Hawaii Fall Showcase: Pitching Data Dive
October 30, 2024
On Friday, October 25th, the Prep Baseball Hawaii staff hosted it's third of three fall showcases and the biggest of them all with the 2024 Hawaii Fall Showcase hosted at Central Oahu Region Park in Waipahu, Hawaii. This event featured roughly 85+ players in the 2025-2028 classes from across Hawaii and it was the deepest roster we've put together so far for a Hawaiian Showcase.
All players ran through a full workout alongside our tech partners TrackMan, Blast Motion and Vizual Edge followed by two games for each team on Saturday and Sunday. This event included two rosters from Oahu (Oahu 1 & 2), one Big Island and one Maui/Kauai/Molokai/Lanai.
The event had some of the top players in each class in attendance with a healthy mix of committed prospects (20), as well a slew of high-end uncommitted talent.
Yesterday we began our post-event coverage within our Statistical Analysis articles. Now, we will take a further in-depth look at the top pitchers with the help of our tech partnerships, broken down by the categories down below:
For complete event results, click here.
FASTBALL
MAX VELOCITY (MPH)
Max Fastball Velocity: This metric calculates the speed of the pitch as it’s released from the pitcher’s hand.
SPIN RATE (AVG)
Spin Rate: This metric calculates the rate of spin on the baseball as it leaves the pitcher’s hand, measured in revolutions per minute (rpm). Historical data shows that high-spin fastballs lessen the impact of gravity, allowing for more ‘rise’ (or less fall, in other words) as it carries through the zone. Low-spin fastballs typically indicate the pitch has greater horizontal action, often making it tougher to square up, but generally easier to make contact with, leading to more ground balls, while high-spin fastballs show a correlation with swings and misses.
INDUCED VERTICAL BREAK (AVG.)
Induced Vertical Break: Used in short form as "IVB," this metric is most important on fastballs for creating rise and on curveballs for creating depth – it can also have some use when measuring sliders and cutters as well. Sliders tend to be closer to zero inches while cutters are generally between 5 and 15 inches. Usually fastballs and curveballs with large IVB have higher spin efficiencies as well. Sliders generally have very little (closer to zero) IVB and very low spin efficiency. You could also categorize IVB into spin rate as this is part of the “useful movement” you’re looking for. IVB is also a huge part of the vertical approach angle.
HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (AVG.)
Horizontal Break: Outlined on TrackMan’s own website: “... horizontal movement is measured in inches between where the pitch actually crosses the front of home plate side-wise, and where it would have crossed home plate side-wise if had it traveled in a perfectly straight line from release. A positive number means the break was to the right from the pitcher’s perspective, while a negative number means the break was to the left from the pitcher’s perspective.”