STATCAST

This tracking system has been in all 30 ballparks since the start of the 2015 season, since which we've learned about 'exit' velocity and launch angle, among other things.

Those two, in particular, seem to have already had an effect on the way teams and players approach hitting.

In the Rays' organization, players sitting in an auditorium on the first day of spring training are told that hitters in that franchise are not measured by batting average but by batted-ball exit velocity. ("It's a term they use exclusively, like nothing else matters," says one former Rays player.) The Metrics System: How MLB's Statcast is creating baseball's new arms race

“I know our hitting coach wants you to hit the ball in the air,” (Lester) said. “There’s no slug on the ground. Guys are willing to take their punchouts to hit the ball in the air.” Baseball Is Having a Power Surge, but Nobody Knows Why

Last week Statcast introduced a new, awkward term called 'barrels', i.e., if you hit the ball this hard at this angle, then you too can deliver balls in play with at least a .500 average and 1.500 slugging percentage: New Statcast metric shows highest-value batted balls

http://i.imgur.com/FyXdvnZ.jpg

i guess i didn't know what to expect from statcast apart from cool replays of outfielders' route efficiency, but it seems to be changing hitting, at least, awfully quickly!

Yeah exit velocity is talked about at almost every game. Do you think statcast is changing defense as well?

not as quickly, but given action/reaction, inevitably so

lotsa Statcast-related talk at the Saberseminar; tons of analysis via exit' velocity and launch angle. it's not just Tampa Bay for sure.

surely scouting and developing players with route efficiency and other defensive metrics is in place.

there's no statcast in the minors -- although there are mysterious proprietary systems at certain home fields, the extent of which is unknown.

recognizing a fly ball and adjusting one's route accordingly *seems* like a god-given talent to me, but certainly the stats can't hurt

timely! NYT Mag article on Statcast, mostly as it relates to defense (and Kiermaier, J Bradley Jr)

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/magazine/can-new-technology-bring-baseballs-data-revolution-to-fielding.html?_r=0

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/statcast-wants-to-change-how-were-consuming-baseball-games-160500812.html

more changes afoot

see also http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/statcast-and-the-future-of-war

watch out for those velocity numbers

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/about-all-these-velocity-spikes/

https://deadspin.com/major-league-baseballs-statcast-can-break-sabermetrics-1820987737

if baseball ever plays again, statcast is moving from a radar-based tracking system (good for velocity) to an optical ('hawkeye') system, which purportedly is better for most everything else

intersting developments:

- will track bodies on the level of limbs rather than center of gravity

- beyond exit velocity & launch angle, bat path/speed will be trackable (who swings the hardest? who transfers energy to the ball most efficiently?)

- beyond pitch speed & spin rate, the axis of a pitch's spin and the arrangement of the seams moving around that axis can be tracked, which should reveal a lot more about why some pitchers get more movement

a further disheartening development in taylorism, of course, but also neato

expected batting average on luis robert's 487-foot homer yesterday was .990; i'd be very interested in hearing more about the 1% where that's an out

i don't know, but i really like that version of a boxscore and i'm going to start using it more often

fire emojis a worthy addition to the format

it's awesome! you can just glance at a player with 3 fire emojis and no hits and have an understanding of their luck in that game, and same deal on the pitching side

(for those who didn't click the link, fire emojis are used to designate "hard-hit" balls during a plate of appearance