Month: October 2022

Vertical bat angle: A new way to view batter vs. pitcher matchups

By Eric Cressey on October 28, 2022 at 5:12 am

Today’s guest post comes from Cressy Sports Performance – Florida’s Associate Hitting Coordinator, Tyler Wolff.

In the 8th inning of a recent NLDS game between the Dodgers and Padres, the Padres went to their left-hander, Josh Hader, who has one of the best fastballs in the game. The second batter he faced was a left-handed hitter, Cody Bellinger, but Dodgers manager Dave Roberts chose to pinch hit for Bellinger. He was deciding between his two possible options, right-handed batsmen Chris Taylor and Austin Burns. Taylor would be the clear choice to most because he is more of an offensive threat than Barnes. Roberts decided to go with Barnes, but unfortunately the move didn’t work as Barnes flew out to center field to end the inning. Roberts was questioned about this unusual decision after the game and had to say: “Hader is tough for anybody but I felt that Austin’s short swing, flat path…Hader throws a 4-seam rise fastball, City pitches uphill and Austin succeeded. against Hadar.”

The old school method when playing matchups from an offensive standpoint is to place a hitter who hits from the opposite side of the pitcher’s throwing arm. This has long been the standard go-to matchup maker in baseball, and it makes perfect sense because it’s much more comfortable at bat for most because breaking balls tend to move toward and away from them instead of starting toward or behind them. Today, I’m going to go a little deeper into playing matchups to play with power hitters rather than a righty hitter because it’s a lefty pitcher.

So back to the Dodgers story, what exactly is Roberts referring to when he says this? My guess is that he is referring to vertical bat angle (VBA). It may also have to do with attack angle, but VBA is what I want to discuss today. What exactly is vertical bat angle you might be wondering if you haven’t heard of it before? The Bat Sensor company gives a good definition of what Blast Motion VBA is:

“Vertical bat angle is the angle of the bat relative to the horizontal at the moment of impact. The vertical bat angle is measured in degrees and gives the position of the barrel of the bat relative to the knot of the bat. The vertical bat angle will be zero if the barrel of the bat and the knuckle are parallel to the ground. The vertical bat angle will be negative when the barrel of the bat is below the butt of the bat at impact.”

Here’s an example of two very good hitters with very different VBAs on the exact same pitch: high school hitter Whitey Ossenfort in left (average VBA of -47.1 degrees) and Blue Jays minor leaguer Carl Ellison in right (average VBA of -28.7 degrees).

Chris Taylor has a very steep average vertical bat angle of -39 degrees. Austin Burns’ average vertical bat angle is -27.6 degrees. These two differ greatly in their swing paths and this leads to very different results. In my opinion, neither is right or wrong, but as Dave Roberts’ quote suggests, they can help a hitter understand what pitches and positions each guy can hit better than others.

I wanted to dive deeper into VBA to see if it can better predict what types of pitches and positions certain hitters can handle better than others. This can go for both college and pro level because VBA is something that is very easy to measure. You can do that with just a camera if you need to, but a Blast Motion or Diamond Kinetics sensor is probably the easiest and both are relatively inexpensive options that give you real time data in both training and games.

The two examples I want to look at are two of the best hitters in baseball: Mike Trout and Juan Soto. They are perfect examples of VBA to watch because they are on opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to VBA, but both are very successful hitters. The average VBA in Major League Baseball over the last 4 years (2019-2022) is -32.2 degrees according to the swinggraph (subscription required, but $5 gets you the full VBA from the last 4-5 seasons).

• Trout had an average VBA of -37.1 degrees during that four-year period
• Soto’s average VBA was -27.4 degrees during the same four-year period

With that in mind, let’s look at some Baseball Savant images for both Soto and Trout so we can get a better idea of ​​what parts of the zone they handle best and what their approach might be.

The first row of the chart below is the K% for each person in each category in the zone.
-Second is the launch angle for each guy in each category
-Third row is wOBA
– The last chart is the batting average, for the old school guys in the crowd

Baseball Savant: Trout – K Rate Baseball Savant: Soto K-Rate

Baseball Savant: Trout – LA Baseball Savant: Soto – LA

BaseballSavant: Trout – wOBA BaseballSavant: Soto – wOBA

Baseball Savant: Trout – BA Baseball Savant: Soto – BA

These four charts show very different results for both of these two elite hitters. Trout do much better in the bottom 2/3 of the zone than in the top 1/3 on all four charts. Soto, on the other hand, is best in the top 2/3 of the zone. That’s not to say they can’t handle that part of the zone, but they have much less success in that one section of the plate and probably because of the path their bats take to pitch at that height/position.

So, let’s go to an example of a guessing game. Let’s say the same 8th inning situation in the Dodgers/Padres game with runners on first and second, two outs and Josh Header on the mound – and the Dodgers trailing 5-3. You have Josh Hader’s scouting report and know that he throws about 70 percent of his fastballs, and that he stays primarily on the glove side in the upper half of the zone (below is his fastball heatmap over the last four years).

Baseball Savant – Hader FB Heatmap

You’re in Dave Roberts’ shoes and you have Soto and Trout on the bench (for some crazy reason they’re on your team and not playing) and you have to send one of them. Who do you think would have a better chance of success in this situation? The old school theory is to send Trout out because he’s a right-handed batter. If I were in the manager’s shoes and these were my options, I would send Soto every time in that situation because of the type, percentage and location of Josh Hader’s fastball. For reference, Trout never faced Hader and Soto faced him three times and went 2 for 3 with 2 RBIs.

Look at a final example of this. Let’s go with almost the same situation, where we’re down 5-3 with runners on first and second, but let’s say just one out in the 8th inning. You have the same two options for pinch hitters off the bench. This time, though, we’re facing Seattle and Luis Castillo is still throwing. Castillo has a 51% ground ball rate over the last four years and throws both the 4-seam and a sinker. Below is a heatmap of all his pitches over the last four years. Trout has three plate appearances against Castillo. He has one walk, one homer and one single against him in those three plate appearances. Soto has 10 plate appearances against Castillo and has had some success as well, as he has two hits – including a homer and three walks. However, he has a ground ball rate of 67% against him.

Baseball Savant: Castillo – FB Heatmap

Again, the old-school method would call for sending Soto in this situation because he’s a left-handed batter against a right-handed batter. From what we’ve seen so far, if you were to manage, which guy would you go with? For me, it’s Trout every time because he’ll be able to get more balls in the air, especially to a guy who has the power to throw more pitches in the zone. From an offensive standpoint, the worst thing that can happen in this situation is a double play, and Soto has a much harder time elevating balls below the zone, as you can see by his launch angle chart (above). For this reason I would send Trout under these circumstances.

As I close this article, I want to emphasize that VBA is not an absolute statistic to measure the pitches and positions guys handle best because there is so much more that goes into hitting, most notably timing and technique. However, it is a great measurement to better understand what your players swing path looks like and how it can affect their ball flight and contact rate. VBA changes for each heater based on height and location. For pitches up in the zone (especially with fastballs), hitters need a flatter bat path (VBA closer to 0), and for pitches down the zone they need a steeper bat path. As I said, that doesn’t mean they can’t handle pitches opposite their average bat angle, but the direction of their bat path towards the pitch makes it harder to square. Soto has a hard time getting low pitches off the ground and Trout is susceptible to hitting pitches that are too high in the air.

There are many reasons to move to VBA, but we’ll have to save that for another article. Some of these reasons include:

• Pitch height/location
• Striker’s height/posture
• Timing: It will make a difference if a hitter is on time, early or late
• A hitter’s mobility, strength and stability are up the chain

Conclusion

In my opinion the best thing for a player to understand VBA is to develop a good approach for each hitter. Mike Trout probably isn’t going to swing in the zone unless he has two strikes or the situation allows for it. Juan Soto is probably looking for a pith up in the zone. That doesn’t mean they don’t train to work in the positions they struggle with; My guess is that they actually spend a lot of time working on these vulnerabilities. There is video of Trout talking about some high tee work that is trying to stay up and flat and hitting the ball down the middle. This seems like a great drill to help him get a feel for what he needs to do to get in the zone to hit these balls. As any great hitter will agree, having a good approach is probably the most important thing to being a good hitter, but it’s hard to distinguish that approach if you don’t know what pitches/positions a hitter can handle best.

*A big thanks to CSP Associate Pitching Coach Matt Elmyer for the idea to put this on a blog and for helping with some research.

About the author

Tyler Wolfe serves as the associate hitting coordinator at CSP-FL. Prior to joining the CSP staff, he served as a minor league hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals. Tyler played baseball at Des Moines Area CC and Kansas State University before being drafted as an infielder by the Houston Astros in 2016. His first coaching role was as assistant hitting coordinator for the Minnesota Blizzard, a premier Midwest youth and high school travel organization. Tyler holds a BS in Psychology from Kansas State and an MS in Sports Management from Indiana State University.

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CSP Elite Baseball Development Podcast: October 2022 Q&A

By Eric Cressey on October 13, 2022 at 6:26 am

It’s time for another listener Q&A, so I covered three questions from our listeners on this week’s podcast:

1. I’ve heard you talk several times about how there are checks and balances on the throwing shoulder. Can you please elaborate on what that means?
2. Any unusual causes or potential predictors of injury that we need to keep in mind?
3. What are some of the next frontiers in baseball development that excite you?

Special thanks to this event’s sponsor, Athletic Greens. the head http://www.athleticgreens.com/cressey And you get a free 10-pack of Athletic Greens travel packets with your first order.

Sponsor Reminder

This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. It’s an all-in-one superfood supplement containing 75 whole food ingredients designed to support your body’s nutritional needs in 5 key areas of health: 1) Energy, 2) Immune System, 3) Gut Health, 4) Hormones Support and 5 ) healthy aging. the head www.AthleticGreens.com/cressey And claim my special offer today – 10 free travel packs – with your first purchase. I use this product daily and recommend it to our athletes as well. I would encourage you to give it a shot – especially with this great offer.

Podcast feedback

If you like what you hear, we’d be thrilled if you’d consider subscribing to the podcast and leaving us an iTunes review. You can do so here.

And, we welcome your suggestions for future guests and questions. Just email [email protected]

Thank you for your continued support!

Sign-up for our free baseball newsletter today and get instant access to a 47-minute presentation from Eric Cressy on personalizing the management of overhead athletes!

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4 Training considerations for catchers

By Eric Cressey on October 11, 2022 at 8:55 am

Today’s guest post comes from Cressy Sports Performance – Florida coach Dan Rosen.

A Recent episodes On the Elite Baseball Development Podcast, Eric talks with coach Jerry Weinstein about his long coaching career and the lessons he’s learned throughout that time. In addition to being a successful coach at the collegiate, professional and Olympic levels, Jerry is also well known for his work with catchers. In the podcast, he discusses the importance of defensive mindset for catchers, the ability to get in and out of position behind the plate, and more. In today’s article, I want to address these qualities and others that can help catchers be more successful.

Training Consideration #1: Healthy Legs

Foot health can be its own blog, but I’m particularly interested in maintaining toe extensibility and the ability to pronate and supinate the foot.

Sufficient great toe dorsiflexion (about 60-70 degrees) is important for several reasons including plantar fascia health, Achilles tendon health, ability to complete a gait cycle (one step). Without this dynamic, compensation can rise up the chain. Before each pitch, catchers cue them into a position to access the extensibility of their big toes. In a nine-inning game, a team will throw about 150 pitches; Multiply that throughout the season and you have a catcher who has spent considerable time in big toe dorsiflexion. Without enough volume, what can happen is that catchers can roll onto the other four toes for support, causing the big toe to not do its job in this position. Ways we can train big toe ROM include isolating the toe with CAR/Toe yoga, setting the spring ankle and making sure the big toe is the main weight bearer, spending time in the gym barefoot, and being more aware of what’s going on. Our big toe is doing exercises that usually force it to extend, such as hops, pogos, and exercises that use a staggered or split stance. Dr. James Spencer outlined some good exercises here in a previous article: Big fingers, big problems.

Although catchers are not walking much while catching, they do move throughout the gait phase. The location of the signal we just discussed will reflect the final phase of walking, as the toe is the last point of contact with the ground. The next phase of gait is associated with propulsion, which will be important for catchers as they move their body weight toward the base for the throw. After the pitch calling stance comes the initial stance. Traditionally it will look like the picture below.

Some catchers, however, find getting down on one knee to be a more comfortable and more effective way to receive the pitch.

In the first picture, we can see heavy pronation and eversion (rolling the foot inward) of both feet. Catchers often have to shift or swing their body weight from one leg to the other in their stance, which is why access to articulation will be important. It is worth noting, however, that the athlete needs the ability to access supination to create a more rigid base for power generation. If the athlete is constantly pronation (like the catcher in the first picture), he will be stuck in “deceleration mode”. In the second picture, we can see the left foot is more biased towards supination.

A technique I like to employ in this regard is to favor different phases of movement with different exercises in a training program.. For example, you can adjust a split-squat to train each of them. Elevate the forefoot into bias initial supination, keeping the shin over the mid-foot throughout the movement for bias pronation, or elevate the hindfoot and/or float the forefoot to emphasize re-supination in the later stages of gait.

Where you place the weight loading implement can also affect the degree to which the working leg is biased; Contralateral (opposite side) holds emphasize pronation and ipsilateral (same side) holds emphasize more supination. Determine what the athlete needs and then position/load them accordingly.

Training Consideration #2 – Hip Mobility

Assessing hip range of motion in all three planes is important to determine where an athlete may be limited. Hip flexion range-of-motion is especially important, as a catcher must spend a lot of time in a position of deep hip flexion. Lacking this motion, a catcher may find compensatory motion in the joints above (lumbar spine) or below (knees).

Knee health is another important consideration for catchers, as they spend time in deep knee flexion such as toe dorsiflexion and hip flexion. In terms of knee health, it is my belief that access to adequate leg strength, proper foot mechanics, and sufficient usable hip mobility will put the knee in a better position to sustain year-round (if there are no contact or traumatic injuries).

To be an effective catcher, one must have sufficient hip mobility to “explore” in a small window. Some catchers will rely on more internal rotation techniques, while others will rely on more external rotation techniques to drive behind the plate. Therefore, it is important for a strength and conditioning coach and athlete to discuss any specific limitations that occur when the catcher attempts to play their position.

It is also worth noting that with the amount of time catchers spend in squats or in awkward positions, bony adaptations of the head of the femur (ball) or acetabular rim (socket) may develop, resulting in loss of hip ROM. Accessible hip mobility will help catchers play their position effectively by allowing them to work on their frontal plane to shift their weight in an attempt to catch or block a ball. One movement that trains this quality is the half-kneeling adductor dip.

It will be important to have the ability to internally rotate one hip while the other hip externally rotates. We can see this happening in the two images above. This ability can be trained using both the ever-popular Seated 90/90 ER/IR Hip Switch as well as a new favorite of the mind, the Cable Assisted Lateral Cross Connect.

Finally, catchers must have the ability to move the hips out of their stance through hip extension. One medicine ball movement in particular that we like to use on this front is the split-stance stand-up stomp:

Training Consideration #3 – Acceleration

Acceleration is the ability to achieve speed as quickly as possible, and athletes need it to overcome a fixed position (such as catching). Catchers naturally assume a lower center of mass due to the position they find themselves in. The ability to accelerate will help them get out of position and move their body weight towards the base they are throwing towards or towards. A ball field

Acceleration of training for this population can be done in the same way as for other athletes. This will include things like med ball throws, sled pushes, chain sprints, jumps for distance, and lifts that emphasize horizontal force production. To make acceleration training more specific for catchers, give them the ability to rotate their bodies when they accelerate or start their sprints in a position where they have to cross their lower center of mass; Examples would be half kneeling and push up positions.

Training Consideration #4 – Arm Care

While not every throw has the same intensity as a pitcher, catchers throw a fair amount throughout a season. Reps are reps. Catchers need to focus on their arm care training just as much as pitchers do. One thing to note with catchers throwing mechanics is that the arm action is usually short and they may not be able to use their lower half due to the lack of forward momentum when throwing. This is closely related to the rapid turnaround time at their disposal. Because of this shorter deceleration path (and, consequently, less assistance from the lower half), it stands to reason that catchers must have more power in the upper end decelerators than you might expect.

Footwork is important to consider when thinking about arm care. If a catcher can’t properly shift their feet and efficiently gain momentum toward their target, the shoulders and elbows have to work harder to get the layback, align the release point with the target, and get velocity on the throw.

Conclusion

There are many things that go into being a great catcher, but like any athlete, availability is the best ability. Keeping catchers healthy is the name of the game for long-term success at this position. Foot health, hip mobility, acceleration and arm care are four training considerations that – combined with constant communication between catcher and coach – can help an athlete feel good and perform well throughout the year and throughout a career. I recommend you listen to this episode of the Elite Baseball Development Podcast with Eric and Coach Weinstein if you haven’t already:

About the author

Dan Rosen works as a strength and conditioning coach. Dan graduated from the University of Maryland with a BS in Kinesiology. He then completed his internship with CSP-MA in spring 2021. Dan completed an internship with Elon University Sports Performance and a graduate fellowship at Merrimack College, where he earned his master’s degree in exercise and sports science. As a graduate fellow, Dan served as the strength and conditioning coach for the baseball, field hockey and swim teams while assisting with football and men’s ice hockey. After graduate school, Dan served as the strength and conditioning coach for the Brewster Whitecaps in the Cape Cod Collegiate Summer Baseball League. He is certified in precision nutrition.

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CSP Elite Baseball Development Podcast: Building a Better Catcher with Craig Albernaz

By Eric Cressey on October 6, 2022 at 5:40 am

We’re excited to welcome San Francisco Giants bullpen catching coach Craig Albernaz to this week’s podcast. Craig is a retired Cressey Sports Performance athlete and longtime friend of mine who has an outstanding perspective on how the catching position has evolved and where it is going. In this podcast, he talks about the culture change and core competencies that enabled the Giants to win a franchise record 107 games in 2021.

A special thanks to the sponsor of this event, Athletic Greens. the head http://www.athleticgreens.com/cressey And you get a free 10-pack of Athletic Greens travel packets with your first order.

You can follow Craig on Twitter @Craig Albernaz And on Instagram @Craig Albernaz.

Sponsor Reminder

This episode is brought to you by Athletic Greens. It’s an all-in-one superfood supplement containing 75 whole food ingredients designed to support your body’s nutritional needs in 5 key areas of health: 1) Energy, 2) Immune System, 3) Gut Health, 4) Hormones Support and 5 ) healthy aging. the head www.AthleticGreens.com/cressey And claim my special offer today – 10 free travel packs ($79 value) – with your first purchase. I use this product daily and recommend it to our athletes as well. I would encourage you to give it a shot – especially with this great offer.

Podcast feedback

If you like what you hear, we’d be thrilled if you’d consider subscribing to the podcast and leaving us an iTunes review. You can do so here.

And, we welcome your suggestions for future guests and questions. Just email [email protected]

Thank you for your continued support!

Sign-up for our free baseball newsletter today and get instant access to a 47-minute presentation from Eric Cressy on personalizing the management of overhead athletes!

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