Illinois Underclass Showcase: TrackMan Files
October 30, 2020
On Oct. 25, the PBR Illinois staff hosted its final event of the year: the Underclass Showcase. This event was open to all of the state’s prospects in its 2023, 2024, and 2025 graduating classes, and allowed us to end our annual showcase circuit with a bang.
Our staff was treated to a look at some of the brightest up-and-coming talents in the state, and we began our event breakdown on Tuesday with a close examination of the event’s highlights, inside this Quick Hits post, and we later took a magnifying glass to the event’s leaderboards in our Statistical Analysis post.
We also analyzed the hitting data we gathered from last Sunday’s showcase with the help of our Blast Motion device that captured swings during batting practice. For those leaderboards, check them out at the following link.
Today, we’re wrapping up this event’s content with an analysis for the time being by examining our TrackMan-collected data.
MAX FASTBALL VELOCITY & PEak SPIN RATE
Max Fastball Velocity: This metric calculates the speed of the pitch as it’s released from the pitcher’s hand.
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 EXTENSION (fastball)
Extension: The measurement of the release point relative to the rubber, reported in feet. Essentially, a higher extension can create an advantage for pitchers as they shorten the time in which the ball is traveling from their hand to home.
AVERAGE FASTBALL HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (RHP)
AVERAGE FASTBALL HORIZONTAL MOVEMENT (LHP)
- Lleyton Grubich (-16.3 inches)
- Carter Green (-15.1)
- Emin Hartigan (-11.6)
- Mark Mennecke (-10.8)
- Charles Filipek (-8.8)
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.”
AVERAGE SPIN RATE (SLIDER)
AVERAGE SPIN RATE (CURVEBALL)
AVERAGE EXIT VELOCITY (HITTING)
Exit Speed: Also according to TrackMan’s own website: “The speed of the ball, measured in miles per hour, as it comes off the bat at the moment of contact.”