Sandy Koufax Was Right: The Foundational Truths Pitching Can’t Afford to Lose

Over the last 15 years, if Sandy Koufax’s advice had been echoed throughout the main veins of player development, our current pitching culture would look much different.

Koufax wasn’t guessing. He had already lived the lifecycle—what works, what breaks, and what lasts. And like many legends before him, he figured out a foundational truth of success that transcends generations:

A pitcher’s job isn’t to “try harder.” It’s to stay under control, get more out of the body, and let the delivery do the work.

The Wisdom That Keeps Getting Re-Leaned

Every generation has different tools and different language, but the same problems keep showing up.

The game changes.
The ball changes.
The training methods change.
The data gets sharper.

But the pitcher still has to do the same thing: produce elite performance while managing elite stress—over and over again.

That’s why the greats matter. The legends didn’t have motion capture or dashboards, but they did have something modern development can’t replace:

A deep understanding of what sustains performance.

And when Koufax talks about control, he’s not talking about “throwing strikes” only. He’s talking about controlling your delivery, your intent, your timing, and your body—because that’s what keeps your stuff repeatable.

2010 Changed Player Development — And It Shifted What We Value

With the rise of data and analytics in player development around 2010, the industry gained a massive advantage: we could finally measure more of what was happening.

Velocity. Spin. Shape. Movement profiles. Whiffs. Break. Extension.

Those tools have real value. They’ve improved evaluation and accelerated player development.

But there was a tradeoff:

Many of the core truths that are hard to quantify were slowly replaced by measurable performance gains.

Training principles that were traditionally rooted in the game—repeatability, sequencing, rhythm, and sustainable intensity—often got pushed aside because they weren’t as easy to sell, track, or compare.

So the culture shifted.

And today, we see the consequences everywhere:

• More pitchers chasing outputs without owning the foundation

• More “max intent” deliveries that can’t repeat under fatigue

• More stress, more breakdown, and shorter windows of availability

My Philosophy Was Built By Studying the History of the Game

My entire biomechanical and developmental philosophy for pitchers was built by studying the history of the game—its lessons and patterns—and applying them to the modern game.

Because baseball leaves clues.

If you study enough careers, enough deliveries, and enough long-term outcomes, you start to see the same storyline repeat:

The pitchers who last aren’t the ones who “reach.” They’re the ones who can produce power while staying under control.

That doesn’t mean they throw soft.
It means they throw efficiently.

They’re not creating velocity by “adding effort” at the end.
They’re creating it through sequencing, leverage, timing, and the body’s ability to contribute earlier—so the arm isn’t forced to manufacture the pitch by itself.

Technology Should Validate the Truth — Not Replace It

Technology allows us to measure, validate, and monetize values we’ve always known.

That’s the opportunity.

But it should never replace the foundation—or the people who can teach it.

At DVS Baseball, that’s the point of what we do:

• Use objective biomechanics to create structure around what elite pitchers have always done

• Give athletes and coaches a shared language for movement quality and sequencing

• Help pitchers build a foundation that supports repeatable velocity and long-term availability

Modern tech is at its best when it supports timeless truths.

Not when it convinces us those truths no longer matter.

The Future of Pitching Needs Both

The modern game isn’t going backward. And it shouldn’t.

But if we want a healthier pitching culture—one that produces high performance without burning through arms—we have to reconnect development to the foundation.

The next chapter needs both:

• The wisdom of the game (control, repeatability, sustainable intent)

• The tools of the modern era (biomechanics, validation, measurable context)

Koufax didn’t just speak to his generation.

He spoke to every generation that would come after it.

And if we actually build development systems around that message, pitching doesn’t have to keep re-learning the same lesson the hard way.

Want to see what “under control” looks like in your delivery?

The DVS Score and DVS X-Ray biomechanical analysis help pitchers and coaches understand how timing, sequencing, and movement quality translate into repeatable velocity—and how to build a foundation that lasts.