Every so often, a journalist gets a premier opportunity for an article dropped in front of them. That happened this year, when MASH Campus opened its brand new facility in Savage, Minnesota - just a short drive away from me.
MASH's new campus, which greatly expands upon their previous location in nearby Eagan, establishes MASH as one of—if not the—premier player development facilities for baseball players in the upper Midwest. MASH trains hundreds of athletes—upwards of a thousand in the winter—for all ages and all skill levels. From kids not yet old enough for little league to current and prospective D1 athletes and beyond, MASH and their new warehouse are the top of the line when it comes to training the next generations of baseball talent.
Which is exactly what I wanted to explore. What does a training regiment for high school and collegiate talent look like? How does a modern training facility utilize analytics and modern technology? How do coaches and trainers balance maximizing performance and managing the health and condition of adolescents?
To answer these questions, I visited MASH, toured the facility, and sat down with MASH's Director of Baseball Steve Butler, and Director of Pitching Weston Germain to uncover what the future of player development holds.
Health
Let me put a pin in talking about MASH to talk about player health.
It is no secret that Major League Baseball is facing a crisis regarding player health. While pitchers are not throwing complete games off three days' rest anymore, the increased pressure on pitchers to maximize their stuff has led to a sharp increase in pitching injuries.
The most feared injury in pitching is the dreaded UCL tear. While not the most severe injury—innovations and optimizations have led to UCL surgery being far from career-ending—a torn UCL almost always requires a calendar year on the IL. For a minor leaguer, this is crucial development time they miss while rehabbing an injury. For a major leaguer, it not only hurts the team but poses a threat to that player's future. If they are in arbitration years or looking to secure their first free agent contract, a UCL injury is devastating to their outlook.
And yet, as players aim to maximize their velocity, it directly risks their arm health. Fastball velocity has dramatically risen since the mid-2000s, and with each tick of velocity added, the risk of Tommy John rises.
[caption id="attachment_162682" align="aligncenter" width="600"]
Source: FanGraphs[/caption]
A harder-thrown fastball is almost universally more effective, and thus players will go to lengths to increase their velocity. However, as we have seen this season, this velocity comes with a severe injury risk. Just weeks ago Kyle Bradish went under the knife, and earlier this season both Shane Bieber and Spencer Strider got the dreaded TJ. Take one look at the pitchers who've suffered elbow injuries, and it's apparent that today's brightest stars burn the fastest:
| Player | 2023 velo |
|---|---|
| Félix Bautista | 99.5 |
| Jacob deGrom | 98.7 |
| Matt Brash | 98.1 |
| Sandy Alcantara | 98 |
| Liam Hendriks | 97.6 (using 2022 numbers) |
| Eury Perez | 97.5 |
| Dustin May | 97.3 |
| Spencer Strider | 97.2 |
| Shane McClanahan | 96.8 |
| Shohei Ohtani | 96.8 |
| Drew Rasmussen | 95.7 |
| Andrew Painter | 95+ (according to scouting reports) |
| Kyle Bradish | 94.5 (added a tick in 2024) |
| Robbie Ray | 93 |
| Alek Manoah | 92.8 (added a tick in 2024) |
| Cristian Javier | 92.7 |
| Tyler Mahle | 92.6 |
| Jeffrey Springs | 91.7 |
| Shane Bieber | 91.3 (added a tick in 2024) |
I could put their numbers up here, but I don't have to tell you that these are some of the most exciting and dominant pitchers in the game. It's no secret that velocity works, but at what cost?
Player development requires balancing maximizing production with minimizing injury risk. Putting too much stress on the player will break them, but not pushing a player results in them not reaching their potential. It is a delicate balance, and one made more difficult by dealing with players in grade school, whose bodies are still growing.
Which brings me back to MASH. I wanted to know how the premier baseball training facility in the Upper Midwest was developing the next generation of baseball players. So I went and asked them.
The Building
MASH Campus is located in Savage, Minnesota—in a newly constructed facility that just opened this year. The building itself is impressive, and nobody knows that more than Butler and Germain, who explained to me that their previous location's entire operation was conducted out of a facility the size of just the performance center in the Savage location. MASH's new facility is a state-of-the-art 68,000-square-foot warehouse complete with over a dozen batting cages (that can each be converted for pitching purposes), a full-size infield, and a performance center for athletes to weight train. Also on site are several meeting rooms and a Twin Cities Orthopedics physical therapy center.
The batting cages are almost all full-size, with a couple that can be converted to half-cages. Each is fitted with Trackman monitors, which effectively measure everything necessary for performance optimization, from exit velo and launch angle for batters to velocity and spin rate, axis, and efficiency for pitchers. More on utilizing this technology later, but each cage is well-equipped in order to ensure each athlete has plenty of data available.
[caption id="attachment_165348" align="aligncenter" width="550"]
Image taken from MASH's website mnmash.com[/caption]
The indoor baseball ground holds a full-size infield with artificial turf, and while the end lines only go out to 170 ft, it stretches out to 240 ft to dead center, and the tall ceiling enables players to track the ball flight off the bat. When walking around the facility with Butler and Germain, they talked about Michael Busch—current Chicago Cub and Minnesota native—training and taking swings on the field and using it to get a good feel for how the ball is flying. In the cold Minnesota winters when playing ball outside is rendered impossible, having this kind of facility for practicing keeps athletes fresh during the otherwise mundane offseason.
Lastly, the performance center is a well-equipped gym featuring all kinds of equipment. It is effectively just a gym, but for a young athlete having access to this kind of equipment is a rarity. MASH deals with athletes of all ages, and that includes athletes who don't have access to large facilities outside of a school weight room. It also gives MASH the ability to assign more specified and supervised workouts in order to build strength in young athletes. Anecdotally, my first experience with any sort of weight training facility was playing ice hockey in middle school (I mentioned I'm from Minnesota, right?). Many kids don't have the opportunity to workout elsewhere besides their schools, so MASH's gym provides a much-needed facility for young athletes.
MASH also has plans to expand. Plans are well underway for an additional two full-size baseball fields to be constructed outside on the premises, not only allowing for practice and play when there isn't snow on the ground—but also allowing for MASH to host tournaments and events.
Now, this is all very impressive. MASH's campus features top-of-the-line technology and resources to ensure the most effective tools to develop their athletes, but it's one thing to simply have top-notch equipment, it is another to utilize it effectively. Thus, in order to learn more about what modern player development entails, I went to the folks in charge and asked them.
Developing The Athlete
At MASH, development programs are available for ages 5+. Now, the five-year-olds aren't throwing bullpen sessions—they're mainly just there to have fun—but starting around age 9-11 the gears start turning. MASH's coaches are primarily concerned with ensuring that the foundations are laid for proper mechanics, not chasing velocity or anything.
Workload management was, thankfully, something that came up frequently throughout my half-hour talking with MASH's coaches. MASH's teams strictly run on MLB's Pitch Smart guidelines for youth pitchers, which run as follows:
[caption id="attachment_165565" align="aligncenter" width="900"]
Source: MLB.com[/caption]
The aim here is to ensure that each young athlete gets the time they need to recover from an outing. There are no iron man heroics here, rosters are designed to allow for adequate rest and sustainable pitch counts.
Another point I wanted to address was pitch arsenals. Certain pitches have been labeled in the past as "dangerous" for a pitcher's health. For instance, a splitter has been thought of as hazardous to a pitcher (in the case of the splitter, not accurate, however). When asked when a pitcher might add a curveball into the mix, Weston said that it was effectively a matter of when they can, instead of if they are old enough. Regarding if certain pitches are damaging to arm health, he cited studies that showed the pitch with the most stress on the pitcher is their fastball, and thus if a young pitcher is interested in a slider or curveball, they will be eager to teach it—provided they're ready.
Mechanics, mechanics, mechanics. This is effectively the name of the game in making sure that the next generation can succeed at higher levels. Especially when developing future pitchers, MASH aims to ensure that throughout every stage of development—from little league to college ball—the mechanics are refined enough to ensure that each pitch is executed properly.
I asked about how they build velocity in their athletes, and when they encourage developing velocity. They responded by making two key points: First, any pitcher that is able to get outs and pitch effectively for their level, is a developmental success. They were adamant about how while flashy velocity numbers are intriguing, if you aren't able to locate effectively there is little to no point—"it's not their true peak velo" Weston said. MASH's primary goal is to refine and develop the athlete depending on their individual goals and utilize technology, analytical analysis, and strength training to maximize what a pitcher can do with their arsenal and their developing frame.
The second point was that, basically, velo matters. While MASH wants to ensure each of their pitchers learn the "Art of Pitching", they were the first to acknowledge that at higher levels, there are certain velo thresholds a prospect must meet in order to get any D1 or certainly professional attention. For those whose aspirations are to play at the very top levels, Butler proclaimed that "we have the tools, resources, coaches and programming to take the top level talent in the Upper Midwest and be able to develop them beyond their wildest imagination."
Training The Next Generation
MASH deals with athletes of all age groups and all athletics aspirations (that's a lot of A's). However, what I really wanted to know was what the workload looks like for the top athletes—the ones who have realistic D1 or professional ambitions.
Turns out, a lot. For starters, athletes of that caliber are lifting year round, with designated training programs depending on the time of year, phase of the game, and—of course—what that athlete needs the most focus on. During throwing sessions in the offseason, they wear a pulse sensor to monitor workload management, all while integrating times to deload and build up workload depending on the time of year. Depending on the needs of the pitcher, this time can be allocated towards building velocity, adding new pitches, or throwing live at-bats. For this caliber of older, high-potential pitchers, they are throwing at high-intensity ten months of the year.
And, as mentioned earlier, these sessions are constantly monitored and analyzed. Pulse sensors, FlexPro Grip, ArmCare, Trackman, and biomechanics reports all are utilized and tracked, giving both MASH coaches real-time data to evaluate a throwing session as well as ensuring the athlete has the best tools available. None of this is brand new—Trackman can be found at just about any golf simulator in the country—but the utilization and implementation of each new piece of technology is meant to maximize throwing sessions.
Let's make something clear, however—this isn't just analytics and mechanics. Germain pointed out that there is also some degree of subjectivity and non-scientific factors that go into training sessions. If a player says they're tired—they are tired, no need to try to push them any further. The numbers may tell one story, but a player may tell another. Both Germain and Butler want the athletes to be open and honest about their physical capabilities and not push themselves past the breaking point. Despite what John Smoltz might say, there is still plenty of artistry in baseball, and that is apparent when talking about how MASH develops its players.
Putting The Athlete First
The header title here is really the mantra of MASH. It's what is most core to their beliefs, and that was expressed at length when sitting down with Butler and Germain. There are no one-size-fits-all training regiments here, everything is designed around the individual athlete and their goals.
MASH, as well as places like Driveline, exemplify trends regarding player development: Tremendous care and passion, with prolific usage of analytics and modern technology. Developing young, growing athletes is an extremely challenging endeavor, but modern player development facilities aim to both maximize potential and minimize injuries. MASH's facilities and coaches showcase this, and sitting down with Butler and Germain gave me tremendous insight into how the next generations of athletes are being trained. The next generation of athletes are in good hands.
Tremendous thanks to MASH as well as to both Director of Baseball Steve Butler and Director of Pitching Weston Germain. You can learn more about MASH baseball here.
