Lake Point Velocities

I believe the scoreboard is using the trackman and the listed velo's are being gunned by the PG scorekeeper.  That would likely explain the difference.  I would also have to assume that they put more faith in the accuracy of the hand gun rather than the trackman.

if the velocities are going to show that much variance, why even use trackman, unless the PG scorekeeper stopped recording. Son was throwing 85-88 early and bumped it up to 89-90+ in 4th inning. It seems scorekeeper will take early velo then stop recording as game progresses,

In response to score board an Trackman in relation to radar gun, they are reading the same except for Trackman using the decimal point. So in PG not recording velo's correctly, its a matter of score keeper probably not paying too much attention to Velo after the 1st few innings unless a pitching change occurs.

I'm also gonna say that the scorekeeper likely stopped after 2 or 3 innings.  HS aged kids typically don't see a velocity increase after 3 or 4 innings...so the scorekeeper probably just figured he doesn't need to do it any  more.

I know PGs stock in trade is getting this data right, but there are a lot of discrepancies in the velocities they report, and anecdotally it appears to be worse at LP than what they record elsewhere (maybe they're actually relying more on the automated system there, IDK?)  My son's team has played 9 games there this year, and two different pitchers on his team have recorded velocities substantially above what they actually threw in the games they've appeared in, and another pitcher had velocities on the scoreboard there that were at least 1 or 2 ticks higher than recorded in the PG database on the high end and 1 or 2 slower on the low end.

 

Our pet theory is that the equipment they use is registering the batted ball velocities as the pitch velocities at least some of the time, and whoever's job it is to weed those out (if it is someone's job) isn't catching all of them.

 

On a side note, the system they're using is not great at discerning pitch types.  I saw back to back pitches from a 17u player register as a 74mph fastball and 86mph changeup on the board, and breaking pitches getting registered as fastballs isn't uncommon.  Not sure if there are issues with the hardware setup identifying the pitches, or if it's just that it's better calibrated to identify pitches at velocities closer to college/pro levels and the margin of error gets bigger at lower speeds.

Reply from PGStaff in 3...2...1...

 

(The guy with the 86 mph changeup must have attracted a lot of attention!) 

That would mean maybe a 95-96+ mph FB. back at ya!

I wouldn't worry about it, if a coach or scout sees what he likes he will take out the gun and see the readings for himself.  JMO

My kid was always burned by this (it was his fault though).  He refuses to throw a 4SFB early.  2SFB always move and get people out.  After he's ahead in the game, he would flash a few 4 seamers.

Thanks for all the responses. I sent a dialog to PG Staff but no response yet.

We just used the TrackMan equipment at the National Showcase.  The only difference on any pitch was one mph between TM and our Stalker and the RaVid.  This was based on well over 100 pitchers.  We did notice the pitches were labeled incorrectly at times.  Personally I don't see that as much of a problem.  I think everyone knows that peak velocity comes from fastballs.

 

I will say that anyone expecting perfection in technology or human beings is likely to end up disappointed.  The simple way to voice opinions and get results is to send the complaint or concern to (staff@perfectgame.org) that is what some people do.  It gives us a chance to follow up and check things out.  We do make mistakes at times!

 

Being that TrackMan compiles data on both the pitched ball and the batted ball it doesn't make the mistake of getting the two confused, like a radar gun does at times. 

 

 

Pg. Thanks for response. I do agree that there was no mistake in fastball velocity and batted ball exit speed. I do believe that the score keeper most likely missed or paid no attention to velocity in the 4th inning since pitch count was increasing, however that's when the velo jumped to 89-90+. When looking at daily leader board and saw 88 it was a bit disappointing. We've been part of PG for more than 5 years and it's a great organization. Our son has definetly benefited. Thank you.

Hunter10,

 

I know that TrackMan data is compiled.  So your son's velocity (every pitch) should be fairly easy to find and correct it.  No excuse for our people missing it, but truth is it is extremely rare to see a pitcher reach his max velocity in his 4th inning.  However, it does happen once in a great while.

 

I do understand the importance of accurate information.

 

 

Thanks again PG. I sent you a PM

Okay so it wasn't just me, good to know! 

 

In a 12u tourney at Lake Point my 12u son was struck out with a 79.2 mph pitch, according to the scoreboard, yet the fastball record for the event showed 77 as the high.  We were all wondering about that but thought maybe because it was 12u things were working a bit different.  Kudos to those Texas boys, they had multiple pitchers registering past 75mph, I shudder to think what they will be capable of at age 17!

PG, your staff was right on it. After researching, the correction was made. After all the comments on this topic, it surely was not the intent on score keeper to overlook but instead unusual for a starting pitcher to increase velocity going into 4th inning. Thank you.

Happy we could help.  I understand the importance of accuracy.  Nice that we have the ability to check this type of data.  Problem is when we first hear about it on a message board.  I don't think we have another PG person that follows this site.  So if I didn't we wouldn't even know about any of this.  Then when something is posted, it creates a line of people that believe they saw something that was incorrect.  We do make mistakes at times, but often we simply find out there was no mistake.  Sometimes a mistake can occur on the transfer to the scoreboard, but all TrackMan data is automatically stored in the database. It then can be checked with our Stalker and RaVid readings.  RaVid might be the best of all because it actually shows the video of the pitcher with the velocity imbedded on every pitch.

 

Anyway, if anyone thinks we have made a mistake, the best way to get something done is to email staff@perfectgame.org.  I sometimes will go days without logging on to HSBBW. We never want to under value any players performance.

In reference to PG velocity, does the percentile ranking apply to all pitchers or do RHP and LHP get lumped seperately?  For a RHP throwing 90 (say 88-90 range) what is the equivalent speed for LHP in terms of grading out the two (all other aspects being identical)?  Are we talking 5 mph difference or is it generally less than that.