PitchCommand Advanced System

Hit your spots and change your speeds!

In order to measure velocity and location a camera and sports radar is attached to a computer. The location of the ball can be measured with a catcher receiving the pitch or the pitcher throwing to a backstop.

The recommended sports radar is the Jugs Radar with a cable to the COMM port of the computer. The cost of the radar unit with the cable and a tripod is approximately $900 and can be purchased from Jugs at their website - http://www.jkpsports.com/products/radar.cfm .

I have used the velocity and location version of the PitchCommand system with a couple of different cameras. One is the Logitech QuickCam Pro 4000 web camera - it plugs into a USB port on the computer. The other camera I have used with great results is a SONY camcorder.

The backstop I recommend is the ATEC Pitcher's Practice Screen. The best price I have seen is at Walmart - http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=2677049 .

The image below shows the PitchCommand Location and Velocity version in action:

What will fine control get you?

I really like the following anecdote - it illustrates how the strategy of baseball hasn't changed in at least the last 80 years!

From Eugene Murdock’s Baseball between the Wars, page 199.

Q. Would you go over the other team's hitters with your pitcher before the game?

A. Yes, most clubs meet and go over the other hitters; I know Brooklyn did and Detroit did most of the time; especially in the first game of a series. You would go down the batting order, in fact, all the hitters ... Some were highball hitters, and some were lowball hitters. What we would concentrate on were the 'holes' you could pitch to. Like a fellow might be 'tight and up' or 'down and away.' Some fellows were dead fastball hitters. For example, Bing Miller was the best curveball hitter of all time; we just couldn't throw him a curveball , he'd wear us out. We'd try to pitch him tight, in on the hands. Well, you watch these fellows play over a period of time and you learn where the 'holes' are. And the holes are not very big for the top-notch hitters in the big leagues; you have to draw that line very fine. Where so many pitchers in the minor leagues had great stuff, but not make it in the majors, they just couldn't draw that line fine enough. As the hitters move up to the big leagues the holes get smaller, and as the pitchers move up he draws the line finer, so everything stays even. But looking at it in another light, the pitcher, if his control is not fine enough, or the holes on the hitter are too big, look out - neither one of them is going to stay in the big leagues very long [chuckling]... We used to tell players in spring training that we were sending them back to the minors for more experience as a hitter. He'd say, "What's wrong? I can hit just as well as the guys you've got out on the field." Well, we'd answer, we don't really decide that. It's the fellows on the other team that decide that. They won't let you stay up here until you are ready. Then they begin to accept it.