The MVP Machine: How Baseball's New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players

by Ben Lindbergh

Unlike Trevor Bauer and Kyle Boddy, Bannister isn’t brash; he doesn’t take Twitter potshots or call out coaches who don’t see things the same way. “My goal was always to be the most coachable guy on the team,” he says. Yet his studies drew him to the same conclusion: baseball was beset by beliefs that didn’t stand up to scrutiny in the more illuminating light of the post-PITCHf/x era. Right-handers have to throw from the third-base side of the rubber to maximize deception; pitchers should come to a balance point during their deliveries; changeups must be at least 10 mph slower than fastballs; pitchers need to pitch on downhill planes. “I’ve pretty much debunked all of those pitching concepts that are just rehashed over and over again to every pitching prospect that comes along,” Bannister says. “And I disagree with almost all of them completely.… I think those things, as innocent as they seem, have destroyed more pitchers’ careers over the years than anything else.”