As America’s pastime, there’s an unwavering sense of tradition that permeates throughout baseball. Case in point: peanuts are sold in fields everywhere, a snack saturated not only with salt but endless nostalgia. Yet as technology makes further inroads into the rest of our shared culture, so too must baseball take further steps into the 21st century. In the latest development, the Tampa Bay Rays are turning to a new technology to better utilize its pitching roster, reported Yahoo Sports.
Going markerless
The Rays are among the first in baseball to use Kinatrax, a markerless motion capture system. In traditional motion capture work, notes Xsens, the setup involves using reflective markers (little white balls that vary in size between marbles and golf balls). When filmed, these balls help create a basic outline of movement, which a computer then samples and uses to create a 3-D model. Kinatrax, on the other hand, doesn’t require markers, and the system’s able to recreate the same models of basic biomechanics through an undisclosed process. In regards to pitching, Rays execs and the Kinatrax staff are hoping to reveal just how pitchers do exactly what they do, and work to preserve a pitcher’s capabilities.
A brave new world, indeed
However, it’s not going to be a quick fix for the Rays, who have lost more than a few starting pitchers to injuries in recent years. For now, Kinatrax is limited by its initial setup. The system looks more at angles and velocities for bones and joints, and it could be some time before the system can help predict the strain in various ligaments. The end goal, though, is to catch (pun definitely intended) any potential injuries to the ligaments of the ulnar collateral; according to Medscape, it’s one of the more common injuries suffered by pitchers, the result of too much elbow extension in a short period of time. Kinatrax will operate using eight cameras, creating up to two terabytes of data in a single game. That data is then stored via the cloud and analyzed the next day.
No doubt one Rays member pushing for Kinatrax was analyst Josh Kalk. Before joining the team, Kalk worked for PITCHf/x, an analytical system used by Major League Baseball since 2006. According to Fan Graphs, the PITCHf/x system uses two cameras to record each game’s pitches. Variables like speed, movement and spin are then tracked, and reports are created to give individual pitchers an idea of their current game and tendencies at the mound.
Stepping up
Speaking of mounds, Kinatrax already has at least some experience in the MLB. Back in 2013, the company joined forces with the New York Mets, installing cameras around Citi Field. Given the system’s relative newness at the time, there were a few bugs, namely with some data taking up to a year to generate before analysis. Other teams across the MLB have also looked toward motion capture systems to aid their players.
As USA Today noted, the Baltimore Orioles implemented a system with markers back in 2012. After a few sessions, the training staff was able to develop a series of exercises and drills to help pitchers, resulting in “drastic improvements in the efficiency of the delivery,” according to Rick Peterson, the director of the Orioles’ pitching development staff. Other teams that have found use in motion capture, according to The New York Times, include the Boston Red Sox, the Milwaukee Brewers and the San Francisco Giants.
“There are some coaches that see it as some sort of hocus-pocus,” said Giants Chief Information Officer Bill Schlough. “It’s not the holy grail. It’s another tool in our arsenal to improve performance.”
The Rays are set to make an official announcement regarding Kinatrax by the end of June. For more information about technology’s expansion into sports, click here.
