Petriello: 3 lessons from Statcast’s debut season
From Mike Petriello at MLB.com on November 13, 2015:
The first season of Statcast™ is in the books, and we’ve learned a lot in a short period of time. Less than a year ago, terms like exit velocity, spin rate and perceived velocity were considerations only within small circles of hardcore fans or baseball insiders. Now those phrases and others like them are being seen in the everyday conversations of fans around the sport.
For example, we’ve seen how a relatively slow runner like Paul Goldschmidt uses lead distance to earn stolen bases, and how launch angle and environmental effects gave Michael Taylor what was at the time the longest homer of the year. We’ve seen how spin rate helped Alex Gordon hit a homer off Jeurys Familia in the World Series, and how pop time and release time allowed Alex Wilson and James McCann to become one of the rare batteries to catch Billy Hamilton stealing. We used exit velocity to show that David Ortiz’s struggles were temporary, but that Joc Pederson’s were for real. We’ve even launched a weekly podcast, talking to players, executives and media about the latest in statistical analysis.
Read the full article here: http://m.mlb.com/news/article/157037448/3-statcast-lessons-learned-in-2015
Originally published: November 13, 2015. Last Updated: November 13, 2015.