Statcast

[Blzer]

This technology has been previewed on MLB Network a couple of times with highlighted plays, but debuted during the live game for the Cardinals vs. Nationals last night.

Here's some info and recap using it:

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/119692300/lights-camera-action-behind-the-scenes-of-statcast

I feel like many people won't enjoy this, but IMO this is such a welcomed feature to baseball, and will allow color commentators to do more analysis on plays. I really love how this science can actually help determine who better players are for what they do, rather than just scouts pretending like a ball "explodes off a player' bat more." I also wonder if there's a way for them to go back to previous games well before Statcast was ever invented, even back to the days before HD.

Anyway, I am very impressed with what this is able to do and I hope it can do more as time goes on. What a neat piece of technology. The only thing they can't do is over-abuse it. Use it when necessary, and use it sparingly. Heck, don't use it unless you have something to say about it. Maybe use it three innings later and say: "Check out when this play happened back in the second inning, blah blah blah." Or, use it during the post-game or SportsCenter highlights.

[SPTO]

Re: Statcast

I saw the rollout of Statcast on MLB Tonight while I was in Miami and I got to say, it IS impressive but at the same time I don't think it meshes all that well with a live baseball game experience. This is indeed an interesting and valuable tool as Tom Verducci mentioned during the pregame that some teams have already been using the statcast tech throughout their minor league systems (most notably the Cardinals) but I think it's too much overload when watching a game. I feel it's a far better tool to be used in a studio analysis way.

We'll see how it goes but I think if statcast is to work on a game broadcast basis they can't go showing off everything all at once. I know the measurement of the lead off 1B has already been used in the MLB international broadcasts as I saw that during the playoffs last year. I think that's one aspect of statcast that can work in a live situation. I really have doubts about the more metric based things though.

[JODYE]

Re: Statcast

I thought the tech was pretty cool and could lead to some more in depth game analysis, but I think it might be a little too much if they are doing this kind of stuff every replay.

Everything is better in moderation.

[Jr.]

Re: Statcast

I'm really excited about this. Defense is always something that's been hard to define, with how good or bad someone is. This should put it in easy to grasp terms and numbers.

[TheMatrix31]

Re: Statcast

Seems like quite the on-screen distraction.