Mississippi Open: TrackMan Files

On June 8th, the PBR Mississippi staff hosted the Mississippi Open showcase at The University of Southern Miss in Hattiesburg, MS at Pete Taylor Park, featuring many of the state’s top players inside the 2023-2027 classes. Inside today’s TrackMan Files, we’re highlighting the best of the best – the talent that exited the event with arrows pointed way up headed into the summer.

Earlier this week we published Quick Hits highlighting the top prospects of the event. We also rolled out a Statistical Leaderboard pointing out the top recorded stats by category.

Now we'll continue to roll out the data we gathered from this event, starting with the analytics we have at our disposal from our TrackMan unit. Below we'll look at which players had noteworthy batted ball and pitch metric data.

MAX FASTBALL

Max Fastball Velocity: This metric calculates the speed of the pitch as it’s released from the pitcher’s hand.

PEAK SPIN RATE

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.

AVERAGE FASTBALL HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT