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MLB Offseason '13-'14 |OT| Where the best fans live

T

Talon

Member
This is crazy cool.
BhqapXZIYAAYlx4.jpg

Video example
On Saturday, Major League Baseball Advanced Media provided a small segment of the analytical community with a glimpse into the very near future. At the MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference in Boston, MLBAM CEO Bob Bowman presented a new technology that will enable the capture and reliable measurement of every play on the field, opening new doors for research and analysis. Think of it as PITCHf/x on steroids.

Like PITCHf/x, the new system — which does not yet have a name (personally, I’m calling it OMGf/x) — will be able to tell you the velocity, release point, spin rate and path of each pitch, but where that currently-in-place system ends (at least as far as the public is concerned), this one is just getting started. If a batter makes contact, the batted-ball speed, launch angle, distance and hang time will be tracked, as will each fielder’s first-step reaction time, speed, acceleration and route to the ball, and each baserunner’s speed and route. For an idea of what the system in play will look like, check out the video above of a spectacular, game-ending catch by Jason Heyward with the new tracking data added.

Where PITCHf/x and its lesser-known siblings, HITf/x and FIELDf/x, use a camera-based system from SportVision, the new technology involves a combination of cameras and radar. It’s been developed in partnership with Trackman, whose radar-based software is used for professional golf telecasts and was tested in connection with the expansion of instant replay; the camera portion was developed by a company called ChyronHego. As physicist Alan Nathan explained “Video is the natural technology for tracking players on the field… Radar is the natural technology for tracking the batted ball.”
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Link
 
C

CygnusXS

will gain confidence one day
My favorite part of that is that they used that Heyward catch as the example.

97% route efficiency, bitches.
 
A

aFIGurANT

Member
Damn that is some serious shit. I like how intelligent minds take something as simple as baseball and do the wildest things. I wonder how long it will be until we see that graphic for every fly ball though, I assume the data is behind a pay wall or something for it to be commercially viable.
 
S

Strider

Member
Awwwww yes. Just renewed my MLB.tv subscription so I think it's time I joined MLB-gaf.

Damn that Heyward video is cool.Only 3 ballparks this year though
 
T

thefro

Member
Dmncnby2k9 said:
looked a bit like Sheffield swing on that homer
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That's been the comp for Baez's swing for a while

Jason Parks on Javier Baez from this week
Javier Baez (Cubs): Baez has the best bat speed I’ve seen since I started evaluating talent at the minor-league level, and it might be some of the best bat speed I’ve seen period. It’s violent—no doubt—and I’m not always sold that he can control the bat after he triggers. But when he unsheathes that weapon and it finds the ball, the cowhide screams in what I believe to both ecstasy and agony. Baez appears shorter than his listed height, and his body is a bit like Jean Segura's, with a thick and muscular lower half, particularly the thighs. However, it doesn’t appear to be a high-maintenance body on any level, though you can project him to become more robust up top as he ages, filling out to the point where shortstop would no longer be a possibility.

But just to soothe some of the present concerns about his defensive skill set, Baez can absolutely play shortstop. Long term is more nebulous because of the body/range, but his actions are fine (better than fine, actually), he controls his body and is coordinated, he has on-the-field instincts and moves to the ball well, and his arm is very strong. He struggles with some fundamentals at times, and he doesn’t play the position with the same confidence that he brings to the plate, but all of these things can improve through repetition and experience. His issues at the position (at present) are fixable through instruction and wrench work.

At the plate, Baez has a lot of pre-swing noise and he wraps the bat like a champ, which means he has to gain control of the stick before executing his swing, very similar to the way Gary Sheffield would wiggle and wrap before triggering. It’s not something you would teach, and unless you are special it’s not something that will work. But Baez is special. It’s a beautiful stroke once he lets it loose, and despite the noise and the wrap, the hands are elite and he sends the bat through the zone on an elevated line-drive plane. You can fool him with off-speed stuff because the violence comes at the expense of control, but he’s a very dangerous fastball hitter, and he can beat good pitches as well as mistakes.

It’s not so much that Baez's approach is overly aggressive. I think that comes off as a pejorative statement at times, and being aggressive isn’t always a bad thing. You want to see hitters take advantage of opportunities and drive the baseball with authority. I think Baez’s biggest problem at the plate is that his confidence with the bat/swing creates an environment where everything thrown in his general direction is considered an opportunity for him to drive the ball out of the park. It’s often hard to distinguish between being aggressive and being overly confident, but in Baez’s case, he’s not a grip-it-and-rip-it hitter; rather, he’s a guy who thinks he can turn around whatever a pitcher has to offer and send it out of the park. This isn’t a guy looking for singles or going the other way on off-speed pitches in order to dink a ball into shallow right. This is a guy who is going for the gold on most swings, and the rationale is that he can make it happen so why not try.

The violence in the swing and the confidence at the plate (almost sanguine at times) are both positive and negative qualities for Baez. You don’t want to change the hitter but you want him to refine a bit, and if he does, this is a superstar and a potential role 8 player at the major-league level. This is what elite looks like when it's young. But learning to find his game and make adjustments will be vital if he is to come close to that lofty, spectacular ceiling. It’s anything but a sure thing, but of all the players in the minors—and this includes Buxton, Taveras, Bogaerts, et al.​—Baez has a higher all-around ceiling.
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P

Parch

Member
Windu said:
sounds like it will be in only a few stadiums this year though and they are looking at full deployment in 2015.
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Pretty damn cool.
I bet agents are going to hate it. It's going to make a lot of players look bad/mediocre defensively and factor into contract discussions.

It's like the umpires hating strike zone tech. They hate it because it can make them look really bad.
 
L

Loco4Coco

Member
I'm trying to watch the Mets game on TV but it's blacked out on SNY, anyone else having that problem?

Edit: Came back on and missed 3 runs scored by the Mets, might be the only time they score so much this Spring.
 
D

Dmncnby2k9

Banned
Loco4Coco said:
I'm trying to watch the Mets game on TV but it's blacked out on SNY, anyone else having that problem?

Edit: Came back on and missed 3 runs scored by the Mets, might be the only time they score so much this Spring.
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Granderson homered! and yea my feed went out too. was hearing the game on Astros radio
 
H

harSon

Banned
Polanco having a good game. If he pans out like everyone is expecting him too, we're going to have the nastiest outfield in the league. Marte, Cutch and Polanco? I'm hard just thinking about it.
 
P

Purple Cheeto

Member
Enron said:
Hahaha, wow. Fuck off Ian.

Although if I got sent to Detroit, I'd probably be mad too.




That's beyond the reach of even the Mets. That's Mariner-levels of futility.
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Jim Joyce was ripping into him for being selfish on the radio this morning. It was funny hearing Rangers fans call in. Half of them were sucking up to Michael Young and Kinsler and the other half agreeing that Kinsler is a selfish douche who only thinks of himself.

In other news Ketel Marte of the Mariners has my favorite name of the spring. I want him to be good and wear the jersey number 1.
 
L

lupinko

Member
I see a lot of people on the Yankees bandwagon here in Sendai, mainly due to the Tanaka signing. And I went wtf at seeing a Rakuten Eagles bobblehead of Andruw Jones.
 
C

chicagocubsfan

Member
Mike Olt went deep today. I would love for him to have a monstrous spring so he could come up and play 3B. I don't think I can go another season starting Luis Valbuena.
 
S

Sumidor

Member
rando14 said:
Mariners are the spring training kings!!

We gotta enjoy it while it lasts :(
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Every year! I swear, if you ever have a chance to place a bet on the Mariners during spring training, you should take it. I came up nicely a few years ago when they only lost 1 or 2 games in spring training.
 
L

Little Green Yoda

Member
Baseball Prospectus 25-and-under talent rankings

Summary: The Cardinals possess a perfect collection of talent. Their farm system ranks as one of the best in the game, teeming with both depth and impact ceilings, and the major-league roster is filled with young players making an impression on both sides of the ball. Oscar Taveras—who recently ranked third on BP’s Top 101 Prospects—highlights the list, followed closely by Shelby Miller and Michael Wacha, two hurlers who could find themselves near the top of a rotation in coming seasons. Further down, Kolten Wong is ready to assume the starting job at the keystone, while Stephen Piscotty and Alexander Reyes provide high-ceiling dreams. The Cardinals have constructed a pipeline of young talent that will keep them competitive for the foreseeable future. The rich keep getting richer. –Ethan Purser
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spoiled fanbase is spoiled
 
L

Little Green Yoda

Member
aFIGurANT said:
Is Wong going to break out of his funk this spring? He needs to start getting those hard-hit balls to fall into the gap if he wants to be starting in April.
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Hopefully. If he's stinging the ball but hitting into bad luck, the hits will fall in eventually.

Worse case scenario is that he's completely overmatched at the plate and Ellis becomes the starter in June.
 
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