ROCHESTER — Mitch Brown is trying to improve baseball in the area, one player at a time.
Brown, a 2012 Century grad, is a former minor-league pitcher in the Cleveland organization. He was a second-round pick out of high school. Since his professional playing days ended in 2018, he has returned to Rochester and is working with athletes through
.
He trains players, especially pitchers, at
, which is owned by Jeff Milene. Brown continues to grow his product with more and more players reaching out to work with him.
“I’ve been blessed to have really good guys to work with and Jeff (Milene) has provided us a great spot,” Brown said. “It’s really nice that people are seeking us out to help them with their skill and their training needs.”
Brown’s work is highly analytical. He trains a number of area players, but is also currently working with about 15 players from the Twin Cities.
“They train with me individually and then I write them remote programs and they continue to train on their own up there,” Brown said. “A lot of those guys come down weekly from the metro area which is awesome. When I was growing up, I was doing the exact opposite.”
Four of the players that worked out with Brown in 2022 have committed to play Division I baseball in college, including Mayo senior Ian Regal, who will be attending Nebraska.
“One of the things that has somewhat set us apart in our training is we really track a lot of performance metrics,” Brown said. “Whether they’re strength metrics or velocity (throwing) metrics.”
Brown does a motion capture, where he takes a video of players throwing, and he breaks down their mechanics. He then designs a program that is intended to help them improve.
“It gives us some benchmark numbers to go off of and then we aim to improve those numbers,” Brown said.
Athletes are re-tested every four to six weeks with the goal of improving their metrics. Brown is also able to track each individual’s workout patterns and productivity. Remote athletes can also take video and send it to Brown, so he can break it down and tell them what areas to work on.
Brown’s training puts a lot of accountability on the athlete, but it also takes away a lot of guesswork on what they need to work on to improve.
“It’s really nice for me to feel like I’m producing a quality product for the athlete,” Brown said. “I can tell them if they’re getting better or getting worse and I quite literally designed the program for that athlete.”
Brown says a big positive for athletes is they are able to see their progress as time goes by.
The number of athletes that train with Brown dips in the fall and he is currently working with about 30.
He also currently has about 25 remote trainees. Those players come and get an assessment done at the Batting Cages, in which Brown gets their baseline metrics for performance. He then writes them a program to follow and they can train virtually.
During the summer, Brown had about 60 athletes training at the facility and 30 more remotely.
“Fall is kind of our slower time, but it gives you a chance to catch your breath, catch up on some stuff and do some more research and test your theories,” Brown said.
Guy N. Limbeck is a sports writer for the Post Bulletin. His Local Notebook appears each Tuesday. He can be reached at
.
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News Summary:
- Brown gets analytical in training Rochester area baseball players – Post Bulletin
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