Division 1 Baseball finally started up again after almost a year break, with the last game being on March 12, 2020. This post will show the last pitch thrown over some of the D1 Conferences. The 4 main Conferences that BaseballCloud has pitch data from last year were: The ACC, Pac-12, SEC, and Sunbelt. For... Continue Reading →
College Baseball Preview: Projections, All-Americans, and More
College baseball is just hours away after a near year-long hiatus. Fans are of course excited, but coaches have been dealing with COVID-19 protocols, quarantine policies, and testing results for the past five months; so they’re also itching to start playing games that actually matter. Some schools unfortunately won’t get to start their season until... Continue Reading →
Aroldis Chapman and More Velocity Charts
In my last post I walked through an analyst’s perspective of crafting a visual, but never got to talking about how that particular visual could be used to derive insight. So as much as I would love to continue discussing nuances, let’s talk about what these beauties have to offer. Flashback to over a year... Continue Reading →
Velocity Density Plots and Smoothing
At the bottom of Yu Darvish’s baseball savant page is a wavy mess. Distributions of different colors bobbing up and down indicating the speed uncertainty batters face when stepping in the box against one of the best pitchers in the MLB. It may not be the most practically helpful to a pitcher, but it was... Continue Reading →
Cesar Valdez and The Dead Fish
Last season, the Orioles bullpen was a pleasant surprise. In a campaign where the club wasn't able to escape the basement of the AL East, their bullpen represented a bright spot in an otherwise dismal season. Each of their relievers had a different way to beat opponents. Tanner Scott's upper-90's fastball could blow by most... Continue Reading →
BCTips: Heat Map Update on BCTeam
Last night a big update was made to the Batted Ball tab on player profiles for BCTeam! After some time of just showing average exit velocity, we have added six additional dropdown options to the Heat Map visual for both pitchers and hitters. Each of these metrics will be broken down in this blog. Average... Continue Reading →
What Goes Into an MLB Draft Model: Batted Ball Profiles
Continuing down the unbeaten path of draft models; the last version of this was less than a week ago when I discussed a tricky metric in vertical approach angle. This time I'll be going over a rather broad pool of data. Batted ball profiles can be as simple as exit velocity and launch angle, or... Continue Reading →
What Goes Into An MLB Draft Model: Vertical Approach Angle
One of the more common terms used in the analytics community is 'model'. Whether it’s a model built to predict how much a specific metric can predict the future BABIP of a player, or looking at the best ways to predict run production; all models have one thing in common, using data to create a... Continue Reading →
The Underrated Benefit of Long Toss
I have always loved long toss. As someone who has always struggled with command, the ability to just launch the ball was liberating. As it became an everyday habit, my velocity began to climb. Training everything to fire in-sync, full speed certainly aids the body’s ability to do so on the mound, but it may... Continue Reading →
A Discussion of Spin Efficiency
We have long been aware of the fact that baseballs spin when traveling through the air and that Major League Pitchers are able to generate quite a lot of spin when they release their pitches (average spin rate on Major League pitches was around 2270 RPM’s last year). It has been common knowledge for a... Continue Reading →
Derek Holland Throws a Unicorn Pitch
In 2018, Derek Holland was given a second chance to revive his baseball career. Holland was a former star for the Texas Rangers, helping them clinch two AL Pennants in 2010 and 2011, but he had fallen on hard times. The 2017 season represented a massive struggle for the southpaw. Statistically, he was one of... Continue Reading →
BCTips: Release Point Tab
BaseballCloud’s platform is changing the way players and coaches analyze and learn from both practice and game data. BCTips blogs will highlight the functionality of different features of our products and explore the various ways they can be used for player development. If you are a coach or player and have logged into your BCTeam account in... Continue Reading →
You Actually Can Observe a Lot From Watching
The title of this piece is one of my favorite Yogi Berra quotes ever. It is so direct, makes sense in some ways, but then again not really. Lately, I’ve been trying my best to master R. The process has included learning how to scrape data, manipulate data, and create ways to visualize data. I... Continue Reading →
BCTips: Spray Chart Tooltip
BaseballCloud's platform is changing the way players and coaches analyze and learn from both practice and game data. BCTips blogs will highlight the functionality of different features of our products and explore the various ways they can be used for player development. This is an update that has probably been one of the most (if... Continue Reading →
Marginal Benefit In The Offseason
The Padres are maniacs and I absolutely love it. Yu Darvish, Blake Snell, Dinelson Lamet, Chris Paddack… it is like they have gone wild on The Show’s franchise mode. How they managed these blockbusters without dealing their top prospects is worth its own conversation, but today I want to discuss the idea of marginal benefit.... Continue Reading →