I wrote a couple of days ago about how the Mets were changing up old routines to fit their new field.  Additionally, I have read in a few places that the team has asked each of its players to spend less time in the weightroom lifting during the season to help prevent injuries.

The Mariners though have taken the ‘no lifting’ policy one step further and removed most of their weights and brought in a new group to teach new training techniques to their players at all levels.  This Geoff Baker piece details the changes, including a short piece of video.  Basically, the gist of the new program focuses the player less on just getting stronger and more on gaining skills that relate directly to the movements in baseball.

This is happening all around baseball. Why the dramatic shift? Well, think about it.  Until a few years ago, the focus in baseball was hitting the long ball, and that required strength.  When steroids and other muscle building products were available to players there was no need to do much but make sure everyone was building muscle.  Now, without the ability to consistently win games with home runs, teams are building around agility and defense.  Explosiveness on the basepaths, in the outfield and even in the batter’s box is becoming significantly more important.  What is happening around baseball is very much like the explosion of sabremetrics in the early part of this decade.  Every team is trying to find an edge, and new training techniques are going to make a difference.

Every team now has the same access to statistics, and to those folks who understand how to use and manipulate statistics.  Not every team has the same access to training philosophies.  Some teams will hire doctors or trainers with new ideas that won’t pan out.  But some will find superior ways of training their players that will pay off for years to come.  Oakland became the MoneyBall team.  What team will be the TrainingBall team?   (Note: I wish I could come up with some more clever way of saying that so that, perhaps, one day, I could get credit for coining the term. Oh, well.)

Its going to take a few years to see that.  But it would be interesting if the Mariners were it.

And by the way, its former New York Mets prospect Danny Garcia in the video demonstrating one new training technique.