Driveline Baseball and the Texas Rangers

Kyle Boddy and Driveline Baseball have been linked with the Texas Rangers this past offseason -- Tim Lincecum, who was signed to a deal this offseason by the Rangers, worked with Driveline in attempting his comeback, and Brandon Mann, who made his major league debut with the Rangers earlier this season at the age of 34, was signed by the Rangers after work he did with Driveline.

Levi Weaver has been doing a series this week about Driveline, and in his final piece today, he talks to Boddy about Boddy’s work with various major league teams, including, most recently, the Rangers. Levi notes that Boddy was present in the Rangers’ draft room for this week’s MLB draft (he tweeted that he “liked Cole Winn” more than any other high school pitcher in this draft, incidentally), and is in discussions with the organization about a long-term agreement with the team to work with them on their pitching development.

(Boddy also has some interesting things to say about the Houston Astros, who he did some work with, and how their approach contrasts with other organizations that put more (or, perhaps, any) emphasis on character issues and players as individuals, rather than as simply chess pieces, which Ranger fans may find interesting.)

The Rangers, of course, have a lengthy history of struggling to develop their own pitching, and while the newly-contract-extended Jon Daniels has a strong track record at the helm of the Rangers, internal development of homegrown pitching, particularly starting pitching, has been an Achilles heel. It is noteworthy that the team is apparently looking outside and exploring working with one of the more radical organizations out there in regards to pitching development in an effort to improve in that regard.

Anyway, read the piece from Levi, as well as the earlier ones that he links. Its worth your time.