I'm not going to lie, writing these end of year blog posts is starting to make me feel like DJ Khaled.
While we don't update our blog too often (99% of our content is posted on our social media platforms), I still feel compelled to share how this year went with you all.
In short: it was nuts.
But first, let me rewind.
Last year we added 20 new members to the Tread team, had 11 draftees and 10 free agent signs, began to build out a true content department and opened Tread 2.0. We also committed to telling more of our athlete's stories in 2022 on top of massively scaling up the capacity of our in-person training operation in Charlotte, NC.
While we accomplished all of this, it was just the tip of the iceberg.
So what happened in 2022 and where are we headed for 2023? Let's take a look.
1. We added another 19 members to the Tread team.
Of these, 9 were performance coaches, and included Emilio Martinez, Alex Kachler, Paul Hall, Alex Goetz, Sam Eades, Kyle Wellman, Mark Fischer, Craig Stem and Eric Mock.
We also added 10 support staff, including:
- An Assistant Director of Performance (Kyle Harris)
- 2 Content Specialists (Adam Naliwajko and Jamal Marshall)
- 2 Data specialists (Rylan Domingues & Kieran Liming)
- 3 Sales Specialists (Julien Giroux-Harvey, Marshall Denton and Kenny Campbell)
- An executive assistant (Ashley Morris)
- A business associate (Morgan Galvin)
Each of these individuals beat out numerous other candidates and have extremely bright futures at Tread.
We celebrate our people at Tread, which is why we go through the effort to put them on display and encourage them to share their knowledge on our social media channels.
Certain pro orgs continue to unsuccessfully try to poach our people, while more savvy orgs have figured out that strategically partnering with us provides exponentially more value to their players and organization.
The reason we have been able to retain talent to this point is simple: we prioritize treating our people right.
In 2022 this meant raising the starting salary for every coach at Tread by over 20%, outlining multi-year growth trajectories and including full benefits for every employee to take advantage of.
The flip side to these steps was making sure that every employee at Tread was either on or off the bus – which led to tough personnel decisions that have ultimately made our team that much closer and more unified in our mission of helping athletes re-write their stories.
How do we attempt to orient ourselves on a daily basis to make this happen? By being clear about what we stand for:
- Athlete-first
- Problem solvers
- Relentless
This is the filter that every potential hire is passed through, and this is a big part of how we evaluate our team.
If you can align a group of people around a shared mission, with shared values, a very special culture begins to emerge.
Speaking of which, look how big the #squad is getting.
With a number of positions still looking to be filled for 2023, we're excited about what the future holds for Tread.
We firmly believe that the team we've assembled rivals anyone else in baseball, and look forward to the impact we can make over the coming years across thousands of high school, college and pro players.
2. We had 9 pitchers drafted and 38+ free agent signs.
9 of our remote athletes were drafted and another 38 signed free agent deals in 2022. That's pretty freaking cool. (See our full list of signs & draft picks here).
We also had several of our pros debut this year, including Zack Thompson (STL), Bubby Rossman (PHI), Cody Sedlock (BAL) and Alex Faedo (DET). Here's a look at the remote athletes who were drafted this year:
Here's a feature video we produced on 8th rounder Dylan Tebrake. I'll let the video do the talking:
Here's another feature on pro pitcher Brock Stewart's comeback story, returning from multiple elbow surgeries to getting re-signed and finishing the year in AAA sitting 96+ mph (a career best at 31 years old).
Check it out:
Or what about remote athlete Kyle Wright, who had a breakout year, leading the MLB in wins with 21?
Or remote athlete Clay Holmes who was an All-Star and touched 101.7 mph with his demon sinker?
Or Mitch Keller who put together the best year of his career, added a sinker and was up to 100 for the Pirates?
Or Jameson Taillon, who pitched his way to a 68 million dollar contract with the Cubs?
Or Jacob Pilarski hitting 101 in a bullpen last month (he was signed by the Dodgers 6 hours later)?
Talk about nasty!
A few more stories I decided to highlight from our college/HS players, as there are frankly quite a few to choose from (follow our social media accounts to catch them all):
- Zack Oswald went from low 80s to low 90's in a year.
- Remote Athlete Cinoon Bak from sitting 88 T92 MPH back in March after coming back from TJ to low 90s T95.7 MPH.
- AJ Horkan went from 78-81 to touching 90 mph in six months.
- Caleb Behling went from throwing mid 70's on his HS JV team to dominating on varsity in the mid 80's and committing to Wright State.
- Jake Reigert went from 85-88 to 91-93 as a Junior in HS.
- Mens league player Josh Daniels went from low 80s to getting back into the mid 90's after a year.
- Remote athlete Quinn Finnegan went from upper 70's to touching upper 80's.
This list is just the tip of the iceberg, so make sure to follow our social media accounts for regular updates of many more athletes.
3. 100+ MLB Pitchers now work with Tread
We've been fortunate enough to continue branching out within the pro baseball world.
This year, we surpassed 100 players with MLB service time.
While we pride ourselves on our ability to help these guys with the most complex problems, we place every bit as high of a priority on all of our high school and college players as well, with over 500+ college commitments at this point in our history.
4. We expanded our Content Team & Launched the Tread Podcast
We not only added 2 more full-time members to our content team, but ramped up video production even more. We're now featuring regular in-house mic'd up content, progressions to try, data videos and even launched our own Podcast.
If you missed any of it, here are some of the most viewed posts and videos from 2022:
Top Breakdowns:
Top Educational Videos
- What is the biggest velocity killer?
- Should Pitchers Finish In A Fielding Position?
- Pelvic Loading: A Simple Assessment
- What Does Pulling INTO Your Release Feel Like?
- How To Train Youth Pitching Mechanics
- Regaining Consistency for Pitchers | Getting Out Of The Superdome
- What is the Best Way to Crow-Hop for Pitchers? | Pitching Drill Progression
- Top Elbow Surgery Rehab Mistakes for Pitchers
- Should Pitchers Train Overhead?
Top Progressions
- 7 Drills To Increase Hip To Shoulder Separation
- How To Move Faster Down The Mound | Try These 6 Drills
- Struggling with a late arm at landing? Try This
- How To Use Your Back Leg When Pitching | Holding The Hinge
- Is Your Lat Holding You Back From Throwing Harder?
- Transfer Off Season Velocity Into Game Velocity
Top Podcasts
- Alan Jaeger: Long Toss, Pulldowns, & The Best Way To Crow Hop
- Ben Joyce Breaks Down His 105 MPH Mechanics
- Daniel Bard: How I Beat The Yips (101 mph at 37 )
- Rob Friedman: The Man Behind Pitching Ninja
- Brian Bannister: Mastering Pitch Design
Top Data Videos
- Are You Throwing the Wrong Sinker?
- Curveball Pitch Design Tips And Grips
- How A Seam Shift Demon Sinker Helped Change This Pitcher's Arsenal
- Pitch Design Without Tech | Ballin' On A Budget
- The Ultimate Cheat Sheet For Righty 4-Seams, Sinkers, and Cutters
5. Tread 2.0 is an electric factory⚡️
More than a year into operation and Tread 2.0 is fully up to speed.
Here's a little compilation our content team created to give a glimpse into the environment:
While the space is exclusive to remote athletes at this time, feel free to reach out to express your interest in joining our athlete community.
Where are we headed for 2023?
What do we have in store for 2023? While there are some projects we can't announce yet, here are a few goals we can discuss:
- We will be looking to add a motion capture lab. While details aren't finalized yet, we're shooting to have a biomechanist and state-of-the art motion capture solution ready to go by the summer/fall.
- Major updates to our remote training infrastructure. More will be announced in the coming months, but for our athletes there will be a major upgrade to how the videos, programs and coaching communication is rolled out. The goal is to make the entire process smoother from start to finish.
- Continue to partner with pro and college teams. With dozens of colleges and representatives from pro orgs reaching out this year to learn more about Tread, we plan to solidify many more of these relationships in 2023 to be key pieces of their player development infrastructure. Our goal is not to monopolize this process, but to work collaboratively with the existing staffs to assist their player development. This is especially critical during the off-season months when players are away from their colleges/pro teams.
Completely switching our business model to selling plyo balls.Just kidding, everyone.- From a hiring standpoint, we're still looking for at least 4-6 more Performance Coaches in 2023, so check out our careers page to apply.
I also wanted to take the time to thank our team – and especially my partner and Co-founder Coan McAlpine for believing in the vision and kicking ass in 2022. Now it's time to double down on that mission in 2023.
Closing Thoughts
Are there any products, content or offerings you would like to see us add in 2023?
Let us know by shooting an email to contact@treadathletics.com.
We take your feedback seriously and incorporate as much of it as possible into our planning.
Here's to reaching your potential,
Ben Brewster
