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The following is a post in a series on the Wake Forest Bridge Seminar, which was put on by Wake Forest Dec 1-3, 2023.
While nothing matches being there, I wanted to share what I learned for those who missed it.
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When Dan Hennigan works with hitters, he follows a three step process: 1) analyze 2) strategize 3) develop.
For any hitter that comes through the doors of his academy, Brain and Barrel, the first step is learning what they are good and bad at. He then works with his athletes to strategize and execute a plan for improvement.
While this is likely a process many development coaches use, what is useful is removing and repackaging step 1.
And that is exactly what Dan Hennigan did when he expanded his personal business from:
Founder and Hitting Coach at Brain and Barrel, and
Hitting Analyst for the Minnesota Twins, to
Pro Pitching Strategist
So how did Dan expand his business? In his own words, he realized he “was able to take these analyses and develop a strategy that allows someone who couldn't hit something, and teach them how to hit it. But if you don't actually teach them how to hit it, all you do is identify the fact that they can't hit something, now you have the pitching side of it.”
In other words, if you want to learn more about your opponent…go to the person who trains them.
Reverse Engineering
Before diving into the how, Hennigan shows the results from his first direct consulting work with a pitcher.
Hennigan takes a different approach than most coaches and doesn’t focus on player development- he’s a “hitting guy” after all and admits he wouldn’t know where to start.
Rather, his focus was on scouting the batters the pitcher would face. He would dive into each hitter’s natural path, and look for pitches in the pitcher’s arsenal that would avoid it.
Dumbing it down: Dan changes the conversation from “how best to get outs” to “how best to get this specific person out”.
Some Examples
Throughout the talk, I loved Dan’s approach of diving into tangible examples, as it really helps show why pitching, or at least pitching strategy, should be a bit reactionary.
Posture
The below clip is one of the simpler examples Dan gave, but makes a lot of intuitive sense. By taking into accounts a batter’s posture, and prioritizing pitches that make the opponent change their bat path, the pitcher will gain an advantage.
The hitter’s momentum will decrease alongside their alignment, and they will likely see more contact errors as they work to change their plane.
Balance
Dan also dives into hitter balance. To put it in layman terms (which I can do as a layman myself), Dan is analyzing the ability for a hitter to course correct there body as they learn more about the pitch. Watch Dan explain how Michael Brantley is someone who does this well.
Dan gets prescriptive here, saying he’d advise pitchers facing hitters who don’t have the balance Brantley does to layer in more off-speed work.
And for those facing hitters with grant balance? That doesn’t make them unbeatable. It just means we have to keep digging to find our edge.
Final Thoughts
I am sure this talk is riddled with baseball specific takeaways that pitching coaches and player development experts in the audience noticed, but went over my head.
But I’ll remember this talk for two business lessons:
The startup takeaway: I love Hennigan’s entrepreneurial mindset. He is uniquely qualified to dive into a hitter’s strengths and weaknesses…so he found more ways to use that skillset and add value.
The management takeaway: Good ideas come from everywhere. So, if you’re looking to improve the performance of your pitching staff? It may be time to call your hitting analyst.