Kevin Baker's book is here!

Kevin Baker's book is here!
"... an exemplary sports book..." Kirkus Reviews

Monday, June 15, 2015

Moneyball may have run its course - (SEE Redsocks, Boston) - but the Rays plan to unlock the power of digital bio-mechanics

We have come a long way from pitch counts.

The Tampanzi will be the first MLB franchise to install Kinatrax, "a markerless motion-capture system," which will provide the Rays with secret super-cool uber-data on every pitcher's personal, 3-D, bio-mechanical motion sensitive magnetic torque impression. It's really simple. Imagine the pitcher hurling inside in a giant, invisible MRI tube, while MIT lab-coats in the Rays clubhouse study print-outs for pertinent data, such as - well - balls and strikes.

By installing Kinatrax at Tropicana Field, not only do the Rays get to analyze their own pitchers, they can track opponents’ biomechanics. Exactly how they will interpret the data is unclear, especially in the immediate future, but years worth of data could provide patterns that show typical biomechanical traits of pitchers who get hurt vs. those who stay healthy. 

This comes just as Moneyball - the Oscar-nominated metric system championed by the Oakland A's, and famously copied by the Redsocks - seems to have stalled. But hey, you never know.

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