The Minnesota Twins have joined the defending World Series champion Houston Astros as official users of Blast Motion.
Blast Motion CEO Michael Fitzpatrick has said “well over 50 percent of the teams” use his company’s bat sensor technology (the league’s official bat sensor provider), but only the Astros and Twins have been publicly acknowledged.
The sensors can be either attached to the end of the bat or embedded inside to provide real-time swing analytics in batting practice. The sensors are currently prohibited for game use in the major leagues. Last year, sensors were permitted to be attached to the bat only during rookie ball games — the lowest rung of the minor leagues — though an expansion of that successful pilot program to other levels of the minors is likely.
“As a native Minnesotan and life-long Twins fan, being able to provide solutions and insights to help a great organization become even better is extremely exciting,” Blast Motion president and COO Roger Weingarth said in a statement. “Through our work with the majority of the MLB teams, we’ve seen the positive impact that Blast information has had and I can’t wait to see the benefits it will bring to the Twins. This is going to be a great season for Baseball fans.”
The Carlsbad, Calif.-based company provides sensors, pro team mobile apps and Blast Connect cloud services to support team usage of its swing analyzer. The company also recently released Blast Vision, which applies computer vision techniques on input gleaned from a mobile device’s camera to provide swing result data such as exit velocity and launch angle.
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The Twins returned to the playoffs for the first time in seven years as an American League wild card last season. That was the club’s first season under a new management team led by chief baseball officer Derek Falvey and general manager Thad Levine.
“We are excited to integrate Blast Motion’s technology throughout our entire baseball operations,” Minnesota Twins director of baseball operations Daniel Adler said in a statement. “We look forward to utilizing the valuable data and information that Blast can provide to our coaches and players, with applications across player development, analytics and scouting.”
SportTechie Takeaway:
Bat sensors are clearly gaining traction in the pro ranks and will only continue to gain utility as leagues become more permissive for their use in game situations. Blast Motion and its chief competitor, Diamond Kinetics, have both received MLB approval to be used on-field during workouts even in the majors. While clubs are notoriously secretive about how they use technology and other tools to gain a competitive advantage, the Twins can only hope to follow a similar track as the Astros, who improved from the American League’s worst offense to its best in a five-year span — and Minnesota is already ahead of the curve, after ranking fifth in the AL in runs scored in 2017.