Pitchers come in all sizes and temperaments. They take so many different approaches to the act of throwing a baseball that the whole occupation is shrouded in mystery.

For these reasons, it's rare for three of the top pitching prospects in all of professional baseball in one given year to have something in common. But this spring, they do.

Minor leaguers Dylan Bundy of the Delmarva Shorebirds (an affiliate of the Baltimore Orioles), Trevor Bauer of the Mobile Bay Bears (Arizona Diamondbacks) and Matt Barnes of the Greenville Drive (Boston Red Sox) have had a similar approach to training. Several times a week, and even sometimes on days when they're pitching, they take a few minutes to play catch with someone who is standing unusually far away from them.

As simple as it sounds, this training method, which is known as "long toss," is, to many people associated with baseball, revolutionary. And in a lot of ways, it's controversial, too.

Sports is traditionally a place where innovation trickles down from the top performers to the lowest levels. Once word got out that legendary Orioles shortstop Cal Ripken liked to bust slumps by swatting balls off a batting tee as far as he could, for instance, every high-school team suddenly owned a tee.