Trackman Traits Top Pitches: Preseason All-State RVA
February 21, 2022
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The expanded usage of data, and the importance of it in regards to player development and player assessment is a legitimate, undeniable tool used by high school, college, and professional teams across the country. Today we break down some of the data from our recent Preseason All-State RVA workout. See which pitches stood out in regards to Trackman data.
Glossary Terms Intro & Links:
Induced Vertical Break: IVB
Vertical Approach Angle: VAA
Horizontal Break: HB
Release Speed: RS or Velo
Release Height: RH or RelHei
Zach Boyd’s Fastball - Up to 85.6, sitting at 84.3 with plus VB from a vertical axis. Release height is slightly above the average, but his ability to generate so much lift from an over-top-slot combined with the velo creates a flat approach angle. Was able to get his VAA above -4.5 degrees in the zone, and should be able to miss bats with it.
Jack Weight’s Slider - Gets plus sweep, average 11.9 inches of HB, and had as much as 13.1” on an individual pitch. Creates depth on the pitch by keeping his axis around 9:00 and getting to the side of the ball to create heavy gyro spin that combined with the sweep gives the pitch a two-plane shape at 74.3 mph on average.
Matt Vine’s slider - Has a sweeping CB shape at 70.4 mph on average, getting it up to 71.6 mph. It’s a low-spin pitch, but he optimizes all of the raw spin by creating 16.6” of sweep from an 8:45 tilt. Showed a consistent shape, and threw the pitch at 9:00 or 8:45 on every pitch. Had as much as 17.6” of sweep.
Jagen Ratlief’s curveball - Throws his breaker hard, and gets above average spin on it. Up to 2,478 rpm, averaged 2,406. Had one outlier pitch thrown at 10:00 that played closer to a slider/cutter hybrid, which skews the averages. For the most part he threw the pitch at 8:15 and was getting 12-16 inches of sweep with a -2 to -6 IVB. Gets a lot of movement on the pitch and is able to throw it hard still which is rare for his age.
Gauch’s curveball - Consistent release/shape makes the pitch impressive as he’s getting above average drop (averaged -12.7” IVB, max of -14.3”), on the pitch and throwing it at 69.7 mph, hitting 70.5. He’s also getting some sidespin on the pitch, and creating 8.8” of HB. When he threw the pitch counter-clockwise from 7:00, he was getting majority topspin and creating a more true 12-6 shape.
Matt Vine’s changeup - Able to kill lift on the pitch and push his axis clockwise 1 hour and 45 minutes from his fastball to give it a much different shape; this also helps create heavy HB (averaged 15.7”, max of 16.6”) on the pitch. Throws it at 75.6, 6-7 mph slower than the fastball. Gets a good amount of late sink on the shape due to its low spin efficiency.
Coston’s slider - Threw the second-hardest slider of the event and had a ton of gyro spin in the shape, which was why he was able to create a good amount of depth and just enough glove side break. It does tend to have a cutter shape (10:15 tilt) as the pitch spins at a similar direction as his fastball in the first ~45 feet, but towards the end of the shape, it begins to spin closer to 12:00/12:30 (trackman struggles to pick up non-magnus movement and tends to misread these) at the end of its ball flight, which is what makes the pitch unique.