Rob Friedman, the software executive who moonlights on Twitter as @PitchingNinja, announced plans on Wednesday to start a new account, website, and app to feature and educate younger pitchers.
The new brand, FlatGround, will both curate clips of under-the-radar pitchers and serve as a forum for feedback. PitchingNinja has gained great traction with elite pitching—more than 100,000 followers on Twitter, including numerous big leaguers—and recently helped showcase independent ball hurlers Chris Dula and Taylor Grover who signed minor league contracts soon after their skills were shared on social media.
In an email, Friedman described FlatGround as being motivated by a “combo pitching development and exposure concept.” His introductory letter announcing the mission of FlatGround invoked the pronoun “we” which, he later explained, refers to “the social media pitching community.” While there are a few friends and engineers helping with the app and website, the platform is really to connect pitchers, coaches, parents, scouts, and agents in a productive manner. (Flatground is a common baseball shorthand for pitchers’ throwing work that’s not done off a mound.)
Today I'm announcing FlatGround, designed to help as many Pitchers as we possibly can to be seen/developed thru Social Media.
If you’re a Pitcher, Parent, Coach, Team, Scout, Writer or Agent…or just like watching or helping pitchers of all levels…please follow@FlatGroundApp pic.twitter.com/HEGjywTcXQ
— Rob Friedman (@PitchingNinja) January 2, 2019
The idea of showcasing talent using a free platform is born from the reality that baseball recruiting and scouting in the U.S. can often be an expensive endeavor. Friedman’s own son, Jack, is a scholarship baseball recruit at powerhouse Georgia Tech, and the experience of being a baseball father has informed Friedman’s thinking. He currently has no plans to monetize the site “because my first focus is providing a platform for pitchers.”
“I really did this because I felt folks were falling through the cracks,” Friedman wrote in an email. “There shouldn’t be a need to spend tons of $ for showcases, etc.”
There is an emphasis on documented achievements, with preference shown for pitchers whose velocity and movement can be verified in some way via radar guns, Rapsodo monitors, or TrackMan systems. Friedman also noted a plan to compile as much data as possible relating to pitchers’ weight room progress, bullpen logs, 60-yard times, verticals, height, weight, Rapsodo and Motus sleeve numbers. The hope is that data-driven patterns will emerge about what types of lifts correlate best with velocity, what readings predict injuries, and so on.
Within hours of the first tweet, Motus had already pledged to give away a free Motus sleeve to one random FlatGround follower. Friedman said a Jaeger band developed by pitching guru Alan Jaeger would be one of the other products given away soon.
“So part of this is also about the power of the pitching community coming together for discounts and stuff,” Friedman wrote, “as well as educating pitchers about new technologies to improve their games.”