Are you excited for MLBAM's new play tracking system?

[Laika]

No?

 

Well you should be!

 

http://m.mlb.com/video/v31405521/heywards-catch-through-bams-new-tracking-technology/?partnerId=as_mlb_20140302_19373294

 

From my understanding, the new technology uses both radar and a dual-camera system to track the ball and all players at all time. Stuff like speed off the bat, leads on the basepaths, routes, jump times, ball hang times, etc. will all become numerical, analyzable data.

 

It sounds like all of this information will be publicly available and shared amongst teams, like pitchF/X. This new technology seems to overlap with the well known pitchF/X, the proprietary and secret hitF/X, and the promised but yet non-existent fieldF/X. PitchF/X will be used in 2014, but it's future after that is "TBD".

 

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.

 

There will be something for everyone, far beyond what has been available in the past. Miller Park in Milwaukee, Target Field in Minnesota and Citi Field in New York will be operational for this tracking in 2014. The plan is to start rolling out the rest this season so that all 30 ballparks are operational by 2015 Opening Day…

 

“There’s a speed component to the game from an offensive side, too. You can start to see how quickly they get down the baseline as they make contact, and as they hit a ground ball, or as they hit a double into the gap. If they didn’t score, we always say that the game is a matter of inches, well if he gets thrown out or he is safe at home, you can actually go back and measure it from an evaluation tool, and say, did he get a big enough lead, was he running hard enough, did he take the right angle, you now have the ability to measure that, which we’ve never been able to do.”

 

 

[flafson]

Cool stuff, they should put it on R.A to see his spin rate.

[John_Havok]

http://www.bluejaysmessageboard.com/threads/2323-SSAC14-is-today-and-the-MLBAM-showed-some-cool-things

[Laika]

Sorry, I don't read any threads that Angrioter starts.

[G-Snarls]

Sorry, I don't read any threads that Angrioter starts.

 

LOL

 

Post of the day

 

Angry curse-filled Spanish rant coming up at any moment...

[GD]

Merge pls.

[G-Snarls]

Merge pls.

 

I'm frightened to see what happens if I merged this with the angrioter thread. The Matrix might break or something. LOL

[John_Havok]

Can't wait to see Billy Hamilton's top speed

[GD]

I'm frightened to see what happens if I merged this with the angrioter thread. The Matrix might break or something. LOL

 

Let's find out

[Laika]

Seven TB per game. Hoooooooleeeeeeeeeee fawk.

 

The system is integrating a whole game worth of video and tracking data from multiple angles, so I guess it wouldn't be too hard to imagine someone creating a way for the useful data output to be much, much smaller. Turn everything into raw numbers, remove the useless information, etc.

[Laika]

I don't even know what a petabyte is.

[flafson]

It's the name that comes after terabtye. So you have kilobyte, megabyte, gigabyte, terabyte and then petabyte.

[GD]

This looks incredibly interesting, but it's not without some hurdles apparently,

 

 

 

Holy f***ing f***.

 

http://regressing.deadspin.com/mlb-announces-revolutionary-new-fielding-tracking-syste-1534200504/@kylenw

 

Jesus mother of s***.

 

A petabyte is 1024 Terabytes. Wow.

[Abomination]

Guess the public can't use it lol. 17 PETABYTES in a season.

 

It won't be anywhere near that high in terms of usable data. Think about what we already get from PitchFX and add a few multiples and we probably get roughly the analytical dataset this will produce.

[TheHurl]

it will do so much towards removing myths and poor perceptions. I love seeing that Heyward catch off the Turner hit last year and seeing that Reed Johnson was only 1.8 feet further away at the point of contact. Heyward got there and Johnson wasn't even in the screen (not that I thought there was anything close in breaking speed between Heyward and Johnson). There is always those comments like "Rasmus got a horrible jump on that" would be amazing to be able to someday throw up the video and say guess that was wrong.

[Fearthedoc]

Guess the public can't use it lol. 17 PETABYTES in a season.

 

I can see it now. Rogers sending me an e-mail saying:

 

You have eclipsed your monthly data plan by approximately 2.3 Petabytes of online streaming. You are subject to a $208,182 penalty.

[8D]

I can see it now. Rogers sending me an e-mail saying:

 

LMFAO. Robbers, I mean Rogers would so do that.

[G-Snarls]

I can see it now. Rogers sending me an e-mail saying:

 

LOL

 

Could help fund the Jays though.

[Laika]

Think about how awesome MLB.com Gameday will be, or could be, when this finally rolls out.

 

Laptops will become a mandatory TV viewing accessory for all baseball nerds like us.

[TheHurl]

Think about how awesome MLB.com Gameday will be, or could be, when this finally rolls out.

 

Laptops will become a mandatory TV viewing accessory for all baseball nerds like us.

 

and traditionalists will instantly respond with "who cares how far the OF ran to get to the ball, just enjoy the game". Like knowledge is somehow never fun.

[Laika]

and traditionalists will instantly respond with "who cares how far the OF ran to get to the ball, just enjoy the game". Like knowledge is somehow never fun.

 

The gGeneral fan population seems to be pretty split on current defensive metrics. I wonder if metrics based on this new tracking info will be more palatable to the masses, especially if we are lucky enough to have this information infect our TV broadcasts in real time. When fans can see and be told in real time that Matt Kemp's jumps and routes suck, or that Jeter's first step is terrible, it will help.

 

Might also help gold glove idiocy!

[Boxcar]

I can't wait until it shows how good Pedroia is.

 

Or how much better Escobar is than Reyes.

[G-Snarls]

I can't wait until it shows how good Pedroia is.

 

Or how much better Escobar is than Reyes.

 

I don't want any more proof of either of those things. LOL. We already know them to be true.

[Caper]

Oh Jesus Christ..... I thought the nerds were bad before. Wait until the have a bizzilion TBs of data to play with.

[Caper]

It would be funny if the new big computer machine started punching all the data together and spit out a little piece of paper that said Cabrera was the obvious choice for MVP.

[Caper]

I don't even know what a petabyte is.

 

About 2 pounds... Oh wait... That's a henweigh.

[Boxcar]

What if it shows that Derek Jeter and Adam Jones are the greatest defenders to ever play the game, and that Brett Lawrie and Colby Rasmus are playing in wheelchairs?

 

That would be groundbreaking and pretty much everyone would have to eat crow.

[KingKat]

That would be groundbreaking and pretty much everyone would have to eat crow.

 

That raises a good point. This could potentially settle a lot of debates about the accuracy of different defensive metrics. This will probably determine which statistical approach comes closest to reality.

[Abomination]

That raises a good point. This could potentially settle a lot of debates about the accuracy of different defensive metrics. This will probably determine which statistical approach comes closest to reality.

 

All the defensive metrics suffer from lack of data, which this should mostly resolve. I'm not sure that finding out which of the previous metrics was best really matters, because this data set will cause new ones to be created that take factors into account the previous ones couldn't.

[John_Havok]

I just hope this does get released publicly, of which there is no guarantee.