The Toronto Blue Jays are smacking baseballs and sitting in second place in their division. But months before the start of the 2018 MLB season, the team made a deal with a sports technology company to study swing data, starting with an examination of their minor league players.
The team reached out to Diamond Kinetics, a Pittsburgh, Pa.-based company, and ordered 60 of their swing trackers, small devices that fit around the knob of a bat. The devices use gyroscopes and accelerometers to calculate all manner of swing data—bat speed, swing path, exit velocity, power, and send the information in real time to an app that can recreate the swing in a video simulation. The SwingTrackers cost $100 per player for the device and software license, according to a report from TSN.
That’s a useful tool for coaches and scouts to understand a player’s swing tendencies and, for coaches, to suggest improvements. According to the TSN report, the Blue Jays will use the swing sensors, which are permitted by MLB at the minor league level, in extended spring training with 35 of the organization’s position players. The Blue Jays’ use of the swing sensor is a part of a growing trend, Diamond Kinetics chief commercial officer Jeff Schuldt told SportTechie via email.
“Diamond Kinetics is thrilled that our SwingTracker sensor has been approved broadly for use in MiLB games when attached on the bat, and approved for game use in two leagues when embedded in the knob of the bat. … These changes to game regulations are providing a catalyst for more MLB organizations to go beyond just experimentation to full integration into their player evaluation and development processes.
“Professional clubs and amateur organizations alike want to understand how data in a live game situation compares to that from the practice environment so they can further drive the utility and value they get from the technology.”
Get The Latest Sports Tech News In Your Inbox!
That’s not necessarily the direction the Blue Jays will take with the technology. Joe Sclafani, the Blue Jays’ director of player development, told TSN that the SwingTracker won’t be used in minor league games this season in an effort to prevent players from being inundated with information.
On the pitching side, where a bevy of advanced metrics already exist and more are being created seemingly every year, the Blue Jays are also looking into adopting Diamond Kinetics’ PitchTracker, a “smart” baseball that measures velocity and calculates pitch release points and spin rates, according to TSN.
“The PitchTracker ‘Smart’ baseball is a logical extension of this (understanding data), with the added convenience of being completely portable and very inexpensive as compared to other methods to collect similar data,” Schuldt said via email. “The ‘Smart’ ball is still a ways away from usage in-game where it would be hit by a bat, but we see near-term application for pitchers warming up prior to entering the game and comparing that data to the practice environment and to trends over time.”
Given what Sclafani told TSN about the Blue Jays’ intentions for the SwingTracker, the PitchTracker’s potential during warm-ups and bullpen sessions could be just what the team is looking for.