Effectively Wild Episode 1882: Back-Tracking and Bat-Tracking

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Mike Trout’s rare back injury, Zac Veen and vaccines, the Rangers’ one-run record, interesting team trade rumors, and teams with tough deadline decisions, plus a Past Blast from 1882. Then (42:40) they talk to MLB.com’s Mike Petriello about Statcast’s newly public bat speed and swing path data, touching on how bat speed is calculated, the fastest swingers so far, how teams are already using bat-tracking tech, bat-tracking on broadcasts, the size of the sweet spot, the majors’ small margin for error, the pitcher-batter balance, scouting vs. developing swings, and what we still don’t know about bat-tracking.

Audio intro: Queen, “Back Chat”
Audio interstitial: Remember Sports, “No Going Back”
Audio outro: Gillian Welch, “Back Turn and Swing”

Link to Jeff Fletcher on Trout
Link to Sam Blum on Trout
Link to Trout’s comments
Link to Zac Veen thread
Link to Rosenthal on the Tigers
Link to FG Playoff Odds
Link to Joe Posnanski on the Rangers
Link to Red Sox misplays montage
Link to Tapia grand slam
Link to Mike’s bat-tracking primer
Link to Ethan Moore’s article
Link to ESPN BatTrack broadcast
Link to ESPN BatTrack data
Link to Rob Arthur on pitch/exit speed
Link to Tango’s Stanton post
Link to Tango on swing speed
Link to Tango on angular vs. linear speed
Link to Tango’s swing model
Link to Tango on bat collisions
Link to Tango on swing explosiveness
Link to Tango on bat position
Link to Tango on bat position/swing speed
Link to Tango on the Barrel zone
Link to Tango on attack angles
Link to Ballpark Dimensions pod
Link to Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four
Link to 1882 story source
Link to Sir Parsifal’s spreadsheet
Link to Facebook post about the EW wiki
Link to “How to Help” wiki page

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