A2B Baseball Development

09/04/2026

The real cost of "showcase" travel baseball is surprising and alarming.

The average team fee for the fall season is somewhere around $1000 or more.

Then you have 6 tournaments with $30 each in parking passes or admission.

($1180)

Then you have gas for 120 mile trips... (roughly $200 over the course of the season)

($1380)

Then you have food, dining, etc each tournament- minimum $100 a weekend)

($1480)

Now you have hotels (6 nights minimum at $120 nightly= $720)

($2200).

If you are older, you likely get suckered into a meaningless $300 event you have no business attending.

$2500.... for what return?

Travel baseball is NOT the enemy. There is absolutely something to be said for in-game action and the ability to perform against higher level of competition.

However, if you are under the age of 16- you are wasting time and money if you are playing a heavy travel schedule with large costs. College coaches do not care about freshmen unless you are a prodigy.

If they say that they do- they likely just want another $200 for attending their "rising upcoming super talented money grab" camp.

If you are throwing under 80MPH, you are wasting your time unless your goal is a high academic D3.

If you are unable to hit a ball 90MPH, you are wasting your time.

This isn't because you are not destined to play or not somehow chosen by God... it is because your tools will not get you college interest or offers.... therefore you are playing without any return AKA just for fun.

If you took that $2500 into a quality gym membership, dedicated time to add mass, improved skill, and technique... you would greatly increase your chances of actually making it.

This does not mean you should not play at all, but staying local and affordable has more to offer than parents realize.

The biggest issue is that people treat kids like private equity and youth sports continues to grow out of control. They want to get you younger and younger. Commit to longer and longer. And then go to more and more events.

But hey- everyone can remember which draft pick was ranked when he was 11 right?

08/27/2026

Weighted balls: Let’s have the discussion.

Weighted balls are a tool. There is a time and a place for them.

Weighted balls are great because they bring an increased level of proprioception. (the ability to feel what your body is doing in space.

This makes them an excellent learning tool in certain situations. They are great for learning how to feel and execute movement changes… IF your body is ready to handle them.

On the flip side, biomechanical research consistently shows that weighted ball training comes with increased joint stress and elevated injury risk:

Elbow Stress: Research by Fleisig et al. (2017) and Reinold et al. (2018) demonstrated that flat-ground throws and overload drills significantly alter joint kinetics and increase elbow torque compared to standard mound throwing.

Elevated Injury Rates: A landmark 6-week prospective study by Reinold et al. (2018) in Sports Health showed that while a weighted ball program produced a 3.3% average velocity gain, it came with a 24% injury rate (primarily UCL strain and micro-fractures) compared to 0% in the control group.

This is particularly true of athletes who are not skeletally mature. AKA the YOUTH. The increased stress and forced layback put extreme strain on open growth plates, leading directly to Little League Shoulder and medial epicondyle stress injuries.

Weighted balls have been proven to increase velocity… up to a point. But research shows those gains are often misattributed. Reinold’s team found velocity gains weren't from building shoulder strength, but from gaining passive shoulder external rotation (layback)—placing more stress on joint structures.

Furthermore, systematic reviews (such as Caldwell et al.) show that in more mature cohorts, high-intent weighted ball programs often show little to no statistically significant velocity edge over well-designed, regulation-ball protocols.

Weighted balls can be an advantageous tool if you are later in your career and looking for every edge to keep playing (like an athlete in their 3rd or 4th year of college baseball). They can also serve as a solid, low-intent warm-up and constraint tool when your skeleton is fully developed. But high-intent velocity programs always carry inherent risk.

The verdict: If you find yourself watching a 6-to-12-year-old being told to throw weighted baseballs, especially at a high effort: RUN. Do not trust that instructor, and do NOT be afraid to protect your kid.

---

References

Caldwell, J. M., et al. (2019). Effect of weighted baseball training programs on pitch velocity and injury rates: A systematic review. International Journal of Sports Physical Therapy.

Fleisig, G. S., et al. (2017). Biomechanical analysis of weighted-ball exercises in baseball pitchers. Sports Biomechanics, 16(4), 1–13.

Okoroha, K. R., et al. (2018). Biomechanical evaluation of weighted ball throwing programs in high school and youth pitchers. Orthopaedic Journal of Sports Medicine.

Reinold, M. M., et al. (2018). Effect of a 6-week weighted baseball throwing program on pitch velocity, pitching arm biomechanics, passive range of motion, and injury rates. Sports Health, 10(4), 327–333.

Send a message to learn more

08/25/2026

After seeing some of our athletes be thrown 80-100+ pitches, I wanted to put together some research so the average parent can be informed.

The research on arm health is crystal clear. Protecting an arm isn't about guessing; it's about paying attention to the numbers and listening to the athlete.

If your coach doesn’t have the mental capacity and maturity to limit your pitch count- please find a new team. The numbers do not lie.

1. The 80-Pitch Line
“Pitchers who averaged more than 80 pitches per game were 4 times more likely to suffer an injury requiring surgery."

— Olsen et al., American Journal of Sports Medicine

Crossing 80 pitches in an outing dramatically raises structural risk for adolescent athletes. Counting total throws—including pre-game warm-ups and bullpen reps—and keeping game load under 80 isn't being overly cautious; it's baseline protection for growing joints.

2. Pitching While Tired
“Pitching regularly while feeling fatigued carried a 36-fold increased risk of serious overuse injury."
— Lyman et al. / ASMI Youth Baseball Studies

Mechanics break down when fatigue sets in. When the body gets tired, the kinetic chain stops delivering power from the legs and trunk, forcing the shoulder and elbow to absorb raw, unassisted torque. If a pitcher says their arm feels heavy or tired, pulling them immediately matters far more than arbitrary pitch count thresholds.

3. Pitcher-Catcher
“A pitcher should not also be a catcher for his team. The pitcher-catcher combination results in high throwing volumes and significantly elevated risk of shoulder and elbow overuse injury."
— American Sports Medicine Institute (ASMI)

Catching on off-days isn't "resting." A catcher handles the ball 60–100 times a game, throwing out of squat positions without the kinetic momentum of a mound delivery. Doubling up on these positions deprives the arm of mandatory tissue recovery windows and keeps the elbow under constant microtrauma. If an athlete pitches, they shouldn't catch that day or the next.

4. Year-Round Throwing
"Pitching competitively for more than 8 months per year increased the risk of serious injury by 5 times."
— Olsen et al., American Journal of Sports Medicine

Dynamic stabilizers and rotator cuff muscles need an off-season to repair and strengthen. Taking a minimum of 3 to 4 continuous months completely off from competitive pitching every single year is non-negotiable for long-term health and athletic development.

08/17/2026

Parents and athletes often want to know the difference between Division 1 athletes and youth athletes.

Let’s begin with the obvious:

Physicality.

With some rare exceptions, D1 athletes tend to pass for low level body builders when they walk into a room. You can’t substitute time on task when it comes to building strength.

Communication.

The athletes from higher level programs are polished. They rarely use profanity in a professional setting. They understand anyone could be listening and are careful with their words. They communicate clearly and they want to know the why behind every choice in the training.

Now the less obvious:

Attention to detail.

They treat every drill, every lift, and every single movement of the day with a focus that it could be the reason they throw harder that week. They understand that there is a clock behind their career and it will take them down to the last second if they aren’t good enough to earn more time.

Warm-Up

Youth athletes start throwing or rush through a basic warm-up. If their time slot starts at 2, they are ready at 2:02.

Higher level athletes show up 15-30 minutes early and still do not touch a baseball until 30-45 minutes later. They make sure they attack tissue quality through foam rolling and lacrosse ball. They do corrective exercises to improve poor movements. They break a sweat before they touch a ball.

You can argue that some of this is by necessity and some of this is due to the experience and knowledge they have.

But one thing I can promise you is that the tools it takes to play at that level is only half the battle. The other half is being a 5 star person.

08/06/2026

27.2 innings.
67 strikeouts (81% of outs via K).
10-1 K to BB ratio.
Sub 1 ERA.

0 college offers.

How is that possible?

I was 12.

0 scouts are at 12-14u games. Stop benching kids for the entire tournament. Stop pigeon-holing them to one position. Stop throwing a clipboard because your son missed a ground ball. Make baseball fun again.

07/30/2026

Every year there will be tons of “can’t miss” events with PBR, Perfect Game, and others. You absolutely can miss them. They just published due to dropouts, they have openings at the state games… if it truly was an exclusive invite list- wouldn’t they already have those spots filled?

They don’t care about your kid. They care about the check.

No different than a majority of travel organizations. If you’re paying thousands in team dues, congrats you’re on the fundraising team.

You’re investing money to fund another family’s summer season.

By all means, if you’re good enough to add value to a collegiate team- you should be investing time and $ to attend the right tournaments and events.

But for a majority of people…

Invest in your training and development. The average D1 player is approaching 200 pounds and most HS kids are scared to lift the day before a game because “I don’t want to be sore”.

I truly don’t care if people train with me or not. Just don’t sell me on showcasing a 74mph fastball when you’re going into your junior year.

07/26/2026

These numbers reflect more than time spent in a lesson.

They reflect having a clear plan, understanding why each drill matters, and learning how to execute that plan independently.

Our job is not to make athletes dependent on one hour of coaching each week. It is to identify what they need, build the right program, and teach them how to carry it out correctly on their own.

The numbers speak for themselves and these athletes deserve the credit for applying that work consistently.

School is almost here. Do not wait until winter to start fixing problems that could be addressed now.

The sooner the plan is built, the sooner development begins.

07/23/2026

Jacob W. (2028) came to us this winter with every physical tool you could ask for.

At 6’6”, with long levers and impressive twitch for his size, the upside was obvious. There was just one problem: nobody had effectively taught him how to organize and move his body.

His initial evaluation showed:
72 MPH
A weak lead-leg block
Limited rotation
A pushy, linear arm action

You’ll notice on the right that he has ditched a traditional leg lift. His ability to get his arm on time was greatly affected by that leg lift and it caused his head to yank off target more often than we would like. His ability to hinge and rotate improved from a Luke Weaver-esque slide step.

Long levers can create a greater velocity ceiling and sometimes allow an athlete to produce results despite inefficient movement. But they also magnify mistakes.

In other words: longer athletes may have more margin for error when creating velocity, but less margin for error when organizing their movement.

Over the last five months, Jacob has become significantly more rotational, improved his lead-leg block, and learned to maintain tension more effectively throughout his delivery.

The result: an 8 MPH increase in five months.

We have also refined his curveball and recently added a nasty splitter. He is throwing more strikes, moving with greater intent, and becoming a force to be reckoned with.

The sessions helped, but progress like this does not happen in one hour per week. Jacob has brought a willingness to learn and the discipline to apply the work on his own.

He is also a perfect example of why every athlete must be treated as an individual.

Because of his frame, Jacob has less natural awareness of where his arm is in space and benefits heavily from video feedback. His strength work must also account for his proportions. Asking a 6’6” athlete to move a barbell exactly like someone who is 5’5” would be ineffective and potentially irresponsible.

Different bodies require different solutions.

Jacob still has considerable room to develop, and we have every reason to believe he can eventually become a 90+ MPH arm.

06/27/2026

Had an awesome time with Riverheads Diamond Club Babe Ruth and all of these young guns who came out to our clinic this morning!

If you’re ever interested in bringing more specialized training to your team or league- send us a message to discuss details! (And as you can see- we travel)

All clinics come with:

Specialized instruction

Customized drills

Advanced video breakdowns for all attendees

Education of arm care, pitch counts, and injury prevention

06/25/2026

Jacob V has made one of the largest velocity jumps in A2B history.

The biggest reason?

Consistency.

We have seen Jacob almost every possible week, and that repeated exposure has allowed us to monitor, adjust, and keep progressing without losing sight of his workload.

Some velocity growth is expected between ages 12–14 as the body matures. Jacob did more than grow with the projection — he beat it.

Early on, his arm action featured an extreme push pattern that created excessive glide at the gleno-humeral joint and increased the stress placed on his arm.

Before chasing velocity or adding pitches, we had to build a healthier pattern and strengthen the muscles responsible for stabilizing and decelerating the arm.

Balancing his workload, educating his family, and keeping everyone moving in the same direction allowed the progress to continue safely.