Pitchgrader in the news

Wes Johnson, Arkansas pitching coach shows how he uses Pitchgrader in TV interview.

Tap above to see the TV interview video of Arkansas baseball pitching coach Wes Johnson. The reporter mentions Trackman, but coach Johnson is demonstrating Pitchgrader through most of the interview.

About PitchGrader

PitchGrader is advanced Pro level baseball pitch analysis & training software for the sports technology industry. It utilizes 3D Analytics for Doppler radar data for pitched and batted balls with advanced grading, pitcher and batter development resources for actionable insights & player projection. It currently allows you to analyze your Trackman and Flightscope data, with more systems to come when their data sets contain enough useful information.

With so many systems providing detailed measurement data on every pitch, batted ball, and more, data overload is only part of the problem. The primary problem was a lack of tools to analyze, understand, and apply this data towards the primary goal - developing players to win more games. Pitchgrader tackles this problem, and in new innovative ways that are equally visual and quantitative. In short, Pitchgrader makes complex data and concepts understandable and visual.

Pitchgrader development started in the Fall of 2015, and early adopter teams for the 2016-2017 season included college baseball division 1 powerhouses Dallas Baptist , 2016 D1 champions Coastal Carolina, Vanderbilt, Iowa, and Arkansas. With 2017 spring training testing with 2 MLB teams ongoing. 

Of the 5 early adopter teams, 4 reached the 2017 NCAA D1 regionals. Iowa gained more than 33% more wins in 2017 and won the BIG10 championship for the first time in school history. Iowa also won the silver medal in the 2017 World University games in Tapei, the first time a US team has ever won a medal in the games.

Pitchgrader is a toolbox of 3D tools, charts, graphs, stats, leaderboards, 3D simulator, and more that helps you understand and apply your pitched & batted ball tracking radar data to develop players and win more games.

Pitch grading has long been mostly subjective based on the preferences and whims of the scout. PitchGrader allows a new concept we call "reference pitches". A reference pitch allows you to save pitches you choose as a reference and assign your own grade. Then, other pitches from any pitcher are graded based on the reference pitch you choose. There is no limit on how many reference pitches you can save. So for example, you might have several reference Curveballs saved. One might be for a true 12-6 curve with hard bite, another might be a harder 12-6 with less bite. You might also have different reference pitches for different body types, delivery types, etc. 

Reference pitches also allow for our patent pending 3D Training, where a pitch is compared to a reference pitch. This allows you to for example, find out what's different about Joe Pitcher's curveball now and 2 months ago, or help Joe Pitcher develop a slider like Mike Pitcher. Our methods and processes show you in detail what's different about the pitches so you can target your coaching to reach your goal faster.

Pitch Analysis

• Data itself is not very useful unless it can be shown in a way that provides insights to either help win games or for Pitcher or Batter development.
• Knowing data such as spin rate, spin axis, horizontal release angle, and the many more data variables aren't very useful by themselves, even if graphing a few together. To us, that's 1D and 2D thinking. We go even further beyond with 3D thinking because we utilize from the dozens of data variables together as a whole to analyze the complete and exact flight path of the ball. 
• Our 3D visualization tools allow you to see the flight path of the pitched or batted ball from any angle, purely from the raw data. We also have developed a way to derive a new data point for each pitch we call "Seams" which provides information about the seam orientation of the ball as it left the pitcher's hand. 
• Our 3D visualization tools recreate the exact path of the pitch via a series of complex and precise physics calculations. This is unique and completely different than merely plotting the path of the ball with captured path points. Captured path points from sources such as video or Doppler radar systems are static and don't allow for a 3D pitch simulator. That's because they're merely like a photograph of how the ball moved, instead of the dynamically calculated path that can be measured and altered that PitchGrader does.
• Our 3D simulator models the baseball path to show the baseball moving along the path in real time, from any angle.

Viewing the path of a saved pitch, or a whole plate appearance, in 3D provides insights not available in static 2D charts. 3D allows for a better understanding of the 3D release point, pitch tunnels, sequencing, and more. Whether you're trying to get a Pitcher back to a previous performance level for a particular pitch, or trying to help a Pitcher develop a particular pitch, you'll now make faster strides towards that goal with specific cues of exactly what needs to change. The same holds true for evaluating a Batter's plate appearance. Get a better sense of where the Batter's strong points and weak points are. Or recall a particular pitch that was hit well.