While I won’t dare speculate as to what he meant by this statement, I think it might be interesting to look at a solution from the lens of the Ev Microscope. Effective Velocity is the science of the laws that govern hard contact. Last year’s postseason performance by Sale featured some key hard home runs … Continue reading Chris Sale’s Plan for the Houston ALCS Series “Don’t Suck”
Brad Pitt played the character of Joe Black or ‘Death’ in the movie ‘Meet Joe Black’. Pretty ironic that Death himself was being informed by the greasy villain, that death and taxes were the only certainties in this world. While trying to eliminate your death and/or taxes sounds like a really good idea on the surface, it is only a matter of time before we have to make the ugly realization that they are both still coming for us all. For the past several years, very few articles done about MLB hitters fail to include the term ‘Launch Angle’ nor misses the opportunity of adding the famous line “just say no to groundballs.” Baseball hitters (and softball) have another certainty. Despite all the technology, the fancy terms, the tee shirts and the pleas of top superstar hitters telling everyone to ‘just say no’…………..groundballs are inevitable.
Matt Harvey's decline in performance is about his poor Effective Velocity Pitch Design, which largely is the result of advice from his coaches and front office. The graphic shows what RHBs see at 20 feet out of his hand as a result of the locations he chooses for his pitches. The question is whether it is his choice or on the advice of others around him. Whichever it is, Havey's Effective Velocity Deception rating is the primary reason for his decline.
Rachel Garcia Swing Test Experiment Recently, Rachel Garcia, an elite collegiate softball player (National Freshman of the year at UCLA) went through a simple before and after hitting analysis that I took a small part of and thought it might help to answer our question about ‘Old School’ teaching methods. Rachel added 11 MPH in … Continue reading Is The ‘Old School’ Method of Teaching Hitting Outdated?
Carlos' Tunnel Vision - MLB Now Ben Reiter of Sports Illustrated predicted the winner of the 2017 World Series three years before it happened, which is very impressive. However, the Effective Velocity Microscope, predicted virtually every hard hit ball of this year’s Postseason, nearly the exact percentages. Carlos Pena, on MLB Now presented a set of predictions … Continue reading Ev Microscope Predicted Virtually Every Hard Hit Ball of the 2017 Postseason
Timing is Everything “Hitting is about timing and pitching is about upsetting timing”, a famous quote by Warren Spahn, Hall of Fame pitcher. Well, Effective Velocity (Ev) is about ‘Understanding’ timing. The same speed pitch located in different parts of the zone has different reaction times for hitters. This 'not-so-simple' concept is the beginning of … Continue reading Practicing Timing – The Most Misunderstood Element of Hitting
https://youtu.be/DaLliNaDAHo Launch Angle Is A ‘GUESS’ ‘Ground Zero’ of hitting is the moment of impact when a round ball meets a round bat. The craziest truth is that hitters have little to no control over what happens to the ball off the bat, AKA ‘Launch Angle’. While the hitter can control many aspects leading … Continue reading Launch Angle is a Guess
Occam’s Razor (Ockam alternate spelling) In ‘Science’, there is a concept to help researchers find the best path in reaching a solution to a query. More of a guideline rather than a hard and fast rule, Occam’s Razor is a concept that advises researchers to start their search with the simplest solution. With this latest … Continue reading The Homerun Surge of 2017 & The Hangin’ Fastball
Bad Chess Imagine you and I are playing chess………… and we both suck. We would have epic battles that would end with me winning some and you winning some, but the outcome is a bit hard to predict. Now imagine that someone began keeping track of all the moves, the stats of our matches. No … Continue reading Fathers Day Baseball Fable – Bad Chess
https://youtu.be/nAr4-I3oovA Every decision a hitter makes about their approach comes with both benefits and costs. In the past, the thinking was that all power hitters had to get used to high strikeouts and lower batting averages to reap big power. Conversely, all contact hitters would settle for single digit homers and shoot for a … Continue reading Joey Votto has lowered his strikeouts but at what cost?
