Rob B.

I have been holding camps and doing instruction for well over 10 years. Outside of owning my own Baseball consulting company, Red Alert Baseball, I am also the National Catching Coordinator for Chandler Baseball.

My company, Red Alert Baseball, has about 5 teams/organizations around the country using my Team Manual and workout programs designed after a Major League Baseball franchise.

I have also managed the Chandler Baseball World team in Jupiter, FL for the Perfect Game Showcase.

Rob is a former Switch-Hitting Major League Catcher that played for the Minnesota Twins, San Diego Padres, Chicago Cubs, and the Oakland Athletics. He spent 10 years in professional baseball including 5 seasons in the Major Leagues. Rob broke into the big leagues at the young age of 22 and also had the opportunity to play with the Minnesota Twins and the San Diego Padres in the post season. After playing with and against some of the games best players and future Hall of Famers, Rob has amassed an enormous amount of knowledge along the way.

Beginning to play the great game of baseball at 4 years old, Rob didn’t really start to pursue the challenge of playing pro ball until he was 13 as he was being scouted by college and pro scouts in Middle School. By putting in hard work and dedication during his teenage years, Rob won numerous awards including Varsity all 4 years in High School, All-State, All-American, Gatorade and USA Today Indiana Baseball Player of the Year, Team USA 18U Member, Area Code Games Participant and more. After having hundreds of colleges recruiting Rob, he signed a letter of intent to play at Louisiana State University. LSU offered Rob the highest scholarship ever as a Freshman at that time. Rob’s goal of playing pro ball came true when he was drafted in the 2nd round (56th Overall) by the Minnesota Twins in the 1999 Amateur Draft. To cap off proof of his hard work during his career, Rob was recently inducted into the Northeast Indiana Baseball Hall of Fame in 2011.

Rob is also the National Catching Coordinator for Chandler Baseball, a nation-wide amateur program designed and modeled after a professional baseball organization.

Rob has had an array of coaches throughout his career with all sorts of ideas and philosophies. Certain coaches want it done an exact way so that coach can use that as a feather in his cap and prove his way works. Other coaches have made it sound like if you don’t have a Aeronautical Engineering Degree, you won’t be able to play the game.

The one constant Rob has always stuck with in regards to his philosophy is keep it simple and focus on the mental side of the approach. Focusing on the physical side can keep you from hitting your potential if you don’t get it out of your head. Baseball is already a hard enough game. What other sport can you be an all-star when you just go 3 for 10?

In regards to mechanics, we don’t define, we refine. That means we are not going to turn everyone into a bunch of robots. One thing doesn’t work for everyone as Rob has seen this during his career. We strive to work with what you already have and make your way better. If you are not comfortable, you will not have success.

The biggest piece of advice Rob can give to a young player is something a coach once told him while he was in the minor leagues. The coach told him, “Coaches are going to tell you so many things to work on or fix. But you won’t be able to take everything you hear and apply it and make it work. Take the bits and pieces that make sense and run with them.”

Listen, you will have a ton of coaches throughout your career with their own ideas and theories. Don’t try to take everything that is thrown at you and apply it or you will end up worse from where you started. Take bits and pieces of everything you hear and make it your own.

Rob has gained a huge amount of experience while playing in the Major Leagues. The following is a handful of players and coaches that he had an opportunity to play with and learn valuable knowledge from.

Paul Molitor, Tom Kelly, Joe Nathan, AJ Pierzynski, Johan Santana, Trevor Hoffman, Jake Peavy, Greg Maddox, Mike Piazza, Ryan Klesko, Bruce Bochy, Don Wakamatsu, Floyd Rayford, Tony Gwynn, Merv Rettenmund, Bud Black, Lou Pinella, John Russell, Ty Van Berkleo, Frank Thomas.