Baseball has long been a sport that relies heavily upon statistics. Now there is a new series of offensive and defensive metrics that the MLB has introduced using their Statcast tracking technology.
Statcast, which uses a combination of radar and camera technology, is able to ascertain a number of statistics that have not been readily available in the past. For every batter, Statcast is able to track the velocity of the hit, along with the spin rate of a pitch and launch angle of the ball off the bat. When a player makes it on base, the system can determine the length of the lead that the runner takes and the speed at which the player runs the base paths.
On defense, Statcast has three primary functions in adding to existing stats. First, it gathers the reaction time that a fielder takes to a hit, in addition to how efficient the fielder’s route to the ball is. It also measures the strength of players’ arms for their throws.
The system was tested out at three different fields in the 2014—Citi Field, Miller Park and Target Field. Then, in 2015, it was added to every ballpark in the MLB.
While the MLB and every team has had access to Statcast, now the MLB will release the information to the general public (like the NBA does with their SportVU stats), complete with leaderboards for the top performer in every category.
So far, the MLB has released some of the Statcast leaderboard information, in the form Giancarlo Stanton’s extraordinarily powerful hitting ability. Statcast tracked the Miami Marlins outfielder’s hardest hit clocked in at 120.3 miles per hour and his hardest-hit home run was tracked at 119.2 miles per hour.
Now, we all know that Stanton can hit amazingly hard, so it will be interesting to see what other stats the MLB digs up with Statcast. The full leaderboards showcasing the newly available Statcast stats will be up this week, ahead of the All-Star Game on July 14.
