If you thought the biggest baseball move of the offseason was the Mariners' signing Robinson Cano, think again.
This past weekend, at the eighth annual MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference at Hynes Convention Center, MLB Advanced Media changed the game.
If you're a baseball purist who prefers ERA, batting average and RBI, this is not for you. If you're a baseball nerd, a math geek or some combination of the two: welcome to heaven.
MLBAM introduced a new play-tracking system that measures every movement on the baseball field. The system, which does not yet have a name, combines camera and radar technology to collect massive amounts of data. The camera component records each player's position 30 times per second, while the radar component records the flight of the ball 20,000 times per second.
For the 2014 season, it will run in three stadiums: Miller Park in Milwaukee, Wisc., Target Field in Minnesota and Citi Field in New York. The plan is for all 30 parks to have the system installed by the 2015 season.
Player evaluation metrics have come a long way over the past decade. Consider the latest fad in all-encompassing offensive stats, wRC+, which looks at a hitter's total offensive value and adjusts it to the league average while also accounting for ballpark factors. It's complicated and brilliant and will drive a purist mad.
But MLBAM's technology takes it to the next level. The reason it's such a big deal - other than because it's really cool - is that it has the potential to remove results from the equation. This might sound strange, but think of it this way: It essentially eliminates luck as a factor in evaluating players.
For fielders, the technology shows how efficient a player's routes are, how fast his reaction times are, how fast he moves at top speed and how quickly he accelerates. For hitters, it shows the velocity and launch angle of the ball leaving the bat, as well as at what point a player makes contact. For baserunners, it shows whether a player is rounding the bases at optimal angles.
Casual fans - and even some die-hards - may feel like this is information overload. That's understandable. But like it or not, this system will change the way those who make baseball decisions - managers, general managers, Hall of Fame voters, etc. - do their jobs. It will improve their ability to determine what makes a great ballplayer.
As for scouts and baseball traditionalists, things won't get easier. Teams will hire fewer scouts and more math geeks. That's sad for scouts. But we should celebrate accuracy and truth whenever we can get it. The truth is beautiful.
Former general manager Jim Duquette put it this way to MLB.com: "You can start to take the subjectivity that is given to you by the scout and blend it with raw data now, and come up with a truer picture of evaluating a player. So when you take that data and compare it to others in the game, you can really find out if that position player is the best at his position."
MLBAM has not revealed to what extent fans will have access to the new information. If it is open to the public, it will be confusing at first. Certainly, it will be more difficult to evaluate a hitter's batted-ball speed and launch angle than it is to simply look up his home run and RBI totals.
But we should embrace the change. Top-notch evaluation tools enhance, not take away from, our understanding and appreciation of the greatest game on Earth.
Aaron Leibowitz is a senior who is majoring in American studies. He can be reached at Aaron.Leibowitz@tufts.edu.
