MLB’s Statcast brings data-driven baseball to your living room
Anyone who has watched Atlanta Braves shortstop Andrelton Simmons play defense has likely uttered the phase “how did he do that?” With Statcast, now we’ll know.
Remember those fancy graphics you saw during the All Star Game, and the playoffs, last year? That’s Statcast. The technology is set to make its 2015 debut during an MLB Network Showcase game between the Washington Nationals and the St. Louis Cardinals on Tuesday.
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MLB.com describes Statcast as “an innovative player-tracking technology that produces revolutionary data.” In order to get a better sense of what that means, check out this video:
There’s a lot to break down here. While we aren’t 100 percent certain how MLB Network will roll out the new technology, we have some ideas of what we’ll see Tuesday. If Bryce Harper smashes a home run, we’ll have instant access to the velocity of the ball off the bat. If Lance Lynn picks up a strikeout, we’ll have access to his spin rate, release point data and movement.
The implementation of Statcast into a broadcast will not be a one-time deal. The league is expected to push the technology during national broadcasts and locally televised games in the coming weeks. The goal here is to give fans a better idea of what players do on the field, according to the Sporting News.
“Our hope is that this, for baseball, will be one of the largest advances in instant replay that we’ve seen in the last 50 years,” MLB Business & Media president Bob Bowman said. “We’ll try to make the game more interesting by describing what our defensive players do, and our offensive players do.”
In recent years, the popularity of advanced stats has grown within the game. Teams are using these figures, as well as private, in-house metrics, to make decisions, and a certain subset of fans have shown an interest in those numbers.
With Statcast, the hope is that some of those figures can become mainstream. We likely won’t see FIP or WAR on a Statcast broadcast, but knowing a player’s speed and range can help us get a better idea of their defensive abilities. Current defensive metrics have their issues, so Statcast could be a huge help as far as that’s concerned.
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The key here will be context. Not every fan has embraced the statistical revolution, and presenting more numbers without explanation could detract from the regular fan’s experience.
Knowing how much range Andrelton Simmons covers, and how hard he can throw the ball after making a diving stop, is fun, but it might be more helpful to compare his figures to the league-average. In the early implementations of the technology, we haven’t seen any baselines for this type of thing.
How often does the average shortstop range that far to their right? What’s the average speed at which a ball is released from a shortstop’s hand after this type of play? This is the type of knowledge that could enhance the fan experience.
Overall, this should be a good thing. Having more information about the game is never a bad thing, particularly when that data is explained well. MLB Network has been prepping for the release Statcast for some time, and, based on the many Statcast videos on their website, it’s clear the station wants its broadcasters to embrace the new technology.
The important thing to keep in mind is that this is just the beginning. How these numbers are used, and what gets stressed by broadcasters, will likely change as more data is gathered. Tuesday might be the start, but things will improve as time goes on.
All told, there’s real potential for Statcast to revolutionize the game. It may take time to fine tune the technology, and make it palatable for some fans, but Statcast could be a major step forward in our understanding of the game.
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Chris Cwik is a writer for Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter! Follow @Chris_Cwik
