Started By
Message
LSU Baseball Early Adopters of Advanced Stats
Posted on 3/18/16 at 11:43 am
Posted on 3/18/16 at 11:43 am
I posted this thread on the Tiger Rant, but another poster (Keltic Tiger) asked that I copy it here to get the perspective of the other SEC schools, especially those who don't use it.
The Advocate - Baton Rouge
The Advocate - Baton Rouge
quote:
For the teams that can afford this luxury, this is the future of college baseball. Twenty-nine programs, including LSU, Mississippi State, TCU, Vanderbilt and South Carolina, use Sydex BATS — an advanced scouting video software program that, among other things, allows teams to cut recorded games pitch-by-pitch, sorting the results by count, pitch type, hit type and creating spray charts for each player.
TrackMan, a radar-measured tracking system of spin rates and velocities — both on balls off the bat and out of a pitcher’s hand — that offered LSU and former director of baseball operations Ross Brezovsky the program as part of a collegiate pilot program in 2012.
As cleared by the NCAA Compliance office, Major League Baseball subsidized the data collected from the 12 schools that participated in the program. Brezovsky was then tasked with presenting the proposal to Paul Mainieri — his traditionalist boss and former coach who, to that point, had been averse to the technologies starting to invade baseball.
This post was edited on 3/18/16 at 11:44 am
Posted on 3/18/16 at 11:45 am to ell_13
quote:
Afford this luxury
This should go over well
Posted on 3/18/16 at 11:46 am to geauxnavybeatbama
LSU's baseball team is one of the few that makes money. Then you have to have a coach that buys into it and can find it in his budget. Trackman is NOT cheap. Most golfers should be familiar with it in some way.
Posted on 3/18/16 at 11:53 am to ell_13
I guess early adopter within the college game. This type of advanced scouting has been around in MLB for some time.
Posted on 3/18/16 at 12:01 pm to Farmer1906
Yes. The article addresses that.
Posted on 3/18/16 at 12:04 pm to ell_13
Yeah, I've actually seen it being used and it's impressive, although I'm not sure how many practical applications it has in terms of it being an individual teaching tool.
You're either a hitter or not. You're either a pitcher or not. It does hold a wow factor though, for those who are very good at either ... which is how I saw it being employed. Not sure Ray Tanner was getting much from it at the time.
As a scouting tool though, for coaches trying to garner every tidbit of information on an opposing club ... yeah, I think it has a lot of potential provided you can get the numbers on opposing pitcher, in particular, prior to having to face them. Because, unless you share the info with other coaches, or accumulate data in your park on any given hurler over time ... you're not going to have the skipper of the opposing team provide it to you in advance. And by this I mean, It's not like football where two programs might agree to swap complete game film ... which they never agree to do anymore these days anyways, except perhaps on a high school level.
You're either a hitter or not. You're either a pitcher or not. It does hold a wow factor though, for those who are very good at either ... which is how I saw it being employed. Not sure Ray Tanner was getting much from it at the time.
As a scouting tool though, for coaches trying to garner every tidbit of information on an opposing club ... yeah, I think it has a lot of potential provided you can get the numbers on opposing pitcher, in particular, prior to having to face them. Because, unless you share the info with other coaches, or accumulate data in your park on any given hurler over time ... you're not going to have the skipper of the opposing team provide it to you in advance. And by this I mean, It's not like football where two programs might agree to swap complete game film ... which they never agree to do anymore these days anyways, except perhaps on a high school level.
Posted on 3/18/16 at 12:19 pm to scrooster
The implementation is also being subsidized by MLB. So while the benefits to the colleges are outlined well in the article (recruiting to an extent, and opponent scouting), the big advantage is to the MLB clubs that get more data for draft evaluations.
Because there is no way they're subsidizing it without an info share agreement.
I still like it though, and there will probably be more advantages to come from it longer the college teams can play around with it.
If I were a school like UL-Lafayette, I'd try to get the system installed at my field. They host a bunch of JUCO games throughout the year (central location, turf field) and could use that as an evaluation advantage for recruiting JUCO kids.
Because there is no way they're subsidizing it without an info share agreement.
I still like it though, and there will probably be more advantages to come from it longer the college teams can play around with it.
If I were a school like UL-Lafayette, I'd try to get the system installed at my field. They host a bunch of JUCO games throughout the year (central location, turf field) and could use that as an evaluation advantage for recruiting JUCO kids.
Posted on 3/18/16 at 12:25 pm to scrooster
With the SEC Network, you don't need to swap. The film is there. The article talks about employing college students to sit through film and enter the data points you need. At least that's for BATS. The trackman data can be hoarded.
As for individual use, the MLB definitely uses it that way. But these college coaches see it as impeding on their space. I'm talking about trackman and thinking of golf applications. Golfers from the age of 8 to 80 can use it and learn something about their swing on video and using the data that they would never have gotten from a coach with only his eyes. If I were a player in today's game, I'd want that info and feedback.
As for individual use, the MLB definitely uses it that way. But these college coaches see it as impeding on their space. I'm talking about trackman and thinking of golf applications. Golfers from the age of 8 to 80 can use it and learn something about their swing on video and using the data that they would never have gotten from a coach with only his eyes. If I were a player in today's game, I'd want that info and feedback.
Back to top
Follow SECRant for SEC Football News