Position: TrackMan Data & Operations Intern

Location: Jupiter, FL

Description:
At TrackMan Baseball we measure stuff – the speed, spin and movement of pitched and hit baseballs.

We do this using proprietary 3D Doppler radar hardware and software. The majority of Major League teams use our products and services for player development and evaluation. We also work with collegiate, Japanese and Korean teams, premier amateur baseball organizations, broadcasters and equipment manufacturers.

Our business is growing fast. By the start of next season we will have a network of radars installed in more than 100 stadiums on three continents, and dozens of remote systems traveling the US.

We are looking for a TrackMan Data & Operations Intern to be our hands and eyes on the ground in Jupiter, Fla. By this we mean the D&O Intern will be out in the field focused primarily on operating the TrackMan system and ensuring data quality measures are effectively in place at the point of capture. As part of the unique partnership between Perfect Game and TrackMan, you will be an integral piece of ensuring the added TrackMan value to players, coaches, college teams, and Major League teams. The specific focus for this position is the WWBA World Championship that runs from Oct. 22-26.

Responsibilities:

• Becoming an in-house expert for Perfect Game in the TrackMan Baseball system.
• Have a primary focus on ensuring the proper setup (and maintenance) of the TrackMan system per the defined requirements.
• Operate the TrackMan system and ensure all data is being captured effectively, as well as validate the quality and accuracy of all captured data.

Qualifications:

• Current college student or recent graduate with education focused on Sports Management, Statistics/Mathematics, Operations Management, or similar.
• Strong computer skills. The position requires regular use of the TrackMan application, and may require one to do basic system navigation/follow Help Desk step-by-step in case of issues.
• Strong knowledge of baseball rules (comfort in baseball culture a plus).
• Passion for the game of baseball.
• Ability to lift upwards of 50 lbs.

Compensation:
This position is compensated.

To Apply:
Please email TrackMan.

It isn’t important that the author of this post found the relevant video footage only because he’d just performed an internet search for his own name. Nor is it necessary for anyone to know that the same author needed more than 20 minutes to render that very brief footage into the two even brief clips one finds here. What’s essential is that the footage itself depicts giant Cubs batter Kyle Schwarber performing Midwestern Justice on a golf ball in a manner not unlike the sort he performed on a Gerrit Cole pitch last night in the Wild Card game. Further research suggests that, like that home run, the field of play was unable to contain Schwarber’s considerable power.

The video description in full:

Published on Oct 7, 2015
Cubs Kyle Schwarber hits a drive Tin Cup Style over the green at Shaker Run Golf Course in Cincinnati. 370yds

One might wonder: does Schwarber’ success on the course prompt him to flip clubs like he does bats?

As the video below confirms, it does.

Few teams have had the opportunity to evaluate Jake DeVries, but industry folks who are familiar with the Air Force junior left-hander tell me why Four Corners scouts will want to put eyes on him next spring in advance of the 2016 draft.

Indeed, when you pitch for a small-conference school that produces few pro players and competes for regional attention with the Pac-12, you don’t always have the luxury of waiting for the scouts to come to you. And when that small-conference school is the United States Air Force Academy, you have obligations that supersede baseball and make exposure to professional teams more difficult to come by.

Such are the circumstances for DeVries, who thusly took it upon himself this summer to go where the scouts would be. So he packed his bags after his sophomore season ended and headed for the Cape Cod League to join the Yarmouth-Dennis Red Sox. He made three appearances in June, but was then shipped to the Middle East for a multi-week training assignment. Though the audition was brief, it was long enough to showcase the pitching tools that make him a high follow and a possible top-three rounds target.

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I Tweeted the following from Wrigley Field on August 9:

Fantastic game at Wrigley. Cubs up 2-0 in ninth, Giants load bases, then three consecutive K's, last on 3-2 pitch. Crowd explodes. Baseball.

— David Laurila (@DavidLaurilaQA) August 9, 2015

Yesterday, Joe Maddon called the four-game set that culminated with that out a “seminal moment.” According to the Cubs skipper, his team “played that series in a playoff manner.”

Tonight, they played like a young, hungry team that’s hell-bent on reaching the World Series. Behind bombs and pitching brilliance, they dismantled the Pirates 4-0 at PNC Park.

The expected pitchers’ duel between Jake Arrieta and Gerrit Cole never materialized. Refusing to follow the narrative, the Cubs scored before Cole could record an out. Dexter Fowler singled and stole second, and Kyle Schwarber drove him in with a hit to the opposite field. Read the rest of this entry »

Yesterday, we looked at some data for Eric Cooper and suggested that the AL Wild Card game would likely see a taller-than-average strike zone. That’s pretty much what Cooper ended up calling, so today, let’s go ahead and give Jeff Nelson — who will be behind the plate for tonight’s Cubs/Pirates game — the same treatment.

With a left-handed batter up.

With a right-handed batter up.

Nelson has pretty different zones here, so it’s worth keeping in mind that the zone is likely going to change batter to batter tonight. With a lefty at the plate, Nelson is very generous on the inside corner, and has one of the widest zones inside to LH batters of any umpire in baseball. With a right-handed batter at the plate, he’s pretty much league average in and out, but a little more generous than average up in the zone, especially up-and-away.

Overall, though, it’s the inside strike to lefties that stands out as his most notable trait. Given that the Cubs are likely to start five left-handed hitters tonight, they’re the ones who will have to be more likely to make some adjustments; especially because the Pirates pitch inside more than almost any other team in MLB. Nelson’s generous inside corner is likely a potential benefit for Gerrit Cole in going after guys like Dexter Fowler and Chris Coghlan, who tend to take a lot of borderline pitches, and might need to be more aggressive on the inner-half tonight.

Like last night, expect the zone to favor pitchers a bit tonight, as Nelson is a bit pitcher-friendly with the size of his strike zone. But unlike with Cooper, who calls high and low strikes against everyone, Nelson’s tendencies likely hurt LH batters a bit more, and that might be a small advantage for a Pirates team that leans more to the right side of the plate.

Win-or-go-home games are old hat for the Pirates. Pittsburgh has hosted the NL Wild Card in each of the past two seasons. In 2013, they ousted Cincinnati as chants of “Cue-to, Cue-to” echoed down from the boisterous black-clad crowd. Last October, Madison Bumgarner quieted PNC Park by blanking the Bucs.

Tonight represents new territory for the Cubs. Joe Maddon’s squad is as young and talented as any in the game, but given the pressure cooker they’re about to encounter, could “young” prove to be the operative word in that description? Especially if Clint Hurdle’s team jumps out to an early lead and PNC becomes a cacophony. Will Chicago’s kiddie-corp be able to handle it?

Needless to say, jumping out against Jake Arrieta is a momentous task. The right-hander has been on a Bumgarner-like run, and if it continues into October, Pittsburgh is probably toast. Of course, Arrieta has never pitched in the postseason. There’s no reason to believe he won’t perform on the big stage, but just like his younger teammates, he hasn’t had a chance to prove that he can. Read the rest of this entry »

As a rule, life is characterized predominantly both by crippling doubt and also other kinds of doubt. Less susceptible to that sort of doubt is Houston outfielder Carlos Gomez, depicted here recording a home run against Masahiro Tanaka — with regard to which home run Gomez exhibits something much closer to unambiguous certainty.

The Astros and Yankees are set to meet tonight in the first postseason game of 2015, with the winner advancing to play the Royals in the division series. While both teams are likely to do everything they can to win tonight’s game, there is one potentially significant variable they won’t be able to control; the called strike zone. So that’s preview what we might look for from the home plate umpire tonight.

17 year veteran Eric Cooper is going to be behind the plate for the Wild Card game. Per Baseball Heat Maps, here’s Cooper’s called strike zone compared to the league average (warmer colors indicate more calls in that area).

RH hitters

LH hitters.

The first thing that stands out is that Cooper has a very tall strike zone, calling far more pitches than the average umpire at both the top and bottom of the rulebook zone. He’s especially generous at the very top sliver of the zone with a right-handed batter at the plate, which is also a very tough area for hitters to make contact on. He offsets the height of his zone to some degree by having a fairly narrow strike zone compared to the average umpire, calling fewer pitches away against both lefties and righties, but the effect isn’t as large as his large vertical zone.

As you can see at the charts available over at Baseball Savant, Cooper calls an above average pitches out of the zone as strikes, and has one of the lowest rates of calling pitches in the zone balls. Overall, he’s a pitcher friendly umpire, and hitters are going to need to protect the plate more often than they normally would, especially on high and low pitches.

Interestingly, neither Keuchel nor Tanaka attack the top of the strike zone that regularly, as both are primarily trying to keep the ball down, so there’s not a clear advantage to either side based on the umpire tendency with regards to the starting pitcher. But both teams are likely to use an army of relievers, and Cooper’s zone could work out pretty well for a pitcher like Houston’s Josh Fields, who likes to pitch up with his fastball.

The postseason kicks off tonight with the American League Wild Card game starting at 8 pm eastern time. Tomorrow night, we get the NL Wild Card game — in what might be the most fascinating single MLB game I can remember in some time — and then the ALDS starts on Thursdday, with the NLDS starting Friday and bringing us our first four-games-in-a-row day.

To celebrate the launch of the postseason, we’re going to live blog every single game between now and Friday night. I’m going to be hosting (along with Sean Dolinar) the AL Wild Card game tonight — and imploring both managers to go to the bullpen after every pitch, probably — while Jeff (and maybe Carson…) will be here for the NL Wild Card game tomorrow night. We’ll then have coverage of both games on Thursday and all four on Friday as well.

If you haven’t been part of a postseason live blog before, they’re a blast. Plan on hanging out with us as we watch some October baseball, no spreadsheets required.

Before the season began I made an interactive graphic showing the on-base plus slugging percentage (OPS) of our Depth Charts projections for each team. Since the season is almost over and players’ offensive output stats won’t change much between now and October 4, I remade the interactive visual using the player’s 2015 OPS and weighted on-base average (wOBA).

The original Depth Charts projections use a combination of ZiPS and Steamers for OPS and wOBA. The original chart from March is at the bottom of the page for reference. Projections — the expected performance of a player — should fall in the middle of the possible performance spectrum, so the season results will have more spread than the projections do.

The visualization shows each player’s OPS or wOBA as a circle with the size of the circle corresponding to plate appearance. The gray box and yellow line represent summary information about the team. The gray box brackets the middle 50% of players on each team and the yellow line is the team OPS or wOBA. Please note this isn’t the average or median OPS or wOBA but rather how the team performed on the aggregate. Together these elements create a psuedo boxplot.

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