Before signing a one-year contract with the Cincinnati Reds, Sean Doolittle had an inside peek at what things are like within the organization.
Doolittle wanted to improve his delivery and learn more about the analytical data behind pitching. He trained at the Push Performance facility in Tempe, Arizona, this winter where Simon Mathews, a new Reds minor league pitching coach, is the director of pitching. Bullpen catcher Nate Irving was an instructor at the facility and worked closely with Doolittle, a pair of former University of Virginia players.
“We were really able to take things to the next level and make some significant improvements,” Doolittle said Monday, “but working with them every day, I got to learn a lot about the Reds organization just from conversations that kind of came up.