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Throw 102 and Need a Contract? @PitchingNinja Can Help You

Baseball agent Joshua Kusnick had a video of Taylor Grover throwing 100 miles per hour in Double A and wanted to maximize exposure for his client, who had reached 102 this past season in independent ball. Kusnick mentioned Grover to The Athletic’s star writer, Ken Rosenthal, who in turn directed the agent to the @PitchingNinja.

That is the Twitter handle of Rob Friedman, an executive with a suburban Atlanta software company who is also a self-taught pitching coach. His @PitchingNinja account has attracted more than 100,000 followers—including many big league pitchers—as a repository of pitching GIFs and videos.

Friedman shared the video of Grover, who had been pitching for a pair of independent league teams. It attracted more than 87,000 views. The Cincinnati Reds, who already had started to show interest, signed him almost immediately.

Grover’s story didn’t end there, however. The @PitchingNinja tweet created enough buzz that the Orioles selected Grover with the first overall pick in the Triple A Rule 5 draft earlier this month. Of the impact of social media, Grover said, “Honestly, probably almost 100 percent.”

Then, in reply to the original Grover video, a high school student in suburban Detroit named Matthew Cripsey, shared his own undiscovered gem. He wrote, “But what about this guy? Chris Dula, Utica Unicorns pitcher. Hit 102 multiple times last year.” Included was a 32-second video in which Dula threw eight pitches between 98 and 100 mph. Friedman retweeted that clip and a few others Cripsey had documented. 

Replying in the comments, Kusnick asked Cripsey, “Who is this dude??” The Cripseys had been Dula’s host family for the past two years of the United Shore Professional Baseball League, a four-team circuit that plays all of its games at Jimmy John’s Field in Utica, Mich. Cripsey is the league photographer and had shared some footage earlier in the season that didn’t gain traction. Of the tweets, Cripsey wrote in an email, “My hope was for someone to notice, but it didn’t really dawn on me that PitchingNinja would give it the exposure he did.”

In a case of baseball being the “smallest world ever,” as Kusnick said, Grover and Dula were opponents in college—Grover played at USC-Aiken and Dula at Catawba College—and the two had met a few times. Grover endorsed Dula to Kusnick, who contacted Dula and tried to find him a new job. The Milwaukee Brewers had scouted Dula before, but the social media buzz around the pitcher created a sense of urgency. The club then signed Dula, announcing the acquisition on Tuesday.

“It definitely helped,” Dula said of Cripsey reaching out to Friedman. “Without him doing that, my agent, Josh, probably would never have seen me or heard of me. There’s no telling what could have happened.”

As Friedman quipped on Twitter, the @PitchingNinja motto is simple: “You do the 102 mph, I’ll do the rest.”

“If these guys are not being seen and they really should be seen,” Friedman said in an interview, “then I think that’s part of my job in some weird way.”

What he means by “weird” is that this is not a job at all. Friedman has coached for years at all levels, from helping his son start out as a six-year-old to some individual work with college pitchers. (His son, Jack, will be a freshman pitcher for Georgia Tech this spring.) A lawyer by trade, Friedman applied those skills of scouring for information, asking good questions, and deducing answers to the pitching mechanics. At some point, he decided to share some of his accumulated knowledge to anyone interested online.

“The thing I was really focused on was trying to make sure people didn’t make the same mistakes I did and learned from the positive things I learned because I put in a lot of time, money, effort,” Friedman said. “And I didn’t feel it was fair for all that knowledge to kind of die with me when I stopped coaching.”

Friedman created a freely accessible Dropbox of GIFs, videos, and mental skills tips. But he doesn’t want to be too boring or repetitive, so he also compiles clips of great pitches. The GIFs of darting sinkers, explosive fastballs, and knee-buckling curveballs are why even current and former big leaguers like the Blue Jays’ Marcus Stroman, the Astros’ Lance McCullers Jr. and Collin McHugh, and retired pitchers like Billy Wagner and Brandon McCarthy follow and join discussions.

“The other thing I realized is, it’s important to make sure that players—young players, older players—have a way to share the excitement and coolness of the sport,” Friedman said.

Friedman had never helped broker a professional transaction before, although he has seen some amateurs improve their college recruiting through the account’s visibility. As the father of a baseball player, he’s seen the enormous cost of showcases and training and sees potential with his account to help subvert that expensive system.

Both Dula and Grover had followed @PitchingNinja for years, sometimes sharing tweets with friends. But the account primarily covers established stars.

“I followed him just because he posts some great videos of pitching stuff,” Dula said, “but I never thought about me actually having a video on there.”

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Dula was primarily a third baseman at Catawaba and only threw five innings in his college career. The Texas Rangers drafted him in the 25th round back in 2013 and converted him into a pitcher. Dula said he’d often throw 93 to 96 mph, but he was adjusting to full-time pitching and had a few injury problems. He had Tommy John surgery in college and a stress fracture in his elbow while a minor leaguer. He was released by the Rangers, leading to his signing with the USPBL prior to 2017.

As for his velocity gain to triple digits, Dula said, “I think the biggest thing was I got healthy and used to pitching.”

USPBL director of baseball operations Justin Orenduff, who was a Los Angeles Dodgers first-round pick in 2004, has implemented the Delivery Value System throwing program. The research-based scoring system—published in the Orthopedics medical journal last January—helps create more efficient deliveries with fewer injuries. The USPBL pitchers gained 1.7 mph on their average fastball velocity last year.

Orenduff said he and the coaches worked with Dula on understanding the cycle of energy transfer in the delivery and how components like this alignment and stride play a role. Dula credited DVS with helping him repeat his delivery and be efficient with his movement.

“He was very strong and could always throw the ball hard, but there wasn’t that much refinement in terms of the skillset of a pitcher,” said Orenduff, who hailed Dula as having “possibly the best arm we will ever see in the USPBL.”

The Boston Red Sox selected Grover in the 10th round of the 2013 draft, and he advanced to Double A where he pitched in 2016 and 2017 and first hit 100 mph. Years ago, he created his own workout program featuring weighted balls, a band routine, and Olympic lifts. After the Red Sox let him go, Grover signed with the Diamondbacks prior to spring training in 2018, but was then released before latching on with the independent league Chicago Dogs. That’s where Grover said he began hitting 100-plus more consistently.

“I truly had some of the best times, baseball-wise, that I’ve had in a while—playing, having fun, and finding myself mechanically,” Grover said.

The content on Friedman’s account has helped pro pitchers refine their mechanics. McHugh said he has tried to replicate another pitcher’s slider. McCullers connected with Stroman via PitchingNinja clips. San Diego Padres minor leaguer Nick Margevicius told milb.com that @PitchingNinja videos helped with his curveball. Indians pitchers Trevor Bauer and Mike Clevinger compete over who can be a featured on the account more often.

Kusnick negotiated the initial contract for Dula, but his vice president, Samantha Newman, now represents him. Twitter is not usually where he finds prospective clients to begin with. Without the @PitchingNinja, Kusnick said, “None of this happens.”

“He was breaking down the mechanics like a pitching coach,” Kusnick said of Friedman. “It was better than a lot of baseball conversations I’ve had.”

There’s one more heartwarming offshoot from this baseball sage. After Friedman’s joke about helping pitchers who throw 102 mph, restaurant owner Jordan Chabot noted that he was an overweight, past-his-prime, wiffle ball player who throws 50. He attached a slow-motion video of a pitch and asked for help with his contract—or at least a pizza.

After both @PitchingNinja and ESPN’s Buster Olney shared his request, a good Samaritan named Toby Leffel sent along some cash via Venmo.

“The Feel-Good Christmas Story of the Year,” Friedman wrote.

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