Stalker vs Jugs

Pretty much everyone uses stalkers now so there is your choice.

Okay the last thing I want to do is deceive anyone. I will use the Stalker. 

I had to send my Stalker II back to the factory it is not reading correctly (to low) which was confirmed by the higher readings at Perfect Game last weekend. There is probally a higher quality Stalker version, but I am not confident in Stalker II.

What's the view on the pocket radar units?  I saw several coaches using them at Headfirst.  I was considering picking one up used.  Are they as accurate as the others?

I should mention my radar gun is the Stalker Sport 2. I have not heard anything from actual owners of the pocket radar. It appears some guns are fine for larger objects at a distance (car), but not for smaller (baseball) even when standing behind the pitcher. Not only did I have my kid complain about the speed the gun was reading, but also his pitching coach said it was off who is a retired MLB 11 Year Pitcher.

I used to have a Juggs gun.  Used it many times next to the Stalker Pro guns.  Never was it more than 1 or 2 mph off.  Sometimes it read higher than the Stalker, sometimes it read lower than the Stalker.  I think it was more of a rounding issue than different readings.

 

I have also seen the pocket radar units.  The only problem with them is timing.  You have to hit the button at the right time.  When they were used correctly, they were pretty much spot on with the Stalkers.  What I would do with these is get a general range that falls in line.  If you have any outliers, either way lower or way higher, ignore them - it was probably user error.

There seems to be a common perception that Jugs guns run 1-2mph faster. I don't know if it's true or not, but the perception has led to a climate where Stalker is used by most scouts and is, therefore, the better comparison tool. I actually believe that, if that's true, it's because the Jugs picks the ball up out of the hand a tick quicker than Stalker and would actually be the more accurate reading. But, a scout knows that if he sees a 94 on a Stalker in your video, he can confidently compare that to other pitchers throwing the same.

I have a pocket radar gun - I don't time it.  I just turn it on and when the ball is released a number pops up.  I've found it to be pretty accurate compared to other guns at games I have been to.  Maybe it's a different model than some others, I don't know.

All radars are 99-100% accurate.

 

The question is, where along the path of the pitched ball from release to the plate, does that radar gun first get it's reading.

 

Some radar like the Pocket Radar, you may get one reading at release and the next reading 10 ft out of the hand.  And you have no way of knowing that it happened.   (So to me, it's useless).

 

Some like the more expensive Ball Coach version runs continuously, so you can be 'sure' that it picked up at release.

 

Guns that display two readings are best - release and plate speed.  Then, if you get the normal 10 mph difference you know that particular reading was correct.

 

Of course, some recent Stalker versions are excellent and are used by scouts, so you would have the same gun they use which is always good.

As best I can tell from reading many old posts, Jugs used to give the 'fast' readings, and other guns were the 'slow' guns.

 

In reality, the older Jugs guns were getting readings closer to the hand (but were actually 2-3 mph slower than today's guns), and the slow guns were giving averages, or midway readings. 

 

I think today's model of Jugs and Stalkers give the same accurate readings.

 

Please correct me if I'm wrong (because I will keep spouting this stuff forever otherwise )