Prep Baseball Report

Mid-Atlantic ProCase: Trackman Traits (Part 3)


Mason McRae
PBR Virginia/DC

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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 Mid-Atlantic ProCase event in Richmond, VA. 

Glossary Terms Intro & Links:

Induced Vertical Break: VB or IVB
Vertical Approach Angle: VAA 
Horizontal Break: HB
Release Speed: RS or Velo
Release Height: RH or RelHei


Holden Wilkerson

Class of 2021 / RHP

Player Information

  • Graduating Class: 2021
  • Primary Position: RHP
    Secondary Position: 1B
  • High School: Cave Spring
    State: VA
  • Summer Team: Dirtbags All Blacks
  • Height: 6-4
    Weight: 205lbs
  • Bat/Throw: R/R

Fastball: Combines low release height of 5.35 with well above average VB (21.7 inches on average), above average raw spin (2,367 rpm on average), and above average velocity (90.5 mph on average). What do you get when you combine all four of these? An extremely flat VAA and effective pitch up in the zone. Has unique shape, gets high vertical movement but doesn’t have high spin efficiency because he has some gyro spin. He throws the pitch 12:00 with some of his pitches counter-clockwise and some a touch lateral at 12:15. It actually has cutter elements to it.


Curveball: Fascinating pitch. He throws it with a curveball axis (7:00 tilt), but he actually has elements of a seam-shifted wake to it (this is when the pitch’s spin axis changes in the final 15 feet of ball flight). Because Trackman only tracks inferred spin axis, you can’t see the observed spin axis (only hawkeye tracks this) of the pitch, but you can tell it does shift axes based on its movement. He throws it at 77.7 mph with -4.4 inches of VB and -2.4 inches of HB. Because he tends to supinate on his fastball (opposite of pronation, typical wrist orientation when throwing a slider/cutter) he also supinates on his curveball, so even though he’s throwing it at 7:00, it’s got slider movement and some gyro spin. All of this can be summed up in one sentence: he throws the pitch hard and has very late movement on it.


Changeup: Threw it about an hour clockwise. Even threw one at 12:30 with 5.2 inches of HB and 17.3 inches of VB; this pitch looked more like a cutter than a changeup. But the majority of his changeups had 1:15 tilts with slightly more backspin than side spin. Threw it for a strike 66.7% strike of the time.

 


Antwan Walton

Class of 2021 / RHP

Player Information

  • Graduating Class: 2021
  • Primary Position: RHP
    Secondary Position: OF
  • High School: Maury
    State: VA
  • Summer Team: Richmond Braves Platinum
  • Height: 6-6
    Weight: 200lbs
  • Bat/Throw: S/R

Fastball: Thrown in zone 10% of the time with 18.5 inches of VB to go with 7.2 inches of HB. Has a 5.62 release height with a 6.37 extension. Was on average 86.7 mph, touched 91.1. Threw it at 12:45 with slight gyro spin to it. Cut it a few times with heavy gyro spin on his 12:30 tilt fastballs. Has 2,191 raw spin on average. 


Slider: Hybrid of cutter/slider. Has tilts ranging anywhere from 9:45 to 11:00. Throws the pitch at 74.8 mph so it’s too slow of a pitch to throw it like a cutter, which is why it’s best when thrown at 9:45 (2.6 inch VB, -5.9 inch HB). Dropped it in the zone 25% of the time. Hardest pitch was 76.9 mph (which he did twice) with 2,136 rpm, though he averaged 2,034 rpm.


Changeup: Threw it 8.7 mph slower than his fastball with 15.1 inches of VB and 11.1 inches of HB at 12:45, 1:15, and 1:30. Threw it for strike 33.3% of time. Tilt is very similar to his fastball so it moves similarly at a lower speed which makes it easier to barrel as a hitter. He had 1,611 rpm on the pitch and threw it as hard as 81.6 mph.


 

Jordan Irizarry

Class of 2021 / LHP

Player Information

  • Graduating Class: 2021
  • Primary Position: LHP
    Secondary Position: 1B
  • High School: Princess Anne
    State: VA
  • Summer Team: Old Dominion hitters
  • Height: 6-0
    Weight: 185lbs
  • Bat/Throw: L/L

Fastball:  Touch 88.0 mph, averaging 87.1 mph. Had below average raw spin (1,905 rpm) with 18.6 inches of VB and -8.4 inches of HB (high spin efficiency) at 11:15. Had a very tight distribution of movement/tilts. Threw from low release height of 5.21 feet. Thrown for strike 25% of the time with the majority being lower in the zone. Did throw one pitch with a 3.6 PlaLocHei (very top of zone) and -0.9 PlaLocSide (edge of the zone) which had a VAA of 3.5 degrees. That same pitch unsurprisingly also had his highest VB (19.7 inches) of his session.


Curveball: Sweeper look with more depth than usual. 10 inches of HB, -4.9 inches of VB at 3:45. Very similar release to fastball/change at 5.07. Velo ranged from 71.2 to 71.5. Averaged 1,966 rpm. Did not throw it for a strike.


Changeup: Averaged -9.5 inches of HB with -2.5 inches of VB. Thrown about 0.12 feet lower than fastball. Ranged from 73.7 to  75.4 mph. Dropped in the zone 40% of the time.