I first met Brandyn during my freshman year at Ashland University. I was a freshman and Brandyn had just transferred in from Marshall University. Like a lot of freshmen, I had the slightest understanding of college baseball, what to expect, how it worked, or what it took to perform at an elite level. On the other hand, Brandyn was transferring in after having weekend starts under his belt against some of the best players in baseball. Over the course of the year, I had the chance to observe and learn from him both in practice and games. Our relationship continued to evolve as he and a handful of other teammates began to work with me during practice and pre-games as I struggled as a freshman. The relationship felt one-sided as Brandyn offered a ton of insight and all I could offer at the were a few good laughs.
In the Spring of 2016, Brandyn went on to earn All-American Honors and a selection in the 17th round of the 2016 draft to the Detroit Tigers. Throughout his first three years of pro ball, Brandyn maintained a sub 4 ERA while averaging 11 K/9. However, during is 2019 campaign his numbers began to drop. His ERA ballooned to 7.39 and his K/9 dropped to a 9. That summer, Brandyn was later released by the Detroit Tigers stalling his MLB aspirations. Shortly after his release, Brandyn was quickly signed by the Evansville Otters where he went on to finish the season as a starter posting a 1.42 ERA and a 12 K/9.
Enter Connected Performance.
Now at age 25 and still on an Indy ball roster, Brandyn knew he had to switch things up. He was one of the most old-school guys I’ve ever come across. At the time, he lifted heavy (to the point where he bent one of the bars squatting), maxed it out on long toss every day, and wanted no part in any “unorthodox” training methods. As we kept in contact and occasionally met up for dinner in Florida, I finally brought up the idea of Brandyn training with us. To my surprise, he was receptive to the idea. We immediately got to work understanding how he moved, his pitch profile, and his medical/training history.
Our initial assessment showed that Brandyn had one of the best fastballs in all of baseball with 20+ inches of VB in the mid 90’s. He was brutally strong in the gym throwing up over 600lbs on his back squat. He had a few minor flags during his scap assessment but nothing else glaring. Mechanically Brandyn moved relatively well but had a few minor issues with his arm action that could result in a big gain.
Since Brandyn didn’t have much time as a free agent and needed to be tryout ready at any moment, we put together an accelerated plan to get him connected and his tissue prepped. We blended his constraint training and connection phase from 4 months to two weeks adding in football throws to clean up his arm action while using it as a recovery tool. Since Brandyn never used plyos before we gradually introduced the overload plyos in his drill work (we saw no benefit in the underload as he was already in the mid 90s). After about a month of training, we were able to get Brandyn ready for his bullpens. A few weeks later Brandyn was signed by the Arizona Diamondbacks due to his stellar campaign in the Frontier League.
By the end of the winter, we had Brandyn ready for a fresh start. His pitch profile, velocity, and movement had all improved. After 3 weeks of a successful spring training COVID hit and everything was put on hold. Instead of hanging out and waiting for something to happen, Brandyn immediately took action. Our goal was to train and continue to build velocity until a decision about the season was made. The vast majority of athletes would have been devasted by losing a year of pro ball, especially after just signing with a new team. However, Brandyn took it in stride and continued to be process-oriented. We continued to push the threshold and ramp his volume up with deloads every 3 weeks allowing the body and the arm to rest. In his final pen indoors before heading to spring training Brandyn sat 94-96 with a devasting splitter and slider. I was excited to see what his new arsenal and mindset would bring.
After dominating spring training games Brandyn was sent to AA where he posted a .88 WHIP, 12 K/9 ratio, and a 3.94 ERA out of the bullpen. In just over a month he was promoted to AAA in Reno and continued his dominant trend. Brandyn finished up August striking out 38% of hitters in his first year in the Diamondbacks organization.
Finally, on September 6th, 2021 I received the text I was hoping to get for over a year now. “I’m headed to the bigs.” I was so ecstatic for Brandyn I had a tough time formulating a text to send back. Each athlete has their own unique story. This tweet can sum it up pretty well. A huge congratulations to Brandyn Sittinger on his call up to the big leagues.
“Connected Performance has been an awesome resource for me throughout my career. The attention to detail, knowledge, and communication is unmatched. The velocity of my average fastball has increased and my arm has never felt better. I highly recommend training with Connected Performance no matter what level you play at.” -Brandyn Sittinger, Arizona Diamondbacks