.
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Everybody you look on the news, you talk to people like, man,
2:21
this is going to be crazy dangerous.
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And you get there and it feels like this weird dystopian world
2:27
that you're in. You've got like armed guards
2:28
around and but then it's this beautiful country and baseball's
2:32
a lot of fun. The fans are super passionate.
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So kind of the, I guess the juxtaposition of you're kind of
2:37
locked in your hotel when you're not playing, but then you get,
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you know, whenever you're at the stadium, it's, it's a lot of
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fun. I was about as unique as it
2:43
could get in my in my mind. Yeah, not many people have that
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experience, and I am personally jealous that you've been able to
2:50
live that life and use baseball to travel the world a little
2:53
bit. But let's get into now the
2:56
progression of your own career, stepping things back to your
3:00
time at Furman and what eventually became an opportunity
3:03
in Indy ball. So whether it's the the whole
3:07
tenure at Furman, your own progression, I'd really like if
3:10
you could walk through that to then where you ultimately were
3:14
as a pro ball candidate coming out your senior year.
3:18
That's OK, man. We're just super raw.
3:19
It only pitched really my on and off throughout my life, but more
3:23
competitively really only my senior year of high school.
3:25
So didn't have a huge body of work coming in and was fortunate
3:29
enough to throw a lot my freshman year and was a 8588 guy
3:33
cutting the crap out of my heater.
3:34
Like had no idea about mechanics, had no idea about
3:37
pitch metrics or anything like that.
3:38
It was just hey, don't fly open or hey, don't do this.
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I'm a pretty good competitor and was able to have a solid
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freshman year and and then each year after that seems like baby
3:47
steps were made. Sophomore year I started closing
3:50
a little bit was more 8891 and then junior year was starting
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was 8891. Maybe touch A2, maybe a three.
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And then senior year comes around and a little bit harder.
4:01
It's pretty well for for what I had and for what I, you know,
4:03
what I knew. And it wasn't really until I got
4:06
even with the Giants that I started understanding like
4:08
reading a swing sequencing kind of the more important things
4:12
relative to just, hey, throw the fastball at the knees.
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And what do you attribute some of those velocity jumps to?
4:18
Honestly a lot of it was just how I was training.
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My buddies always gave me crap about this in college, but I was
4:23
always trying to throw harder, especially freshman year.
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I was like, I want to, I want to hit 90.
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So then eventually took steps and started training with Cressy
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for a while and I'll go there for a little bit and went there
4:33
during a Christmas break once and was doing their stuff kind
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of remotely and gradual progressions physically because
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it's kind of always a tall skinny guy growing up and I
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guess chased absolute strength for for so long.
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It paid off at A at a certain point.
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And when was the first time that you really picked up on the
4:49
athleticism side of things? So you talked about chasing
4:53
absolute strength for so long, I'm sure you hit the point and
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it's obvious now. I don't know if anybody is
5:00
watching or they're just listening, but you were a
5:02
sizeable human being. So I, I don't think the absolute
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strength really is low hanging fruit for you at this point.
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And a lot of the probably sprinkle on top kind of gains
5:14
have come from you getting more explosive or creating force
5:17
faster. So I'd I'd like to know when
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that step in the process kind of got on its way.
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I mean, I'm sure it was sprinkled in there when I was
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when I was working with Cressy and then, but they obviously are
5:29
really good at what they do. But I was just always really
5:32
dumb. My focus was just, oh, just get
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stronger. Like everything needs to be to
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failure. And looking back, it's so
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annoying and so stupid because I'd be training with these big
5:40
league guys and they'd be like, oh, I wish I was as strong as,
5:42
you know, I was like, well, shit, I wish, I wish I was in
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the freaking big league. So something's got to give.
5:47
I think the biggest change was when I first started training at
5:50
Octane, one of the, it was the Young performance.
5:52
They rebranded into Octane and one of the owners is a
5:55
brilliant, brilliant physical therapist by the name of Brandon
5:57
Young. Some of the stuff we were doing,
5:59
whether it was basically a lot of Sprint work, a lot of Sprint
6:02
work, a lot of change of direction, a lot of rate of
6:04
force development stuff. And that's what I've seen the
6:07
biggest jump with for sure. And that for you is only in the
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last couple years, correct? Yeah, I decided to wait until
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freaking age 2930 the so try to start peeking.
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Was it one of those things that it was kind of like, it's
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impossible to know what you don't know?
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You didn't know that this was a possibility, or you just didn't
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have exposure to it, so why ever try it?
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Yeah, that's pretty much what it was.
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And this timeline worked out really well when I got the job
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at Octane, but then got my CSCS and after kind of ground through
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that textbook to be ready for the exam and got really deep
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into the Physiology. And again, Brandon is a master
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of Physiology. As far as I'm concerned, he's a
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wizard. And you know, we talk about
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different training values, different things to do.
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And then all of a sudden, not this past pro day, but the one
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before that, it was fine. I was like 9193 kind of moving
6:55
slow. And then this last pro day I sat
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94 1/2 was up to 95 three. And I was pretty much only after
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doing some overspeed work on the treadmill and some like
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rotational bat speed stuff. What is kind of funny is how the
7:08
training world has come I guess full circle on that to a certain
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extent. Like you look at maybe not the
7:16
oldest school pitcher training, which might have just been empty
7:21
soup cans or the the like job exercises.
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But then there was a point where the NPA model in the Tom House
7:30
systems really took off, and that was so focused on bat
7:35
speed. But for pitchers trying to swing
7:37
fast and stop fast, and then why not move as fast as possible?
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Oh, that translates directly into sprinting.
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But that kind of phased out when we realized baseball players
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need to get stronger, they need to get bigger.
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They can produce more force if they can handle more force, IE
7:56
lift more in the weight room. And it's almost like the speed
7:59
component was completely forgotten for so long.
8:03
And thankfully we've seen that come back into play.
8:05
Yeah, exactly. I guess even in the old school
8:09
thought process, you're allowed to guess.
8:11
Oh, don't lift. You're going to get bulky.
8:12
You're going to lose your mobility.
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And that probably speaks into kind of how things shifted for a
8:16
while was hey, see how strong we can get and who cares what the
8:20
adaptation is as long as you're stronger than if twenty 3040% of
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the people who do that start throwing a lot harder, like, oh,
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we can. We don't really care about the
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other 60% of the dead bodies on the side of the road, you know,
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as long as we get, as long as we get some guys better.
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In It is kind of crazy that that is how the world of baseball
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players works too. Because every one of us, I'm I'm
8:42
willing to still say us on this because if I saw something that
8:46
got 20% of baseball players to throw 6 MPH harder right now, I
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would probably hitch my wagon to that and try to figure out how
8:55
to do it and just hope I'm in that 20%.
8:58
You look at the failure rates of some of these studies or
9:02
training mechanisms and whether it's guys getting hurt or guys
9:06
struggling. And now I I do think a lot of
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these things are sensationalized or poorly programmed, which is
9:12
often why guys tend to get hurt with these things rather than
9:16
the actual modality being bad or wrong.
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But it is astonishing to see how far an athlete is willing to go
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for that little tick up, just a small percentage chance of being
9:32
better. And I I think that is why all of
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us who are addicted to the game in any capacity probably are a
9:41
little bit crazy, yeah. And for me personally, like
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that's, you know, my 2 loves, I absolutely love competing.
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I love going out like shutting off the brain and just getting
9:49
after it within a game. But my other big obsession is
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what what's the most I can get out of my body?
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You know, how hard can I throw? Of course, every pitcher's
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obsessed with velocity. There's a reason it's king and
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and everybody's obsessed with it.
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But sometimes competing with the actual love of competing is, you
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know, what can I do with my body to get the most out of it?
10:07
Yeah. And maybe this is jumping ahead
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a little bit, but probably, and I say jumping ahead because it's
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completely skipping over the injury, what you had to battle
10:19
through coming off of that, the velocity dip, your return, and
10:24
then the massive change you made in the way you move and the way
10:27
you throw. So maybe I'm just going to bury
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the lead a little bit and tease that component that you made
10:34
this massive change in the way you move on the mound.
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But I want to step it back and go through the actual injury and
10:43
what you had to deal with there. Yeah, so the big injury was the,
10:48
you know, the shoulder injury at the end of the 21 season.
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I was with the Milwaukee Milkman in the American Association and
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started off, had a really good start to the year.
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I started doing some like anterior shoulder pain, middle,
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middle way through and kind of grinded through it for four to
11:01
six weeks. Every pitcher's been there,
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right? Like you push through pain, it's
11:05
fine. Like you kind of know what's
11:06
different. Towards the end of it though,
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like couldn't play catch between starts.
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My warm up on start days was only about and I used to preface
11:13
this was saying I was a massive long toss guy with my old slot
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and how I threw So like started, I was going to stretch that out
11:18
to 300 and couldn't get could barely get to 90.
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I'd ride adrenaline for 2/3 innings, I would crash, I'd be
11:24
in a lot of pain, I'd struggle, which would give me some more
11:27
adrenaline, let me get back through the game.
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But the big thing before I was sleep at night, like I was
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having a really hard time because it felt like just an ice
11:34
pick in the front of my shoulder.
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And I'd never really experienced that before.
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So that's when I decided I was like, hey guys, we got to figure
11:39
this out. So they had to see the team doc.
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So the bone spur and all the other things that go along with
11:45
the shoulder and they were like, yeah, we recommend surgeries may
11:49
might not have done that looking back on it, but at the time was,
11:52
I mean, I'm in so much pain, like I'll do anything to get out
11:53
of this. So do a subocomial
11:55
decompression. Took out some bone, shaved
11:57
things down, cleaned it up a little bit and they said, yeah,
11:59
you should be back competing, throwing within 2-3 months.
12:02
Like, it shouldn't be a big rehab, which probably bad advice
12:06
to give me because I, I was trying to play catch like four
12:08
or five weeks after surgery, like an idiot, still in pain.
12:11
But yeah, after that, Vilo had a big drop.
12:13
I if I hit 90, it was a really good day.
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And that was only a handful of them.
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I was sitting like 8788. As the velocity drops, you get
12:20
away with a lot less. But then I guess the flip side
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of that was weird. Came to play a little bit of
12:24
banana ball that year and then went to Staten Island in the
12:27
Atlantic League and had a pretty good year.
12:30
Threw a ton of innings. Went to Venezuela that winter
12:34
but again, everything was 8788 and I guess I was just kind of
12:38
competing and pitching instead of just trying to throw.
12:41
In this process, we'll we'll go back through some of the rehab
12:44
details in a bit. I know most of the time on this
12:47
podcast we talked about the elbow, but I'd still be
12:49
interested in what you went through.
12:51
And then ultimately you made a shift because you were, you're
12:56
throwing 8788. It was almost like you were
12:58
stuck there. You were in this plateau where
13:01
maybe like you said, in 90 would creep in once in a while or on a
13:06
glorious day, you might see in 91 pop up on the scoreboard, but
13:10
that was becoming fewer and farther between.
13:14
You elected to make a shift. I'd really like now if you could
13:17
tell that story of this crossroads you were at and just
13:21
trying to do something different.
13:24
Yeah, I guess it was similar to college as a freshman, beating
13:26
your head against the wall trying to figure out how to
13:28
throw 90. And, you know, I was out there,
13:31
there'd be games where I would let it eat.
13:32
And, you know, you pop the Mitt, you stand the guy up with a
13:35
heater in and you're like, that's the one.
13:36
Like we're back to I might be 94.
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And you look on the track bands 88 and you're like, damn, what's
13:41
going on? But honestly, I'm going to give,
13:43
we've talked about this in the past, but probably not in a
13:45
while. But I'm going to give a lot of
13:46
credit of the shift to you because the first time I've ever
13:49
played with a lower slot was kind of when I was ripping this
13:51
little like sidearm sweeper thing and we played catch at
13:54
that little field right outside the banana Stadium and you're
13:57
like, dude, that's freaking good.
13:59
So I was the, you know, started mixing it in in banana ball,
14:02
just trying to feel it. And then the big change.
14:05
So when I first came to Octane, I did the full 3D, we've got
14:08
balls, this 3D motion capture system got all hooked up and I
14:11
was like, hey, I've been kind of toying around with this slot.
14:14
Like for me it feels sidearm really.
14:16
It's a lower three quarter as I'm toying around with this.
14:19
So I threw my whole 3D with my regular which is kind of trunk
14:23
tilty a little over the top. Over the top arm slot hasn't
14:25
changed, just the trunk tilt has.
14:27
Then through the rest of the hair quotes.
14:29
There. Exactly through the rest of the
14:32
pen with the lower slot and they're like yeah, we can
14:34
already tell you you're going to be thrown from there.
14:37
So I know it's just a battle of feeling what I need to feel
14:39
being in the right slot because there's a lot of variance there
14:42
and especially that first year last year, honestly when I first
14:45
went to high point in the Atlantic League, I struggled
14:47
there reverting back to old habits when when the lights were
14:50
on right instead of being in this lower slot just kept
14:52
creeping creeping, creeping stuff wasn't as good from there
14:56
kind of get in between profiles too.
14:57
You'd stop throwing a really good sinker.
14:59
You kind of throwing a bad two seam and everything just isn't
15:01
as good. So and then I guess carried
15:03
through this last offseason, just kept working through, kept
15:06
working through it, but it took 18 months of really working on
15:08
it to feel pretty solid with it. So what was the shift then on
15:13
the track man plot? We have plenty of nerds on the
15:15
podcast who can picture a plot straight up in their minds, so
15:19
feel free to dive as deep as you want to, whether it's getting
15:23
into stuff like VAA, an extension, or if it's just as
15:27
simple as looking at vertical brakes and horizontal brakes.
15:31
That's obviously the release height dropped a lot.
15:33
But the big thing was instead of in the past, I was kind of a not
15:37
quite, it was a little better than dead zone, but not really.
15:39
It would be like 16 vert, 16 horizontal, but then there would
15:43
be some that were at 12 vert, some that were, you know, some
15:45
that were at 20. So it's really all over the
15:47
place. And then my sinker that I threw
15:50
from over the top, it was decent for what it was.
15:53
It was like 9 and 20 or whatever.
15:55
But then when I dropped the slot, all of a sudden you start
15:57
seeing sinkers in the negatives and you're like, oh, that's,
15:59
that's pretty good. You know, it's like you see the
16:01
ball diving in a way that you've never made it work before.
16:04
You're like, oh damn, that's pretty good.
16:05
Start seeing sinker. You know, I think the best
16:07
sinker I ever threw, it was lower below giving air quotes
16:11
again, because at the time I was going a little harder, but I
16:13
threw one at 89 at -9 vert and like 22 horizontal.
16:17
So the thoughts are pretty again, a lot of that probably
16:20
wasn't repeatable or sustainable because I was probably getting
16:22
the slot way lower than I needed to be.
16:24
But that's the kind of what sparked.
16:26
I was like, oh man, like I'm seeing these numbers that now
16:28
that I understand them, this is actually really good.
16:30
And you start comparing to some of the best anchors in baseball.
16:32
You're like, actually that's kind of good.
16:34
Just playing with the off speed that off that.
16:36
But that's kind of the sinker diving like that.
16:38
And at points, averaging in the negatives was the first time I
16:42
was like, oh, OK, like we're finally chasing stuff instead of
16:45
just being a being a gym rat, like maybe actually be good at
16:48
doing the freaking job, you know?
16:50
I do think it's really funny from some of the internal
16:53
conversations that we've had when you were kind of at that
16:56
crossroads and I was just trying to be a sounding board on my
17:00
side. I brought up the Brandon Webb
17:03
scenario with the Giants and one of the Logan Webb.
17:07
My bad. Wrong names but how comical that
17:12
was for you. Just I ironically or
17:15
coincidentally you seen the evolution of web with your time
17:19
in the giants of him making this shift or him being like an over
17:24
the top kind of flamethrower but for whatever reason was having
17:28
poor results. Made a massive shift in the way
17:31
that he threw and had this new found success even though the
17:35
VLO dropped, even though it wasn't the norm.
17:40
He was completely revolutionized and just a couple years later, a
17:45
guy who was once your teammate, you'd pretty much took the same
17:50
journey. Yeah, it's kind of cool to see
17:52
that. You know, I first met Webby when
17:54
we were in in Low Way, when I first got signed and sent to Low
17:57
Way and all the way back in I guess within 2016.
18:00
Seems like an eternity ago. But yeah, it's been awesome
18:04
seeing. So I look at a lot of what he
18:05
does, his pitch usage, his pitch types.
18:08
He's kind of a big reason too that I spurred the use of the
18:10
cutter because you know, he's bumped that usage way up this
18:12
year, especially the lefties. And for me, like the cutter seem
18:17
crazy good results and metrically pretty good.
18:19
When it's really good, it's 10 to 13 vert kind of right on the
18:22
zero line. And I'm not really looking for
18:24
too much negative horizontal on that.
18:25
If I can just create a little bit more of an illusion of
18:28
override or a little bit of a cut off of everything else
18:31
playing down, that's like guys haven't been able to cover both
18:34
and actually had any really damage done on it in a year and
18:38
a half now. Hopefully that year and a half
18:41
extends many more years. Yeah, knock, knock on any wood I
18:45
can find. Right.
18:46
Yeah, I don't know how much wood you'll find sitting in the squat
18:49
rack, but hopefully there's something around maybe maybe an
18:53
old broken bat or something just sitting in the garage.
18:55
But let's step things back a little bit and talk about your
18:59
specific rehab. I misspoke and said it was
19:01
during COVID. Maybe I'm just mixing that up
19:04
with your on ramp for the season from when we got connected.
19:06
So hand up, that's on me. My bad.
19:09
But you were originally told coming off of surgery that you
19:12
were going to have a very fast return to the field of play,
19:17
which, as you said, might not have been the best thing for you
19:19
to hear at the time. But what did that rehab process
19:25
entail for you? I worked with this awesome PTS
19:27
in Greenville NC, Young's physical therapy and they're
19:31
great. A lot of shoulder work at first
19:33
though because of the nerve block I had in it.
19:36
Took me like 10 to almost two weeks to be able to get a full
19:41
range of motion back in my shoulder.
19:42
So I was like huh that's a little weird.
19:44
I think it shouldn't have been that bad but that was the big
19:47
focus early was getting all the range of motion back and then
19:50
pretty standard stuff on top of that like strengthen the
19:52
shoulder, doing a lot of T spine work.
19:55
Probably a very good thing for me anyway, as a tight mover
19:58
trying to think exactly what also done that feels like
20:01
eternity to go to. You've really lived a couple of
20:04
lifetimes since then, given that since that time, you've played
20:09
in, I guess, three different countries on what, like 5
20:13
different teams as well as took the job with Octane.
20:18
You've covered pretty much a lifetime since you've rehabbed
20:21
your shoulder. Yeah.
20:22
But I mean bits that I can flashback and see right now,
20:26
just a lot of shoulder stability, a lot of external
20:29
rotation strength, T spine every day.
20:31
So those are those kind of big ones that I can I can remember
20:34
at this point. One of the things we talked
20:36
about is the V low drop prior to surgery.
20:40
Just to give people some context.
20:42
How hard were you throwing? I'd be up to 9596 and probably
20:47
sitting like the two to four range again doing that with a
20:50
little bit of kind of a ride run profile generally played pretty
20:53
well for get a little bit of swing and miss with it.
20:56
And then afterwards, yeah, stuck at 87 even though my body arm
21:00
felt great at a point and the Max effort RIP was I was like,
21:04
man, that's the 187. In 87 with not the exact same
21:11
profile either, right? It didn't that start to change
21:14
on you a little. Bit yeah, then that started
21:16
again, getting a little more dead zoning, a little more bad
21:18
to see me. And that's actually when I
21:20
completely switched to throwing sinkers because I was like, man,
21:23
if things are starting to blend that way anyway, let's just lean
21:25
all the way into that. And it actually it worked out
21:27
pretty well. It was again like around the 88
21:29
bird and like 20 horizontal mark.
21:31
So you know, from a higher slot, higher VAA, so just kind of
21:34
bowling ball straight down. But 87 sinkers ain't going to
21:38
play for for so long. And it was lucky to have some
21:41
success that year in the Atlantic.
21:42
We got threw think 148 innings that year, another 25 in
21:46
Venezuela, probably another 20 with the Bananas.
21:50
So I had a huge workload, you know, that started six months
21:52
after surgery, but never really gave myself the opportunity to
21:55
to ramp back up in the way that I probably should have.
21:58
And I guess to know too, I was signed to play in Melbourne,
22:02
Australia that offseason. The one that had surgery, I
22:05
talked to the doc and he was like, Oh yeah, like you'll be
22:07
able to be back out there in, you know, a month or two.
22:09
And I was like, I was sick. So like 4 weeks after surgery,
22:13
I'm playing catch. Shoulders still hurt.
22:15
And of course, because you just had surgery, I was like, all
22:17
right, I guess I, I think they ended up canceling the season
22:19
that year or, or I couldn't play, can't remember the exact
22:23
time. I definitely couldn't play so
22:25
wasn't able to go out there. I was pretty bummed about that.
22:27
But yeah, that shows how kind of dumb I was at the time,
22:30
especially. It was like, Oh yeah, like we
22:32
just had this little surgery. We put a little Band-Aid on it
22:34
for six weeks and you're going to be thrown hard again.
22:36
You're going to feel good. You're fine. 2020 hindsight,
22:39
what do you think you would have changed in your own process?
22:43
I guess maybe not have surgery, but it's when you're in that
22:46
much pain. It was it was kind of hard to I
22:47
mean I was getting needled before I threw.
22:49
I was getting needled after like every single day.
22:51
I mean, maybe it was just a a spacing and a shoulder, right?
22:54
Maybe working a little bit more mobility or stability in the
22:58
scap, Like who knows what would have alleviated that.
23:00
But I guess the good news is, knock on wood again, ever since
23:02
that surgery, like my shoulder doesn't hurt ever.
23:05
It feels good all the time. It took a little bit to get to
23:09
that point, of course, but yeah. Thankfully.
23:11
There. Now, yeah, I guess to answer
23:13
your question, probably would have gone about the on ramp
23:16
differently looking back now, you know, would have given
23:18
myself a lot more time to to build up.
23:20
And I I was just kind of on my, you know, we didn't, I didn't do
23:23
a throwing progression necessarily with those PTS.
23:25
It was just kind of getting me back to the point I could throw.
23:27
Looking back, I would have definitely, you know, maybe used
23:29
like a radar added V low progression to get back to what
23:32
I should have been or at least close instead of how are you go
23:34
play catch. Do your, you know, do your long
23:36
toss two or three times a week as you slowly build up over the
23:38
weeks and expect that that's going to be good enough without
23:41
getting any sort of feedback as to where you're at.
23:43
Because I was just playing catch at a little field up in my
23:45
hometown and have no tech out there.
23:49
Right. So for you at the time, it was
23:51
just all based on how you feel and it had nothing to do with
23:55
any objective data. Exactly.
23:57
Which again, sounds so stupid when you say it out loud.
24:02
It's the reality for so many people, though.
24:05
That's just been accepted in baseball.
24:07
That's the reality for everyone. Having a radar gun or a pulse
24:12
sensor or something to track throwing in whatever capacity
24:18
has been counterculture until 2024-2025 anyways.
24:23
Every program is written on distance and intensity, so why
24:27
would you even think that? Oh, let me radar gun this aside
24:31
from, I don't know, maybe one throw here and there.
24:35
But you and I both grew up in a time of college baseball where
24:39
you were lucky to know how hard you threw in a college baseball
24:43
game because you had one radar gun, and whoever was using the
24:46
radar gun was told not to tell anybody how hard they were
24:50
throwing. So you needed to finagle your
24:52
way into figuring out how hard you were throwing on any given
24:55
day. Yeah.
24:57
And even like for us at a small mid major at firm and like we
24:59
didn't have any of that. So it was we'd always get extra
25:02
excited to be on the road or at a big stadium that would have
25:05
the performance meter up on the scoreboard so you can give a
25:08
little Velo peeking like, ah, 88 shit.
25:11
I'm sure it did feel good occasionally when you showed up.
25:14
You played your opening weekend. Yeah.
25:16
The rude awakening of like, Oh my God, I only throw 86.
25:19
But then like 5 weeks later, you're you're at some midweek
25:23
game at USC or at UNC and you find out like, Oh my God, I hit
25:29
88. I'm getting better.
25:30
Yeah, those are the days. Right?
25:33
Well, let's let's Fast forward now.
25:37
We'll we'll take some time talking about the other hat you
25:41
wear as the director of performance at Octane.
25:45
Yes, you're still pitching. So I want to talk a little bit
25:47
about the season, what's going on now and getting back in pro
25:51
ball once again. But I want to know about your
25:54
transition into Octane becoming the Director of Performance.
25:58
You mentioned your CSCS already and really just take it away.
26:02
I know there's not really a question there, but talk about
26:06
the opportunity and maybe what your day-to-day looks like.
26:10
Yeah, so it was really cool to get the opportunity.
26:12
I've been training there for six months and I'm just kind of
26:15
ramping up for the season. And the old guy, he put in his
26:18
two weeks and they came to me pretty quickly after I've been
26:21
kind of given some, some advice on the side as far as what I
26:23
think would be better on the performance side.
26:25
And they said, Hey, the job's yours if you want it.
26:27
And first it was kind of a thing where they were like, hey, if
26:29
you're going to do this, like you're going to have to retire.
26:32
And eventually we're able to come to an agreement where, you
26:34
know, I was able to keep playing and, and do it.
26:36
And luckily again, High point was awesome with this too and
26:39
still are that I'm able to, to do my job and then come pitch
26:42
and just keep flip flopping like that.
26:43
So I got the job and I feel like everybody in the space probably
26:47
deals with a lot of this, but the imposter syndrome was strong
26:49
very early on and I had no formal background with it other
26:53
than, you know, my degree. I spent a lot of time training
26:55
with Cressy and did some driveline.
26:56
Kind of had an idea as far as training goes, just kind of dove
26:59
in and just constantly learning as much as I could outside of
27:03
working. So a lot of my down hours were
27:05
spent, whether it was listening to podcasts or trying to read
27:08
articles for people who are way smarter than me and, and kind of
27:11
help start to begin this process of learning.
27:13
And luckily that's probably never going to stop with me
27:15
because I'm just obsessed with with learning what I don't know
27:19
and trying to be better because I feel so inadequate, even
27:21
though I think we do such a good job at Octane now.
27:23
But really just learning, going through the CSCS was obviously
27:26
super helpful. I'm not a big believer that you
27:28
have to have credentials to be a really good trainer or coach,
27:31
but it was nice to just get back to like the base Physiology of
27:34
things and scientific principles of training that sometimes maybe
27:37
with fads get get kind of thrown to the wayside a little bit.
27:40
And kind of structure everything from there.
27:43
You know, Zach Deshawn's book, I read that and that kind of
27:46
influenced a lot of how I started guys out.
27:48
And that's going from there. Just that along with Brandon, I
27:51
got mentioned him several Times Now, but he's been a great
27:53
mentor and he's been training pitchers for a long, long time.
27:56
Most people don't realize that he's been doing like 3DS and,
27:59
and training pitchers for like 20 years now.
28:01
That's kind of his like pet side project while running a bunch of
28:04
PT clinics. But through all these different
28:07
lenses and all these different brilliant people that I've been
28:10
fortunate to know and listen to, what's kind of help shape kind
28:13
of how I program for guys, how I train guys.
28:15
And it's just kind of quick and dirty of how that's gone.
28:17
It's just been a constant cycle of dive into something, learn
28:20
it, apply it, strip away what you don't like, what's not
28:23
working, and then just keep repeating the cycle.
28:25
And obviously it's not anything unique to me.
28:27
Any good coach is going to do that.
28:29
That's how my process has been. What have some of your
28:33
initiatives been since taking over?
28:36
Are there certain realms that you've taken the deeper dive in
28:40
or things that you've really tried to implement that you guys
28:43
maybe weren't using before I? Guess the two big things that
28:46
we're doing and a lot of this is driven by Brandon too, but I was
28:49
working with our bio mechanist Joey and we do the like a
28:52
modified version of the Ash test.
28:53
So we use force plates and to measure shoulder strength
28:56
internally and we're going to start using dynamometers or the
28:59
force plates to do more external work too.
29:01
But the IR at 90 in AY position and in AT position and just
29:05
seeing how that correlates with certain guys in velocs, you
29:07
know, listen to, I believe his name is Ashcroft.
29:10
Listen to him on AI think a rugby podcast actually.
29:14
And they talked about using this test for pitchers as well and
29:19
that they, you know, they'd see velocity jumps for it was like a
29:21
50 Newton increase would lead to be 1 mile an hour jump or
29:25
whatever it was. So we started implementing that
29:27
just as a way to track our guys because we didn't have a way to,
29:30
for us to track shoulder strength before that.
29:32
Again, we might start using a dynamometer here with our summer
29:34
group and have a little bit more, little more data with
29:37
that, but that was kind of the big thing.
29:39
And so we track that any of our initial screens, we have them do
29:42
that. And then the other big one, the
29:46
kind of the fun, weird, quirky thing we're doing, again,
29:48
Brandon's been awesome on this, but with how his brain works.
29:51
But we're using the trampoline as a, as a way to increase force
29:55
production. And the force plate results that
29:57
we've gotten post test have been, I think it's like 98% of
30:01
guys get better and like the two or two or three that didn't,
30:04
we're more of a more as a byproduct that we just like our
30:07
hypothesis was all right, they're these 140 LB skinny kids
30:10
who can barely squat their body weight.
30:12
So got to have a certain strength component before you
30:14
can probably effectively make use of stress shortening cycle
30:17
or elastic components like that. Can you spend some more time on
30:21
that? Because that's something that
30:22
we're not seeing across most of the industry there.
30:25
There might be a few people here and there that are tapping into
30:29
I guess the power of a trampoline or something springy,
30:33
but you guys are one of the few in the baseball world for sure
30:36
that are utilizing it. Yeah, so again, Brandon came to
30:40
us and was like, hey, he's got this big master plan in his
30:43
brain. He's a wizard with Physiology.
30:45
So we're going to start using this.
30:46
I want you guys to test it, come up with a protocol for it.
30:49
And here's what we're going to do.
30:50
So started running that and we're trying to find ways.
30:53
I think this is important in any any sports performance realm.
30:56
How can we increase force production at the with the
30:59
smallest cost possible from a fatigue standpoint, using this
31:02
as a primer? Like they're a little hesitant
31:04
at first because they might feel a little wobbly or weird.
31:06
But once you see the objective data on a counter movement jump
31:09
or a death drop like you can't or apply a push up, you can't
31:13
argue against it. So you guys are using this for
31:15
upper body stuff as well? Exactly.
31:18
Yeah, we have a kind of a dynamic like short lever push up
31:21
the active pressing that we do. We found that to be really
31:24
helpful with guys who might be like really hyper mobile and
31:27
have a lot of horizontal abduction, a lot of lay back and
31:30
but might struggle to get out of those positions.
31:32
That's obviously with those guys.
31:34
We're not, they're not going to have the strength to be able to
31:35
do it at a really deep range at first.
31:37
But starting them off even in a little bit, little bit shallow
31:41
over range, it's been really helpful for them and they love
31:43
the feeling of it. They're like, oh, I can actually
31:45
feel that happening now. And then again, force production
31:49
goes up on the force plates and they generally feel better in
31:51
the throat as well. And then from the lower body
31:55
perspective, you talked about using it as a primer.
31:58
So how might you incorporate the use of the trampoline into the
32:03
workouts that you guys are doing?
32:06
Yeah. So most of it right now because
32:07
we're kind of in the early stages.
32:09
We've only been testing it for about 6 months now.
32:11
But the early stages of it, we keep it mostly at the end of a
32:14
warm up. So we'll have guys go through
32:15
all their prep work. Some guys like to do it before
32:17
apply, some guys like to do it after plyos.
32:19
But we'll have them go through our little circuit that we have.
32:21
And every time we haven't touched the trampoline, we make
32:23
sure that we're testing on the forest plate pre and post as
32:25
well. So trying to have a decent
32:27
baseline of where guys are AT and then and they go off and do
32:30
their day and hopefully they're performing a little bit better.
32:32
Talking about the use of a trampoline for sports
32:35
performance, I'm just catching myself smiling.
32:38
And it's not that there's anything wrong with it.
32:41
If you guys are seeing benefit, that's amazing.
32:44
It is just insane the rocks and the stones that can be unturned
32:50
to find that next potential benefit to performance.
32:55
So it's what we talked about earlier with To the Odd Ends of
33:00
the Earth that athletes are willing to travel just to get a
33:03
little bit better. And what's probably worth noting
33:07
is using the trampoline is only crazy if it doesn't work.
33:11
Yep, exactly. And that's our bio mechanist.
33:14
Actually, when you know, Brandon was first talking about this, he
33:16
was like, man, I, I just don't see it.
33:18
I don't think I don't know how this is going to work.
33:20
And then all of a sudden, better, better, better, better.
33:24
It's like, Oh my God, there's like something here and there's
33:26
a lot of different components being trained there.
33:28
But the data doesn't lie. And early on, I will let you
33:31
know, admit that like guys have a little bit of fatigue early on
33:33
if if we do too much. So we kind of stripped the
33:36
circuit down to one time through instead of the initial 2 that we
33:38
were doing. But even still, like when the
33:40
guys felt that fatigue, just such a different stimulus for
33:43
them than they're probably ever used to because most guys
33:45
haven't jumped on a trampoline since they were probably 10
33:47
years old or in high school. But yeah, once guys adapt to it
33:51
and numbers just keep going up, you know, obviously, I'm sure a
33:53
lot of that's in accordance helps feed the weight room side
33:55
of things, too. We don't know how long this
33:58
training effect lasts either. We test pretty acutely after we
34:01
administer it. But obviously we're really
34:03
excited about what we've seen so far.
34:05
Even for you now putting the player hat back on, what have
34:08
you experienced incorporating this into your protocols?
34:12
I freaking love it and so for me too.
34:14
Like I've always had balance and vestibular issues, that's a big
34:17
component that gets trained there as well.
34:18
So anything for me to feel more stable or grounded is going to
34:22
help me out. And after I get off that, that's
34:24
exactly how I feel. Feel like heavy and strong in my
34:26
legs. Because for me when I struggle
34:28
the most, it's when I feel like I guess air quote like light or
34:32
floating on my back leg and doesn't feel grounded at all.
34:34
I'm sure obviously most guys will probably feel that too, but
34:37
for me after doing the trampoline, like everything just
34:39
feels solid grounded. With one of the movements we do
34:42
too, it really fires up your core as well.
34:43
So just feels better. Are there other weird or off the
34:47
wall initiatives that you guys have implemented?
34:50
I know you have a Proteus, I know not everything you do is
34:54
just the weirdest thing that somebody has ever seen, but are
34:58
there other creative things that you guys are using right now?
35:02
Yeah. The couple big things that we're
35:03
using, we actually use a speed bag, like a boxing speed bag for
35:07
some of our shoulder work, for some of our shoulder stability
35:10
and reactivity work and whether it's doing like quick repeated
35:14
IRSERS, scat punches. We kind of, we got a whole
35:17
circuit that we go through there.
35:19
We're actually in the arm wrestling realm.
35:21
We have an arm wrestling training strap for training
35:23
pronation supination and guys have really, really like that
35:26
because you can load that puppy up, you know, obviously don't
35:28
want to start a lot of these kids there, but for forearm
35:31
health, if they've really loved that, what are the weird things
35:34
to do? We actually do like, I think
35:36
definitely probably maybe not the first students.
35:38
Maybe we are. We do arm wrestling in a very
35:40
controlled manner with the goal of isometric training for the
35:42
shoulder and not for not to beat your buddy on the table who
35:46
might weigh 70 lbs less than you.
35:48
So most of the time I do a lot of the arm wrestling with the
35:50
kids just to make sure that the intensity is where it needs to
35:52
be. But isometrically, ER,
35:54
isometrically IR and we go like a three to one ratio with back
35:58
to front. But for guys shoulders, they
36:00
just love that too. For me too, I should be a lot of
36:03
why my Vilo is so good right now to that for the whole winter I
36:07
was doing 1516 different athletes a day on the on the
36:11
table arm wrestling with them. Great thing about isometrics.
36:13
T's generally not going to kick your butt.
36:15
You're going to feel pretty good after.
36:16
It's just good all around there. All right.
36:19
Yeah, those are definitely not responses I had on my bingo card
36:24
for initiatives that you've been utilizing.
36:27
I appreciate you sharing that. Now, more on the traditional
36:30
side, we did mention it's kind of funny to call this
36:33
traditional, but you have a Proteus in house.
36:35
You obviously have squat racks and power racks and other lifts.
36:40
So I'm assuming you guys are going to start with the basics
36:44
for most athletes and then when the stimulus calls for it or if
36:48
the athletes program calls for it, you're going to add in more
36:52
of these quote UN quote different stimuli.
36:55
Exactly. Yeah, Well, you're never going
36:56
to get away from from the fundamentals and that's what's
36:59
so great about. We also have force plates within
37:01
our mound. We have force plates that we do
37:02
our jump testing on. So between that, the Proteus
37:05
ability screen, the 3D review, if somebody does that, we have a
37:08
pretty complete picture in our opinion of what a guy needs.
37:12
And a kid was 150 lbs and can't do a push up or can't squat his
37:15
body weight as cool as a trampoline or, or something like
37:18
that might be when you get you stronger.
37:21
And depending on his build, whether that's just heavy
37:22
bilateral squats, increasing your total force production or I
37:27
also have a little precision nutrition certification.
37:29
So we offer a little nutrition consult too.
37:31
It's like, hey, you need to eat all the food in the world and
37:35
you need to lift heavy weights for probably a couple years.
37:37
And then we'll obviously sprinkle in some high velocity
37:40
work, some jumping, some sprinting, some maybe a little
37:42
bit overspeed depending. But for the most part you at 150
37:46
lbs. Like that's our big part.
37:47
Let's get you stronger and let's get you bigger.
37:50
And now transitioning back to your current season or your
37:55
evolution again as a player. So we we talked a little bit
37:58
about it. You've kind of leveled out again
38:00
back at similar velocities to where you were in your younger
38:05
years or prior to the shoulder injury, maybe topping A5 or A6
38:09
and sitting in that 2 to 4 range.
38:12
You were one out away from a no hitter earlier this year.
38:15
Unfortunately, you followed that up with maybe not the best
38:17
outing of all time, but that's OK.
38:19
Yeah. Maybe one of the worst, but
38:21
that's that's how this game works.
38:24
Yes, that is most certainly how this game works.
38:27
But now with where you are as a player of taking everything
38:32
you've learned or this new frame of mind that you probably
38:37
approach baseball with since you're also working on the
38:40
private side of things, how have you shifted as a competitor?
38:45
It's honestly been would be the best way to say this.
38:48
It's I've been playing a lot more free going in the last
38:50
year. So I guess quick back story with
38:52
High Point was with last year, they told me out of camp that I
38:55
was going to be the 5th starter day before the season.
38:58
They're like, hey, we need you to piggyback.
38:59
Big league guy comes in, whatever we need you to
39:01
piggyback. And if for two starts and if two
39:03
times through the rotation, we don't have that starting spot
39:05
for you, we'll let we'll release you and let you go find a spot
39:07
to play. But that was after I'd taken the
39:10
job with Octane. So I was like, OK, well, I'm
39:11
kind of stuck. So anyway, 2 times through the
39:13
guys they thought were going to get signed didn't.
39:15
So I was released. They called me back like 6 weeks
39:19
later and we're like, hey, like for 6 to 8 weeks later, whatever
39:21
it was like, hey, can you come? Can you come pitch like, we need
39:24
to start it for tomorrow? So I was like, yeah, I'll come
39:26
pitch for tomorrow. Yeah.
39:29
So literally went the next day, went six innings, had a good
39:31
game and kind of pitched you off for the rest of the year from
39:33
there. But it was just a lot more free,
39:35
especially at that point after getting bounced out once.
39:38
And I was like, man, like stuff is finally better.
39:40
So I was kind of dejected. And then when I got back, I was
39:43
like, man, we're just going to play.
39:44
So free. Like this is borrowed time, like
39:46
we probably shouldn't be here at this age being able to throw
39:49
have better stuff than you have at any point.
39:50
You're curious. Like, let's just make let's just
39:52
treat it as a game, Like have fun with it while there's still
39:55
the hyper competitive element within it.
39:57
It was in a different framework for me.
39:59
It was in the past, it was I want to kill this hitter.
40:02
And now it's like now it's like, oh, like I just want to beat you
40:06
with really good stuff and like have fun doing it.
40:08
I don't know if that makes sense at all, but I was kind of the
40:10
the big shift that I made. Did it almost feel like you were
40:13
then playing a video game in a sense later on as opposed to
40:18
early in your career? Every pitch probably felt like
40:21
life or death versus now it sounds like it turned into an
40:26
experiment in a sense or just like, Oh well, we'll see if this
40:30
works. Not.
40:31
Not that you didn't care anymore, it's just the way that
40:34
you approached it completely changed.
40:37
Yeah, that's actually probably a good way to say it because, and
40:41
and not because I don't care, but like the mindset is almost
40:43
when you're out there, it's like, who cares?
40:45
Like, you know, you make a bad pitch, he hits it like, ah,
40:47
that's sucked. You probably shouldn't have
40:49
thrown it there, you idiot. You know, we're in the we're in
40:51
the past. You just just piss and vinegar
40:54
and fire. There's still an element of that
40:57
there. But now it's understand like be
40:59
more cerebral about the game. And for me is what it feels like
41:03
paying more attention to what the swing looks like, what the
41:06
take looks like, just at a different level before, because
41:09
I would still do that when I was competing.
41:10
But then there's always that little bit of, especially when
41:13
you're young. It's like, oh, I'm going to blow
41:15
this heater by. It's like, well, 9394 is cool,
41:17
but it's not necessarily like premium deal.
41:20
We're going to just be able to blow doors all days.
41:23
Yeah, I guess just really transition more into it's a
41:25
video game. It does feel like a video game.
41:27
You're out there just having fun and trying to not be so results
41:32
driven and just trust the process of, of what you've built
41:35
and what you've created. Understand like what you're now
41:38
that I actually have an understanding of what my
41:39
profiles are, I can actually attack guys with that
41:43
information instead of before. It's like, oh, a little heater
41:45
at the knees. Like, well, actually if you can
41:47
ride the ball up to like 1820 on your good days, like maybe you
41:50
should have figured out a way to throw the ball at the chest more
41:52
often. I didn't even think of it until
41:55
you kind of brought in that cerebral approach to what you're
42:00
doing now. On my side, just a clue into
42:05
what goes through my head while I'm listening to these
42:07
responses. I started thinking of the
42:10
spectrum of performance and how for some people, the cerebral
42:16
approach can be freeing because you're finally noticing things
42:19
that you never noticed before. And then others will fall into
42:22
analysis by paralysis because they start taking in contacts
42:27
that never mattered previously. But for you, you found this kind
42:31
of new common ground with the game that you can actually let
42:36
it come to you. You can analyze, process, and
42:40
then perform with what you know. You have now another side of
42:45
this, which is where my mind was going is you've done this or
42:50
you've competed on the affiliated side as well as the
42:54
independent league side and internationally.
42:58
Offer some context as to how each of those arenas of baseball
43:04
are different, or maybe how they're similar.
43:07
Yeah, it's not like internationally, I'll start on
43:09
that. Like internationally, it really
43:10
felt like old school baseball in the sense that like, obviously
43:14
the velocity is always going to be sexy and cool.
43:16
But we had guys on our team in Mexico who were like 8486 and
43:19
we're just good pitchers. They stayed around for a long
43:21
time. They're still pitching down
43:22
there now and doing well. So it was, hey, you do the job
43:25
and you put up numbers like you're going to have a job.
43:28
Obviously the way a Philly ball is gone now, velocity is
43:32
premium, stuff is premium. So even if it got struggles for
43:35
a couple of years, but he's got premium stuff like he's probably
43:37
going to have a job for a while. And then I guess on the
43:39
independent side, you see a mix of everything, right?
43:41
You see big league guys trying to get back.
43:43
You see minor league guys. You guys got minor league time
43:46
like myself trying to get back. You've got the rookie straight
43:48
out of college trying to get back.
43:49
You've got the long term Indy ball grinder who's in his last
43:53
year and can go out and probably pitch with a lot of people in
43:55
the world, but from a stuff perspective might not be there.
43:59
I guess that's probably the just the, I guess the the reliance on
44:02
stuff or like the the desire for stuff is kind of what it what it
44:05
seems is the big difference between all the different
44:07
levels. Beautiful yeah, that that's kind
44:10
of what I expected, but I I don't think that gets talked
44:13
about enough. Just the need for stuff and
44:16
affiliated ball. But then you go to the indie
44:20
leagues in people will say like, oh, those guys aren't as good.
44:25
That's that's not true at all. You can see guys that are big
44:29
league caliber pitchers any given day in independent
44:33
leagues, they might not flash the same stuff.
44:36
They might not flash the 21 IBB heater or the 2600 spin raid on
44:43
a fastball, the 3200 RPM slider, whatever, because that's that's
44:49
the stuff that projects an affiliated ball like that.
44:52
That's the stuff, as you said, that keeps you around.
44:54
And then you go to indie ball and you're going to see a guy
44:57
that has quote UN quote average stuff, but would be Greg Maddox
45:02
equivalent for whatever league he's in.
45:05
Yeah, exactly. And that's I think it's so cool
45:08
about baseball is I guess cool but not cool now for the over
45:11
reliance on analytics and what not.
45:12
But like, there's so many guys out there that are really good
45:14
pitchers that might not ever get a shot because maybe they're not
45:18
able to flash a number, but they get a chance in Mexico or they
45:21
get a chance to go to Asia, They're probably going to pitch
45:23
pretty well. Maybe this is looking too far
45:26
ahead because you have this awesome job at Octane, you're
45:30
doing incredible things. Is there still a goal or dream
45:35
with a destination in the baseball world for you?
45:38
Or right now is it literally? Baseball is so much fun.
45:42
I'm just going to keep playing it while I have this incredible
45:45
opportunity where I'm able to work in baseball and play at the
45:49
same time. There's definitely a goal and
45:51
whether that's, you know, whether I'm able to get a chance
45:53
in Asia or get back to an affiliate for one last shot.
45:56
It's kind of kind of what I've always looked for for the last
45:58
couple of years, especially since I kind of revamped the
46:01
arsenal and everything just to prove that I've got still got
46:04
something left off of this game at a very high level and that I,
46:07
you know, I can compete with the best in the world.
46:09
That's kind of the Golem. So whether that's getting a
46:11
chance in Asia or getting back to an affiliate, which is
46:14
obviously pitching in the big leagues has been a dream of mine
46:16
since I was 3. So now that I feel like
46:19
physically and mentally I'm in the right place for that.
46:22
Just got to got to go pitch well and let the cards fall where
46:25
they may because you can't always dictate the opportunity
46:27
or the timing of things. But go out and control what I
46:30
can control as much as I can and have a lot of fun doing it.
46:33
Beautiful, I love it. And to round things out now just
46:37
share something that the world might not know about you,
46:41
something you like to do, something silly about you.
46:44
I'm going to steal one that you went viral previously on social
46:48
media for falling while throwing a bullpen.
46:51
That's an incredible video, by the way.
46:53
I think we we have it on our Instagram at Flex Pro grip.
46:56
I'm sure it's floating around some other places, but Matt
47:00
Salter falling while throwing a bullpen and then floating
47:04
through space is just an incredible video and I highly
47:08
suggest anybody go watch that. Something else maybe as goofy as
47:12
that I I'd love if you could share.
47:14
Yeah, I guess quick Side Story about that too.
47:16
That video is actually what got me signed by the Indians.
47:18
Excuse me. Yeah, they, they got posted and
47:22
the Indians reached out to my trainers at the time and one
47:25
thing led to another and that's how that happened and led to me
47:28
pitching in some big league spring training games.
47:29
And I'm doing some cool things there, but something silly about
47:33
myself or different. I play a lot of chess.
47:36
I'm a big chess nerd. I'm a big anime nerd.
47:38
My walk out song this year is actually from the new anime solo
47:41
Levelling, which for any of my anime people out there, you
47:44
know, is probably going to be one of the best animes of all
47:46
time with a pretty electric intro.
47:48
So I'm just kind of a nerd. Yeah, those are good ones.
47:51
I'll definitely accept that. Yeah, this is the underbelly of
47:55
the baseball world where we actually get to see some
47:58
personalities, I don't want to say rear their ugly heads, but
48:01
maybe show their true colors. And you, you understand that
48:04
everybody on the field is just a really big little kid at the end
48:07
of the day. That's why we keep doing this.
48:09
For the ones who refuse to grow up right.
48:12
Absolutely. Yeah.
48:14
Well, Matt, thanks so much for your time today.
48:16
It is weird to call you, Matt, but I guess in this formal
48:19
setting that's OK. But really, really appreciate
48:22
your time. This has been awesome to talk to
48:24
you in this more formal setting as opposed to just firing some
48:28
text off back and forth or the occasional phone call.
48:31
Is there a way that people can either get in touch with you to
48:35
continue the conversation or if they're interested in training
48:38
with Octane, Yeah. Biggest thing on social media,
48:41
Instagram is probably where I'm most active at.
48:44
Matt Solter. SOLTER, shoot me Adm on there.
48:47
We can always talk. I'm always happy to help.
48:49
Or give Octane a call. I don't have that number off
48:53
hand. Yeah, give us a call.
48:54
You know, we offer remote programming that's really
48:57
affordable. We were super passionate about
48:59
getting guys better. That's kind of, you know, we
49:02
brought in a lot of really good people who are really good at
49:04
their jobs and reach out, talk to us, see if we can help.
49:07
And maybe, maybe I'll help with some of the plug.
49:10
The Octane. What is it?
49:12
Octane Baseball but spelled with an 8 instead of an O on
49:15
Instagram. Yeah, 8C TANE baseball, and
49:19
that's just an ode to that. Be Young, Brandon Young, the
49:22
wizard that he is, he came up with the 8 cylinders of pitching
49:24
for his 3D report. So it's just a little ode to
49:27
that. Once again, thank you Solter.
49:30
This has been great. Into all the listeners out
49:32
there, thanks for laying back with us.