PG Trackman Data

The list is calculated based on live readings throughout the tournament.

 

As to where it goes --- this is something i hope and expect PG will soon address. JP hit a HR 103 mph off the bat 400 feet into the wind according to Trackman, but it's lost because only the Top 10 off-the-bat velocities are published.

 

 

Shoveit, at least they got your names correct. For my son's team, it showed players who were not rostered per PG website. I.e. John Smith was pitching but on Trackman it showed the name as Fred Jones. But oh well, neat feature. I wish I had subscribed earlier in the tournament. 

Yeah My son sent me the list from this past summer so it was not the correct list. PG responded and kindly reminded me that that was an old list.

Trackman data from Jupiter is posted. Glad to see the numbers and learn a bit about the correlation between velocity and spin rate.My son and i were really interested in his CU spin rate and found it interesting where he was with it. I know Jupiter is about scouts etc but we believe it is a great way to see where you stack up with the other players in the event.

 

I also noticed that the top velocity guys were not on the top FB spin rate list? Interesting...i guess if they were, they would be un-hittable? Since Higher spin rate = swing for strikes combined with their top velos.

 

Trackman appears to be all about accuracy, repeatability and acquiring more data than radar. It appears to be more accurate that radar guns ? ( i assume since they count to .10's of mph)......so i have two questions:

 

1. Neidert (local kid we know of) was blogged at 96 and not listed on Trackman at that number...they have him at 94.8 (95 on a gun i assume?)

 

2. Why was i able to capture a FB at 2578 spin rate (92.3mph) in the bottom of the 5th inning, 3-2 count with 2 outs and they don't have that pitch listed? BTW, it would be the highest FB spin rate and i assume if they missed that,  others could be on the Top list as well? The kid actually had 5 FB spin rates higher than the one listed in the article.

 

I know this is an emerging technology for baseball and especially PG, but i can only assume one of 3 things:

1.Trackman doesn't track every pitch and/or isnt as accurate as it is sold to be.

2.They miss pieces of data along the way (Sensor to Processor)

3. Just plain make mistakes when compiling the stats.

 

http://www.perfectgame.org/Art...w.aspx?article=10678

 

I know this is a great tool and enjoyed subscribing to the service in Jupiter to see the data. If you could compile the data or export it via excel for your game/pithcer of choice it would be much more useful to the customer.

 

 

I also used TrackMan down in Jupiter this weekend.  Great tool.  It’s awesome to be able to see velo and spin rate on not only on your guy but on some of the other pitchers in your game, and in the games on surrounding fields.  I did notice that some of the games were not tracked or were not tracked accurately.  I know the equipment was in place on all of the fields, but not sure it was always being utilized.

 

I also had the opportunity to use Trackman at the Area Code Games earlier this summer … Couple of observations:  (1)  The velocities that it produced were not necessarily the one’s used by PG in the follow up player profiles.  I had screen grabs of velo’s from Trackman that were 1-2 MPH higher than what PG used, so I’m not sure if PG uses Trackman as the default for velo.  (2) Trackman had some technical glitches (mostly connectivity issues) in Long Beach.  I chatted with a Rep at their booth, and he felt bad about it.  He ended up sending me a “Game Report” for my kids outing.  It was an incredible 8 page summary of his pitches, broken down with graphs and charts on Velo, spin rates, release slots, location, extension (very important, but rarely measured), averages and an overall summary.   By far the most comprehensive analysis I’ve ever seen. 

 

IMO it would be great if they would offer this analysis as a standard follow up to all of the pitchers recorded at an event.  Great tool to measure where you’re at, and how to improve.

I was told by a PG staff member the FB spin rates were averages, not peak rate on highest spin rate pitches. 

I agree with Trackman data being very specific. I was able to get their CEO to send my son's data from Area Code Games to me. IT was very detailed and I found the arm slot breakdown to be very beneficial. It showed my son's arm slot exactly the same on all 4 pitches he throws. It also showed release point of all pitches, my son has exactly the same arm slot and release point on all 4 pitches. I did not know this before hand. If only he threw 95!!!

PG should put this stuff in an XML file and put it online, just like MLB does with PITCH F/X.

 

They could even use the same XML format as Pitch F/X, then sites like Baseball Savant and Brooks could easily access the data.  PG wouldn't be responsible for keeping up with it then.

 

Then, anyone could do anything they want with the data.

Just for the record, Trackman actually owns the data.  They go to great expense to create that data at many of our events.  The reason Trackman data isn't available all over the place is because it was designed for MLB use.  It is VERY expensive equipment and it requires operators.

 

The Trackman model is to sell by subscription the information on individuals. The MLB clubs are subscribers at a different level and get all the information. Bottom line, there is a tremendous investment made in order to compile all the information.  So other than leader boards and individual usage in blogs, stories, etc., we cannot give away all the data.  Hope that makes sense.

That's a strange business model.  They are trying to corner the market on the data.

 

This leaves them open to competitors that just want to sell equipment, and let people have their own data.

 

That would be like Timex owning the data for a stopwatch.  Or Stalker owning the radar readings.

 

 

 

 

 

If Trackman equipment is very expensive then the number of customers would be small.  However, the number of customers willing to pay a small amount for the data (or better yet, subscribe to monthly access) could very well be huge and recurring.  Many industries are moving to a subscription model for this reason.  Timex watches are cheap enough that it would be more trouble to buy the data than to just buy the watch.  On the other hand, there might be money to be made buying a Stalker and taking readings of pitches and exit speeds and selling the data to parents for a few bucks a pop...

Yup, read an older article that said systems were around $25K each. I'm fine with the subscription model, would like to have a bit more access to the data. I really enjoyed watching the live pitch results and can only imagine what else can be done when working with mechanics, release point etc at the college level. Coach Thompson at Mississippi State showed us lots of information from the Doppler system they have there and the data points were mind-boggling.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems to me if you have already collected all of the data, why wouldn't you want to generate revenue from it?  Trackman has set up a subscription service at the events ($13 for real time access to the whole tournament), wouldn't it be easy to sell summary reports on individual pitchers after the event?  

 

Given that I got a glimpse at the info via a freebie at Area Codes, I would definitely pay some kind of fee for a post-tournament report.

Makes perfect sense, PG. I enjoyed tracking every pitch in JP's games (and other games) on the iPad -- for a small investment of something like $12 for all games.

 

I have a suggestion: Work with Trackman to highlight the <top batting exit speeds + distance>. The Top 10 exit speeds Trackman posted below are usefulto coaches and scouts, I'm sure, but exit speed plus distance would seem useful as well.

 

Put another way: I'm still learning, but wouldn't a scout or coach be more impressed with a 103 mph, 400-ft home run than a 106.1, 40-ft foul ball?

 

Probably both are significant.

If people have questions about Trackman's accuracy/precision, I highly recommend reading this (quite dense) thesis done at Washington State in combination with Dr. Alan Nathan, one of the foremost experts on baseball physics:

 

http://baseball.physics.illino...fMartinThesisWSU.pdf

Great information Kyle. My head hurts. Here's an article i read with pictures, actually video...i'm a visual learner.

 

http://www.baseballprospectus.....php?articleid=22362

 

 

Nice article on the PG Website about Trackman and some results out of Jupiter.  The article is not focused on the results but rather uses a few examples in showing the correlation between spin rates and pitching effectiveness - even highlights a "soft tosser" (below 90 LOL) with high spin rates and very good results.