Perfect Game WWBA World Championship TrackMan Data

The innovative company TrackMan had its military grade 3-D Doppler radar tracking systems set up at five of the thirteen fields at Perfect Game’s WWBA World Champion in Jupiter Fla. The system precisely measures the location, spin, angles, release height and distance, velocity and trajectory of a ball in flight, among other measurables. Trackman and Perfect Game have reached a partnership (more on that Friday) and the two were kind enough to share some of the information with Baseball America. In total, TrackMan gathered data on 426 pitchers and 769 hitters, but not every team played on one of the five fields with the TrackMan systems. Here are the leaders in a number of different categories, including hitter’s exit velocity off the bat, fastball velocity and breaking ball spin rate, throughout the premier, and best attended, event of the showcase circuit.

Video of some of the players is also attached in the post, but the video does not always display the batted ball or pitch that placed the player on the event leaderboard.

The table below contains the 25 hardest hit balls of the event, regardless of the end result. Shortstop Shane Benes (first and sixth) is the only player to have two batted balls that finished in the top 10, and outfielder Justin Smith was the only other player with two batted balls in the top 25.

Trackman also records batted ball distance and hang time.

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Trackman measures a pitcher’s peak velocity and average velocity throughout their outing. The column on the far right side is the difference between the pitcher’s average and peak velocity. Righthanders Sean Reid-Foley and Grant Holmes finished with the smaller difference between the two measurements, which shows the ability to hold their velocities. The top four velocities all belonged to Florida pitchers, and seven of the top 20 come from the Sunshine State. Lefthander Kodi Medeiros was the only southpaw to make the list dominated by 19 righthanders. Two 2015 righthanders, Donnie Everett and Kyle Molnar, made the top 10.

Breaking ball spin rate is critical because it correlates with movement and break, as well as deception. The more a breaking ball rotates, the harder it is for a hitter to see the seams of the baseball, which makes the pitch look more like a fastball. Data collected at the major league level shows that higher spin rates produce higher whiff rates. According to 2010 numbers, for example, a below-average spin rate produced a swinging strike rate of eight percent, an average spin rate was 10 percent and an above-average spin rate was 12 percent, while the best curveballs (2,700 RPMs or more) finished with 15 percent. The average 2010 major league curveball had a spin rate of 2,450 and Justin Verlander had the highest curveball spin rate at 3,004. Please note that RPMs are not the sole indicator of a breaking ball’s prowess, which is also dependent upon launch angle of the pitch and proper tilt, among other things.

Slider spin rate follows the same principles as curveball spin rate, which is detailed above.

The top 10 fastball spin rates are below. The more a ball spins the less it sinks. High-spin fastballs sink less and tend to generate more swinging strikes. Hitters sometimes describe a fastball that “hops” or “jumps” or “rises.” These are likely high-spin fastballs that sink less than the average fastball. Conversely, low spin fastballs tend to sink more and generate more ground balls.