Jugs vs Stalker.

I have seen both used many times together and like you said most of the time they were the same. When different the jugs was 1 mph faster.

In my experiences, there has always been a 2 to 4 mph difference depending on the expertise of the individual using the equipment. In the past year, the Stalker and Stalker Pro have been the gun of choice among most scouts and recruiters. In Jupiter this past fall, I did not notice anyone using a Jugs, not even the Perfect Game staff.

Jugs is the gun of choice by baseball dads! The little ones especially. They look like blow dryers.

"Expertise of the individual using the equipment"? It's a radar gun. You get behind the catcher and point the gun toward the pitcher. How much expertise can there be? Sounds to me like the jugs and stalker are pretty close. I'm sure they both round off their numbers when picked up. If they are only off by around 1mph as Love says, it could really just be a matter of 10th's. Don't think it's that big a deal.

quote:

Originally posted by Clint Taylor:
In my experiences, there has always been a 2 to 4 mph difference depending on the expertise of the individual using the equipment. In the past year, the Stalker and Stalker Pro have been the gun of choice among most scouts and recruiters.

Same with my experience. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the Stalker reads ball velocity as it crosses the plate, where as the Jugs takes it out of the hand, which is why the Jugs tends to provide a slightly higher reading.

ive had a jugs and a stalker 2 both at the same time stalker was 1 to 2 mph faster most time jugs@89 stalker@91 but i've taken the 61mph tuning fork and it read 61 on both gun plus an old stalker. so now i think it has to do with range of the gun and cycles per second and those could be affected by the power left in the battery. your angle from the release point will lower the velo readings as will shooting between a tin building and metal light poll haha! found that one out first hand. id say you can trust either brand

Both read out of hand velocity, the Stalker reportedly rounds Vel down and the Jugs rounds Vel up so they (Jugs) in general tend read a little higher. With the newer Stalker you can get both out of hand and plate. There are lots of ways readings can vary as mentioned in some posts above. The Stalker can pick up readings at farther distances hence the reason for it being the standard for scouts.

Dads are reported to round velocity up, depending of course who they are talking to and how much alcohol has been consumed.

Person Round up factor

Son +0
Close Friend +4
HS Coach +5
College Coach +7 (The reason for the HSBBW Dad – 7 rule)
Pro-Scout +9
Guy on the street +10

1 Beer +2
2 Beers +4
3 Beers +7
4+ Beers +11 (Notice the non linearity of the readings)
Six pack+ Mumbles stuff about son will be signed in the 1st round of the MLB draft.
Passed out+ Dreams that he is actually his son. (we won’t get into the psychology of this here this can be found on HSPBBW)

Scouts and College coaches have reported a very wide range of readings most commonly found while talking to dads after 3+ beers.

quote:

Originally posted by BOF:

Dads are reported to round velocity up, depending of course who they are talking to and how much alcohol has been consumed.

So funny. So true!

Stalkers pick the ball up just after it is relewased. Juds refered to as slow guns pick the ball up about 25' out of the hand.

I read on another message board that the juggs will give a reading right out of the pitchers hand, the Stalker will give an average of the speed from between the pitchers hand and the catchers glove. The juggs' range is 100 feet, not sure about the stalker, but heard it is further.

bb that isn't correct. The BB slows down about 6-7 mph after leaving the hand at the plate.

Stalkers are recognized as the standard of radar guns. They are the most accurate and that is the gun of choice by professional scouts and the top college programs. Both Stalker and Jugs read the ball out of the hand. Jugs is definitely not the slow gun. As a rule, they will be 1-2 mph quicker on the average.

The little Jugs gun looks like a blow dryer and is the gun of choice for parents who have no business standing behind the back stop bothering the college coaches and pro scouts as they get little Johnny's reading (just a little commentary).

At the camp we attended over break, my son was clocked on a Stalker when he pitched Sunday and on the Jugs on Monday. Sunday the Stalker said he was pitching the same speed he did a year ago, last time he was gunned. Then the coach came over and told the guy gunning him that the gun was off.

The next day the Jugs gunned him about 7 mph faster.

LHPMom2012

Thanks Bobblehead, just what someone else had said.

I take a little bit of offense by your comment nc. First of all what a gun looks like has no bearing on it's performance. Are you saying that for all the years scouts and MLB teams were using the Juggs that they were just standing around using hairdryers? At $800, I don't think the Jugs is a piece of junk or something that is "for parents who have no business standing behind the back stop bothering the college coaches and pro scouts as they get little Johnny's reading". Maybe a cheap Bushnell, but not a Jugs. If college and pro scouts are looking at him, he isn't "little Johnny" anymore anyway.

If you look at this post as well as the others that have been on this board, everyone says that MOST of the scouts and pros use the Stalker. Obviously, there are still some using the Jugs. The other thing is, how inaccurate can it be? Worst case scenario from what I have heard is that on SOME pitches, it MAY be 1 or 2 mph off. Other times the Stalker is a little higher. Once again, they sound pretty close to me.

LHPMom, based on what BOF says, sounds like the Stalker gun was reading the pitch when it reached the plate. Jugs when it left the hand.

quote:

Originally posted by LHPMom2012:

The next day the Jugs gunned him about 7 mph faster.
LHPMom2012

Further evidence to the infallible truth found here at HSBBW.

We now have a new corollary to the Dad – 7 rule; Ask mom –7.

Actually the Stalker did give both reads -- at the plate it was 6 mph lower.

LHPMom

Six mph slower than the 7 mph slower than the Jugs?

OK I will get a little serious here. These guns are electronic devices that can, and do have problems. I know this since I have a Stalker and use it often and have seen variations due to set up problems, battery charging, improper angles, picking up bats, batted balls, reflections off of metal, even pointing it and pulling the trigger correctly. Scouts & pitching coaches who use these things every day have all this figured out and know how to use them properly. They also have their devices calibrated regularly. For everyone else, (myself included) they can be a useful tool, but can also be inaccurate and cause problems with pitchers trying to throw to the gun instead of pitching, and parents worrying about how hard (or not) little Johnny (or big) is throwing.

I use it as a way to measure the long-term development of my son’s velocity and more importantly the speed variations he has throwing his various pitches. I also use it to game chart pitchers for the HS coach so he can discuss with his kids how they are doing and developing and what they were throwing in a particular game. We also use it as a way to scout competitive teams and see what they are throwing at us.

We never give velocities to pitchers while they are in a game. Only the coach and his staff get the report. If someone asks me how hard so and so is throwing then I usually just give the working velocity of his FB. They are great tools but can also be a distraction.

As far as the differences between the two guns the Jugs is a fine piece of equipment, they generally (as BBMan pointed out not always) read 1-2 MPH slower than the Stalker and don’t have the range. There are lots of threads here with more details if you want to scan through the history.

Bballman,

Yes.

LHPMom