USA Baseball PDP Testing and the MLB Combine

Major League Baseball collects data searching for the secret sauce that predicts player performance. USA Baseball’s Prospect Development Pipeline (PDP) performance assessment is the central approach to gathering the metrics. PDP testing is like the NFL combine for baseball players and starts as young as 12u at events such as NTIS, the Futures Championships and National Team Championships (NTC). At the high school level, it also takes place at East Coast Pro and cumulates with the Combine before draft day.

PDP Athletic Assessment includes Rapsodo tracking for exit velocity along with the following events:

• 30 yard time: USA/MLB prefer this over 60 times. A 10 yard and 20 yard split are also calculated
• Three jump Counter Movement (CMJ): three jumps that measure height, ground contact time and time in the air to capture peak power production as a function of body mass
• Single leg CMJ: this test not only measures power, but also stability because it’s designed to capture how much the foot drifts off center from jump to jump
• Static counter movement on force plates: this is another way to measure peak power
• Broad jump: the traditional jump with distance measured in feet
• Man in the box: this test measures agility and reaction time. It’s hard to explain, so see the bottom of this USA Baseball PDP page to watch it
• Grip strength: measured in pounds using a dynamometer

Players who complete the PDP assessment receive a report that compares their results to the averages from others of the same age group and also teams like the 15u or 18u National teams.

As you can see, various forms of jump testing are used to determine lower body force production. To understand why jumping is so important, David Szymanski wrote a paper on why jump testing is important as a predictor of throwing velocity. In order to improve baseball this vital area, Szymanski recommends doing lateral leg work “including frontal plane single-leg multi-joint exercises, such as lateral squat, lateral lunge, and lateral lunge with plate press, to increase the amount of force produced within the (pitching) drive leg”. In addition, he says to include traditional leg lifts to “train bilateral multi-joint lower body exercises in the sagittal plane, such as back squat, front squat, deadlift as well and incorporate various double and single-leg lower body plyometric exercises in multiple planes and intensities.”

For specific examples of exercises, buy his book Strength Training for Baseball. In addition, if you’d like to learn more about the implications of the metrics, see this motor and visual skills study created in 2022 based on the data. It includes findings such as that catchers have the best visual skills and outfielders the most explosiveness. Additionally, Loden Sports created a standardized Loden score based on the results.