Cody Decker brings elite baseball training facility to El Paso
EL PASO, Texas - Joe Beimel pitched in the MLB for 13 seasons. And now, he and former MLB catcher Brent Dean run Beimel Elite Athletics, one of the best baseball training programs in the country.
You won't find a bigger advocate for Beimel Elite than former El Paso Chihuahuas Outfielder Cody Decker.
“They run a very successful program in Los Angeles, they’re one of the top programs in the country," says Decker of Beimel Elite.
"Several major leaguers in the program, several pro players in the program. Their strength conditioning program. Their throwing program produces results that you don’t see anywhere.”
So why have Beimel and Dean moved their headquarters to El Paso?
“Mainly Cody Decker. He decided he wanted to bring us here," says Beimel, who played for 8 different MLB teams as a relief pitcher from 2001-2015.
"It was a good opportunity for us because we looked at El Paso as one of the top 25 biggest cities in the country and haven’t had a whole lot of success on the baseball side. We knew that was like a good opportunity for us to come in here and help out with that.”
For Decker, the former Minor League home-run-king-turned-Border Youth Athletic Association Associate Director, he has a goal in mind for the Borderland.
"We want as many kids to go to college as we possibly can," says the always enthusiastic Decker. "And El Paso just hasn’t been getting as many kids to the next level in baseball and softball and we’re trying to help fix that. And the Beimel elite program is helping us do that.”
With advanced metrics and technology, Beimel Elite breaks down everything from launch angles to spin rates to accelerate improvement.
“We're taking the data and our experience and being able to give them something that can actually help them get to the next level immediately,” says Dean, who spent 9 seasons in the Milwaukee Brewers organization.
With high tech equipment, there’s data accessible that no scout could ever see.
For pitchers, Beimel has his own game experience on baseball's biggest stage but the metrics add another dimension.
“Metrics where his spin rate is, how much his ball is moving, vertically and horizontally in inches," says Beimel of working with pitchers.
"Those numbers we break down his mechanics a little bit, see where maybe he’s losing some velocity, where he’s losing some command.”
All of it is at the fingertips of El Paso's youth.
Cody Decker’s vision to bring El Paso to baseball’s forefront secured a major victory with Beimel Elite and in his mind, it’s only getting bigger.
