So, if anyone is familiar with Driveline, which has quickly become infamous for training pitchers, the owner/president of Driveline apparently turned down the Chicago Cubs for a job with the Cincinnati Reds.
During Theo Epstein’s 1:21 minute eulogy on the 2019 Chicago Cubs season, he mentioned that they would be creating two new positions within the organization. A Director of Hitting, and a Director of Pitching. This was an effort to “modernize” the organization’s player development programs.
Back in mid-September, Sahadev Sharma of The Athletic mentioned that the Cubs were interviewing Boddy for an opening within the organization.
The organization’s player development staff will undergo more changes soon as the Cubs continue to modernize their front office, with sources indicating that Driveline founder and owner Kyle Boddy recently interviewed for an unspecified player development role with the organization.
They were already in the midst of embracing the type of technological advances that Boddy help popularize. While the Cubs have had the new-age technology as long as other organizations, it’s the staff they’ve begun to put together that’s helped them turn the corner.The Athletic (Paid)
Boddy is of course pretty well known in the baseball training world. It seems that any pitcher that wants to continue his career beyond high school is trying to consult Driveline and Boddy. Driveline, and of course Boddy, are heavily highlighted in the phenomenal book, “The MVP Machine” (I heavily recommend this book to ANY baseball fan, not only is it a great piece to help understand new training methods, but it can help you in your professional life as well). He is basically known for turning average men into superstar ballplayers.
Boddy is potentially responsible for the biggest advancement in training today. He was one of the first to put technology and science together, and use the two to help pitchers become the absolute best that they can be.
His methods have created more 95 MPH+ arms recently than any other training program. He is also a rather interesting Twitter follow. This tech has also been used in hitting, teaching hitting mechanics, and other areas of advanced hitting techniques. The Cubs signed Luke Haggerty during a workout day hosted at Driveline.
He was hired by the Cincinnati Reds as their Director of Pitching Initiatives. He had rather recently applauded programs that the Reds use, and teach, and they have several pitchers within the organization that will continue to grow under the tutelage of Boddy.
