Sunday, March 2, 2014

MLBAM Releases Details On New Player Tracker


Major League Baseball Advanced Media has released details on a new player tracker system and it could be huge for the game, especially for us in the sabermetrics community. This new system will track everything, and I mean everything, that goes on when the players are on the field. It will track the players route to the ball, the ball, maybe even the peanut vendor in the crowd, it's that impressive. We will finally be able to analyze and use everything in the game to evaluate a player now, not just some numbers on a stat sheet. This combines the stats and the eye test into one tell all system, I like it.

The plan is to have this system in all 30 Major League parks by the 2015 season but we will only see it is three stadiums in 2014, CitiField, Miller Park (imagine that Bud Selig), and Target Field.

Mark Newman of MLB.com broke the story, here is a quote from his piece SEEN HERE:

The goal is to revolutionize the way people evaluate baseball, by presenting for the first time the tools that connect all actions that happen on a field to determine how they work together. This new datastream will enable the industry to understand the whole play on the field — batting, pitching, fielding and baserunning — and enable new metrics for evaluation by clubs, scouts, players and fans.

For instance, on a brilliant, game-saving diving catch by an outfielder, this new system will let us understand what created that outcome. Was it the quickness of his first step, his acceleration? Was it his initial positioning? What if the pitcher had thrown a different pitch? Everything will be connected for the first time, providing a tool for answers to questions like this and more.

We have been having issues embedding videos from certain places, MLB.com being one of them, so if the embed doesn't work please click the link and watch the video. Wow.. that's all I have left, wow.

2 comments:

  1. I think I will like it very much!

    On another note; I went to the batting cage at the high school near here. I put on a very tight back brace down low to impede my hip movement a bit, I knew there would be a change in what I could and couldn't do but wanted to find out.
    Try it some time, then come to me and say our 3rd baseman is nothing without his FIX. One can put anything in their bodies, but they still have to hit the ball solid, right?
    I found out a hip injury is even worse than I first thought.
    1-Your balance is thrown way off!
    2-You are restricted in your rotation!
    3-Timing is shot if one lifts their front leg (I don't, but did)!
    4-Fastballs go by one, mostly on the inner half!
    5-Bat speed is about 80%!
    6-Power is all in the upper body, because of many of the things above!
    Bottom line is, I still am not saying his name but, this guy could have done about what he has, even without all those Fix's. And I am not going to forgive him, for wasting a God given talent as he had...one in a MMMMM!
    He is still one of the greatest all around players I have ever seen, and one of the few real 5 tool players with one other tool only a few players have...baseball Instincts!
    Joe "D", Teddy "Ballgame", W. Mays, Jeter, and a few other greats and not so great had that 6th Tool!

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    Replies
    1. Yes it will allow us to evaluate everything that we never could before. It takes into account the old school eye test with the new school ability of sabermetrics.

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Sorry for the Capatcha... Blame the Russians :)