Case Study

Mac N' Seitz

Kevin Seitzer & Mike Macfarlane

Mac ’N Seitz Baseball Academy is a 50,000 square foot facility for baseball and softball players located in Martin City, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City.

The organization is named after its original owners, and former MLB players, Mike Macfarlane and Kevin Seitzer who founded the facility in 1997 after meeting each other in 1987 while playing for the Kansas City Royals. Currently, Mac ’N Seitz Baseball Academy has 187 high school baseball players, 180 youth baseball players and 50 softball players on its roster.

The organization began using Rapsodo in 2019, specifically the Rapsodo PITCHING 2.0 unit to enhance player development and implement more pitch design tools into its training regiment.

Mac ’N Seitz Baseball Academy is a 50,000 square foot facility for baseball and softball players located in Martin City, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City.

Prior to the addition of the Rapsodo unit, the coaches and instructors initially struggled with getting both players and parents to understand what needed to be done in order for the athlete to improve - with Rapsodo technology that all changed.

“The things we could see as coaches - that the parents or kids couldn’t see - were translated through the Rapsodo Pitching 2.0 unit; how one adjustment can make a massive difference on your pitch.”

Rapsodo’s video functionality helps player’s see what they need to work on. The use of the video feature has helped player’s improve their release which led to improved spin direction, which then led to improvements in velo, spin rate and pitch movement.

More advanced Rapsodo metrics, such as horizontal and vertical break, helped players and coaches understand more about - and fine tune - such pitches as sinkers, cutters and sliders.

By utilizing Rapsodo technology, coaches at Mac ’N Seitz Baseball Academy said they were able to better facilitate pitch design concepts and enhance their overall instruction and lessons. This, in turn, created an environment where the players “know exactly what they are looking at” when training. According to the instructors, this allows the players to train on their own, train more often, and get in more work without coaches having to be around 24/7.

“We can allow them to come in and get work in and also keep updated numbers like velo, spin rate and movement all season long so players can always showcase their numbers rather than only at an occasional event.”

But when it comes to the biggest advantage Rapsodo has provided for the facility, the answer was unanimous:

The Mac ’N Seitz Baseball Academy coaches pointed out how Rapsodo data allows for a pitcher who is a “low velo, high spin” type of thrower to not only get recruited, but to thrive in a collegiate setting where they are needed, wanted, and set up for success.

“Recruitment is by far the best thing that Rapsodo has helped with. With Rapsodo having cloud storage we can send data of our pitchers and hitters off to colleges in seconds, with the full confidence of the colleges knowing what they see is what they get.”

The facility offers pitching and hitting programs to all of its players eight months out of the year - a learned process fueled by data collection and close examination of each player’s numbers.

With Rapsodo, the instructors can closely track a player’s progress, which then allows them to understand and monitor wear and tear and know exactly when the athletes need to take a break for a few weeks.

“We’ve seen our guys make huge jumps in velo and some guys not make any jumps, but be more efficient in their throwing to keep them healthy and recover quicker.”

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