Mizuno, a leading Japanese sporting goods supplier, recently unveiled a smart baseball embedded with built-in sensors to provide velocity, spin rate and rotation axis of pitches that will be available for purchase in 2018.
TrackMan, Rapsodo and Pitch F/X have provided such information with external solutions such as radars and optical tracking cameras — just as companies like DribbleUp are also doing for basketball and soccer, Mizuno is following the lead of Wilson and Adidas, which have produced smart basketballs and soccer balls with internal hardware. Mizuno’s new product is its MAQ baseball, with data immediately accessible on a smartphone app. Jingle LLC, a tech company based in Taiwan, previously released its own smart baseball after launching on Kickstarter.
Daisuke Miura, who pitched 25 seasons in Japan’s Central League primarily for the Yokohama DeNA Baystars, made a promotional appearance and touted the ball’s similarity with a regular baseball, saying (per Google Translate), “I am comfortable with the hardball and I can throw it without any discomfort.”
According to a translation of Mizuno’s official website, the ball is made to have the same mass, balance and material of a regulation baseball and a high sensitivity magnetic sensor is inserted into the ball’s core and held in place with a polycarbonate capsule and silicone gel; a lithium battery, the size of a small coin, powers the device and is powered by placement on a wireless charger.