Effectively Wild Episode 1882: Back-Tracking and Bat-Tracking

Ben Lindbergh and Meg Rowley banter about Mike Trout ’s rare back injury, Zac Veen and vaccines, the Rangers’ one-run record, interesting team trade rumors, and teams with tough deadline decisions, plus a Past Blast from 1882. Then (42:40) they talk to MLB.com’s Mike Petriello about Statcast’s newly public bat speed and swing path data, touching on how bat speed is calculated, the fastest swingers so far, how teams are already using bat-tracking tech, bat-tracking on broadcasts, the size of the sweet spot, the majors’ small margin for error, the pitcher-batter balance, scouting vs. developing swings, and what we still don’t know about bat-tracking. Audio intro : Queen, “ Back Chat ” Audio interstitial : Remember Sports, “ No Going Back ” Audio outro : Gillian Welch, “ Back Turn and Swing ” Link to Jeff Fletcher on Trout Link to Sam Blum on Trout Link to Trout’s comments Link to Zac Veen thread Link to Rosenthal on the Tigers Link to FG Playoff Odds Link to Joe Posnanski on the Rangers Link to Red Sox misplays montage Link to Tapia grand slam Link to Mike’s bat-tracking primer Link to Ethan Moore’s article Link to ESPN BatTrack broadcast Link to ESPN BatTrack data Link to Rob Arthur on pitch/exit speed Link to Tango’s Stanton post Link to Tango on swing speed Link to Tango on angular vs. linear speed Link to Tango’s swing model Link to Tango on bat collisions Link to Tango on swing explosiveness Link to Tango on bat position Link to Tango on bat position/swing speed Link to Tango on the Barrel zone Link to Tango on attack angles Link to Ballpark Dimensions pod Link to Richard Hershberger’s Strike Four Link to 1882 story source Link to Sir Parsifal’s spreadsheet Link to Facebook post about the EW wiki Link to “How to Help” wiki page Sponsor Us on Patreon Subscribe to Stathead (Code: WILD20) Facebook Group Twitter Account EW Subreddit Effectively Wild Wiki iTunes Feed (Please rate and review us!) Get Our Merch! Email Us: podcast@fangraphs.com var SERVER_DATA = Object.assign(SERVER_DATA || {}); Source