Welcome to Trackman Traits! In this piece we will be dissecting the numbers the Trackman produces and the effect they can have on a pitcher's approach. This past weekend the #2 prospect in the Nebraska 2021 class toe the rubber at the 2021 Super 60 leading up to his senior season. 

 

 

Velocity: 

When Hood ran his fastball up to 96 mph last summer the Midwest ProCase it put him in some elite company of power arms across the US. This past weekend Hood pitched mostly in the 89-91 mph range topping at 92 which is expected as he is still in the early portion of getting ready for the high school season as a multi sport athlete. He works out of a compact slot out of the glove into a quick arm that is long out-front upon foot strike. 

Spin Rate: 

Hood also has elite spin on his fastball. With an average spin rate of 2342 RPMs at the Super 60 this still put him into the Top 10% of NCAA averages. When he average 2559 last summer it would have put him in the Top 10% of MLB. 

Bauer Units:

With a max Bauer Unit measurement of 27, it is safe to say that Hood will always be a high spin arm. When his velo goes up his spin rate will stay on the same path. 

Induced Vertical Break/Horizontal Break: 

Hood is a high spin, low IVB arm. With low induced vertical break and high spin, it leaves only one other thing to chance...horizontal movement. His horizontal movement numbers are average, maxing out at 15.9" of arm side run, he is to have straight/rise action to his fastball. 

 

CURVEBALL BREAKDOWN

 

Spin Rate: Hood also throws a high spin curveball. Spin with a curveball is a somewhat different scenario than it is with a fastball. With a fastball you want to stay above average or below based on the movement induced. You want as much spin on a curveball as you can to aid in the movement and depth of the pitch. Spin can sometimes be drastically altered if you are throwing a curveball with poor spin efficiency. This can be fixed by simply messing with different curveball grips and finding which one produces the most depth. Right now though, it appears Hood is throwing it a certain way to induce some crazy moment because he only falls into the top 10% of HS arms for curveball spin. 

Horizontal/Vertical Break: With the high spin on his curveball, Hood produces some solid movement profile numbers. This is sort of a mind boggler, but for right now we'll forget the science and fancy numbers and just break down how sick this pitch has a chance to be as it continues to develop. With 10.6 of depth on his curveball, he's actually inducing the same amount of movement that the top 10% of big leaguers do on their curveballs. Mix that together with 6.3" of horizontal movement, which is just about average when you look at the charts, you have a pretty disgusting curveball on your hands. This is what the people in the business call a "hammer curveball". It is a true swing and miss breaking ball that also has the ability to be thrown in early counts.