Play Ball Kid

Developing Unicorn Fastballs with Mike McGuinness and Nolan Long

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Episode notes

Mike McGuiness (CEO) and his brother Connor McGuiness are the co-founders of the hottest pitching tool in the market, Clean Fuego. Nolan Long is a RHP in the Dodgers organization and part of the Clean Fuego team. Mike and Nolan join Sammy this week to discuss:

  1. The back story of their baseball careers and the development of Clean Fuego 
  2. How Clean Fuego seemed to catch fire after the release of the viral Joe Kelley video. Dodger's pitcher, Joe Kelley breaking his window while throwing Clean Fuego. 
  3. How Sammy did an experiment to see how it would impact his 4 seam fastball. His pitch went from around 85% spin efficiency and a week later he was consistently 90-100% and gained 200 rpm to his overall spin rate. They share other examples of people using it to improve their pitches.
  4. If there is a preferred age to start with Clean Fuego
  5. What pitch Nolan prefers to work on with Clean Fuego and what specifically he does to practice that pitch?
  6. Since this was recorded the night the Cy Young winners where announced, Sammy asked them to make a prediction for next years winners.

CleanFuego is an essential baseball training device for any player looking to advance their game. When training with CleanFuego, athletes can polish or learn new pitches, ​learn to better grip and release a baseball, work out subtle changes to their throw in real-time, and more!

CleanFuego was scientifically engineered to replicate a professional regulation baseball, but with two parallel sides to help provide immediate visual feedback to players and coaches about the throw's spin direction, spin efficiency and more.

CleanFuego Regulation weighs the standard 5.25oz like professional regulation balls. CleanFuego Overweight weighs 8oz. Some players have found that when using over weighted baseballs they subconsciously cut the ball. This "cutting" promotes an inefficient spin, which is not what the athlete is trying to accomplish. Unfortunately, with a normal ball the athlete does not have any visual cue as to whether they are cutting the ball.

You can follow Mike, the CEO of CleanFuego on Twitter and Instagram.

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