Nathan Patterson is now a member of the Oakland A's organization.
If you haven't read his story, here are the details:
Patterson was a free-agent pitcher when his brother, Christian, tweeted out a video of Nathan throwing in a speed pitch challenge during a Colorado Rockies game at Coors Field.
Guys, we were just chillin at a @rockies baseball game, and my brother decided to step into a speed pitch challenge...he hit 96 mph 😳 @MLB Let's get him signed! pic.twitter.com/g0fKrvUxzt— Christian Patterson (@cpatterson_7) July 15, 2019
He hit 96 mph.
One viral video later his dreams came true and he signed a minor league contract. He even quoted A's executive vice president of baseball operations Billy Beane in a post:
Sports
"How can you not be romantic about baseball" -Billy Beane
Words cannot describe this feeling and I cannot thank everyone enough who has been part of this journey so far! pic.twitter.com/E4eSMUDmU5— Nathan Patterson (@npatterson_12) August 1, 2019
He took to social media to give thanks to friends, family, coaches and a familiar name in the baseball media world: Rob Friedman ... you know him as PitchingNinja.
I can't thank @PitchingNinja and @FlatgroundApp enough for help on getting me exposure and on the map! Rob is changing the way players can be seen and get opportunities!— Nathan Patterson (@npatterson_12) August 2, 2019
A huge fan of the throwing guru myself, I wanted to know more about how he helped Patterson get exposure and make this happen. And he was no stranger to what Patterson was able to do.
"Nathan's arm action was what jumped out at me," Freidman told NBC Sports California. "He tweeted a video to FlatGround in January, throwing with a cast on. Very easy 95mph."
The account had been around for a while, and Patterson was one of the first video submissions within two weeks of the launch.
Friedman and Patterson had been DMing one another for a while.
"Lots of colleges were interested, but he really wanted to sign an affiliated deal," Friedman said.
Then, just like the rest of us, he saw the video. He noticed Christian's last name.
"I was like 'Woah,' that dude has a great arm. And I said I remember that arm action and put two and two together from his brother's last name ... it's Nathan Patterson."
It sure was.
Friedman was a few including the trainers and coaches helping the 23-year-old out. He even had 11-year veteran pitcher C.J. Wilson offering up some advice:
keep your SL on the glove side of the strike zone and you will get guys taking panic swings against arm side FB's...and can eventually learn to work the comebacker type FB on gloveside. really hard to square up for righties not named trout— C.J. Wilson (@str8edgeracer) January 20, 2019
Wilson saw the original video Patterson submitted to FlatGround back in January.
FlatGroundApp is a new, innovative social media platform that Friedman created so no pitcher is left unseen.
"I just feel my job is to not let players fall through the cracks," Friedman said. "A dude with an arm action like that needs to be playing somewhere ... and not throwing at stadiums for fun. That's why I started FlatGround. Too many players fall through the cracks because of lack of money or they get good later so scouts don't follow them. I want to make sure that doesn't happen."
[RELATED: Pitching Ninja talks favorite A's pitchers]
Mission very much accomplished. It's nice to know social media can be used in a positive, life-changing way.
And once again, congratulations to Nathan Patterson.
