Originally Posted by
od1
I did this experiment with baseball years ago, but unfortunately I didn't track any real data or conduct it as a controlled experiment. I'll share what I recall of my story for what it's worth.
I was about 170 pounds, with a squat of about 150 pounds when I started. I batted in the middle of the lineup and was expected to be a power hitter, which I was. The problem is that I had a loop in my swing. So while I would hit bombs, I struck out a lot. So, I changed to a more level swing, which produced more line drives, more doubles, fewer HRs, fewer strikeouts. I got on the starting strength program to improve my strength and see what effect it would have.
So, I grew to 220 pounds, acquired a 400 pound squat, and as I did this, I noticed my line drives on average started traveling farther and farther. HRs went up. Surprisingly, despite the added body weight, my sprint speed and infield range didn't change.. this shouldn't have been a surprise because as Mark said at a seminar or something: "just because you put a bigger engine in a car, doesn't mean it will be slower" or something like that.
This is my own conjecture, but being bigger and stronger, I felt like I was also much more durable. I felt I healed quicker from injures, and overall, I had less injuries. I felt like training in-season actually helped recovery from baseball, particularly from throwing strains (or actually from preventing those). I had a knee injury on field, limped off, and thought "shit, i'll be out for at least a month" -- that thought based on previous experiences with similar injury. I recovered in 2 weeks, continuing with training while healing.
On the negative side, I had more muscle strains and knots than I had prior to developing strength. I also suffered an oblique strain in the batting cages when I was training hard at the end of a novice progression. I suspect all this trouble was from not balancing my training with my sport, and having personal life stressors... I was basically an idiot and ignorant athlete trying all this shit on his own without the oversight of a coach. Baseball players have a culture of avoiding weightlifting to avoid such issues. One lanky teammate said to me after my oblique strain "I don't have any muscles, so I don't get strains, tears, knot, etc". Perhaps ignorant, but some of that mentality still exists.
Regarding MLB athletes, or any professional level baseball player, I'm not sure how programming would work in-season. A professional baseball season is an endurance activity with few days off for non-pitchers.