When Seth Daniels finished his playing career at D-III Anderson University in Indiana, he never could have imagined that experience would eventually have him running around his house at midnight, turning on every light for a video call with a CEO on the other side of the globe. And he certainly wouldn’t have imagined that CEO flying him to Singapore to be the first person to pitch on what would become the Rapsodo PITCHING 1.0.
Those are the surreal stories no one has ever told about the startup company dubbed an “overnight sensation” at the center of baseball’s tech revolution…
Until now.
In the first episode of the Rapsodo Baseball Podcast, Seth Daniels (Director of Diamond Sports and North American Rapsodo Employee #1) and Brian “BP” Page (MLB Relations and Rapsodo North American Employee #2) share the story of how, in a mere four years, Rapsodo Diamond Sports went from blowing up a prototype camera in Singapore to getting fist bumps from Garth Brooks at Pirates camp.
Two Arms and a Hundred Thousand Pitches
Seth and BP will share their personal experiences building Rapsodo in the United States, including testing the earliest iterations of the product.
“Those early days were mostly me taking the product to a field or park and throwing thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of pitches, trying to get this thing to spin right,” Seth said.
That’s when Seth got the greenlight to bring on BP as an intern. BP was still pitching at the time, and became a test case of sorts himself. He had been working on increasing his velocity, leveraging training programs from a company whose partnership became a key piece of developing the Rapsodo product.
ABCA 2016
The 2016 convention of the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) was what Seth calls Rapsodo’s “coming out party.” It was at that event the product was introduced to the baseball world, and drew the interest of pitching coordinators at Driveline Baseball.
In episode one of the Rapsodo Baseball Podcast, Seth tells the story of what it was like meeting the Driveline team on the convention floor in Nashville, and having one of their pitchers become the first major league arm to throw on Rapsodo.
Raising Players’ Ceiling
Through the rapid evolution of the company and the products, one thing has remained constant at Rapsodo - the organization is driven by their desire to help players reach their potential.
In the podcast, Seth and BP share stories of how they’ve seen data change the lives of players and programs that have embraced it. They discuss college pitchers who received and capitalized on opportunities that would normally have been reserved for pitchers with 5-7 more MPH on the radar gun.
They will also discuss some of the unique experiences that come with serving all 30 Major League Baseball teams and attending their Spring Training workouts in Arizona and Florida.
Seth and BP are excited to continue sharing these stories. In future episodes, the guys will interview MLB players, coaches, and coordinators, and get perspectives from some of the best across the baseball landscape.
Follow Rapsodo on Twitter to learn more about upcoming interviews. Submit questions for the players and coaches who will join the show by using the hashtag #RapsodoPodcast.
