COACHING TIPS: If You Sign Up to Be a Volunteer Coach, Be Sure to Do Your Homework First! - Ask Coach Wolff

This is a great list for those just starting down the path. Read the article for more details.

I especially relate to "rules knowledge". I had a game recently with two highly competitive middle schools softball coaches. The batter hits the ball off the plate, it bounces straight up, the catcher shuffles out and grabs the ball over the plate in fair territory and throws the runner out at first. BOTH coaches yelled, "Blue, it hit the plate, It's a FOUL BALL!!", The coach whose team was on defense, who theoretically, was advantaged by the call, argued the longest and I think still didn't understand the rule after explanation. 

from coachaskcoachwolff.com
http://www.askcoachwolff.com/2018/04/29/coaching-tips-if-you-sign-up-to-be-a-volunteer-coach-be-sure-to-do-your-homework-first/

COACHING TIPS: 

If You Sign Up to Be a Volunteer Coach, Be Sure to Do Your Homework First!

by Rick Wolff 

April 29, 2018

I thought this would be a good day to review what all coaches – especially those parents who volunteer to coach – need to keep in mind when working with kids. 

Rule number one: Absolutely no sarcasm is allowed

Rule number two: If you don't know the rules of the sport you're coaching, learn them.

Rule number three: organize and run your practices so that there's no standing around.

Rule number four: every kid plays – and plays a lot in each game.

Rule number five: Watch your language – including your body language!

Rule number six: Be specific in your praise 

Rule number seven: It's still about having fun.

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Spin Rate: What We Know Now - Driveline Baseball

This is a great article and since it's from 2016, we probably know a lot more now.

from drivelinebaseball.com
https://www.drivelinebaseball.com/2016/11/spin-rate-what-we-know-now/

Spin Rate: What We Know Now

This article is intended to build a basis of knowledge of what we, at Driveline Baseball, understand about spin rate at this current time. We will hopefully answer some common questions that we receive and well as link out to resources that we've found helpful in understanding spin rate. This article will also be a reference point for some of our further research and writing on spin rate.

Magnus Force and Spin Rate

We know that we can look at a group of pitchers throwing fastballs at the same speed, say 92 MPH, and those pitchers can all have different rates of spin on their fastballs. The rough guidelines for an 'average' pitcher would be a pitch at 92 MPH fastball with a spin rate of 2200 Revolutions per minute (RPM). In reality pitchers can throw 92 and have spin rates ranging from 1800 RPM to 2400 RPMs.

Why this happens can be explained by some simplified physics, in this case we'll focus on the Magnus force. If we picture a four seam fastball, which is thrown with backspin, the more backspin the less the ball is going to drop over its course from the pitcher's hand to the catcher's glove.

Here is a great gif illustrating this effect. This ball is traveling to the left with backspin, meaning the ball is pushing the air downward behind it creating an equal and opposite force upward. So you can see the faster the backspin the faster the air is deflected downwards and the higher the force pushing the ball back upward.

This gif was created from a fantastic video on the Magnus effect from Veritasium titled: What Is The Magnus Force?

So now let's think of the Magnus force in terms of spin rate.

A 92 MPH fastball at 2200 RPM is going to travel on an 'average' path to the plate.

If this 92 MPH fastball is thrown at 1800 RPM that means less spin, less Magnus force meaning the ball will drop further over its course to the plate than the 'average' fastball described above.

If this 92 MPH fastball is thrown at 2400 RPM that means more spin, more Magnus force meaning the ball will drop less over its course to the plate the the 'average' fastball.

These are small enough differences that a batter would not be able to tell before they decide to swing, but the balls will end up at different heights by the time they reach the plate.

What do high/low spin rates mean to a hitter?

One study has examined how pitches with the same velocity but different spin rates would affect hitters.

This study used a pitching machine to throw pitches at 130 km/hr (80 MPH) at 50 RPS (Red 3000 RPM), 40 RPS (Yellow 2400 RPM), and 30 RPS (Blue 1800). You can see that even at the same speed hitters were consistently under the higher spin fastballs.

From: The Effect of Fastball Backspin Rate on Baseball Hitting Accuracy: Higuchi, et al.

Picture from: Baseball Spin and Pitchers' Performance: Kanosue, et al. (Open Access)

Now the highest spin fastball is spinning at faster than what we've seen in MLB pitchers, but the point still stands. Baseball is a game of millimeters when it comes to making or preventing good contact. So when you can throw fastballs with spin that are further away from average, the more beneficial it can be.

This would be in line with what Zach Day examined in 2013 finding that higher spin fastballs had more swing and misses and fewer ground balls. Lower spin fastballs  the reverse, less swing and misses and more ground balls.

So we can say that at the same velocity the higher the spin rate the more swing and misses the fastball is going to get.

This chart from Jeff Zimmerman also supports this idea , finding that when looking at fastballs at the same velocity the higher the spin rate the higher the percentage of swinging strikes. 

Jeff Long recently examined the correlations between spin rate and swinging strike%, GB%, and FB% and only found very small relationships with regards to spin when looking at all pitches. In this instance the effects of high and low spin rate most likely equaled themselves out.

Can you create higher or lower spin rate?

Higher spin – not necessarily. Lower spin – maybe.

With the knowledge that splitters have a noticeably lower spin rate than fastballs, we can assume that the splitter grip (where the index and middle fingers are very spread out on the ball) leads to a decrease in spin rate. Although we have not officially examined this theory, our preliminary testing agrees that an increased spacing between the fingers on the ball leads to a decrease in spin rate.

Beyond that, nobody truly knows how to reliably and consistently change the spin rate of pitchers. Mostly because no one knows why the ball spins differently from pitcher to pitcher.

What we do know if that there is good evidence that spin rate is created in an incredibly short amount of time.

From: Baseball Spin and Pitchers Performance: Kanosue et al. (Open Access)

Here the authors present picture evidence that suggests how quickly the ball goes from not rotating to rotating when a pitcher throws. Considering the acceleration phase of the throw lasts anywhere from 30-50 ms the suggestion that spin may be generated in only 6 ms(or just longer than that) of the motion is incredible. Each picture frame above is 6 ms long, you can see the ball goes from not rotating to rotating and being released in nearly one frame.

What is the relationship between spin rate and velocity?

We do have some evidence that spin rate is an innate characteristic, and is linearly related with velocity. We had 6 pitchers throw 20 pitches at velocities from 60-80 MPH. The pitchers were told to use the same fastball grip with the same mechanics and attempt to throw a fastball starting at 60 MPH followed by a pitch at 61 MPH all the way up to 80 MPH. The R^2 values between velocity and spin rate of the first 5 pitchers ranged from  0.83-0.96 which is quite a high relationship!

You can find the data here.

The 6th pitcher threw pitches from 60 – 80 MPH but was told to attempt to change his mechanics from pitch to pitch and you can see that the R^2 relationship dropped down to .541. Though this is merely a starting point for more research we can reasonably say that spin rate is an innate characteristic but unknown mechanical changes may also affect spin rate.

So this data suggests that we can say there is an innate relationship between spin rate and velocity for an individual pitcher but not across a large population of pitchers.

Meaning that if one pitcher could throw harder under the same mechanics and same grip his spin rate should increase. But his spin rate could 'max out' at 1900 at 92 MPH. While another pitcher may be able to throw harder under the same mechanics and same grip but his spin increase to 2400 at 92 MPH. This is obviously taking into considering a large assumption that they could throw harder with the same mechanics.

So pitchers may be able to increase their velocity and spin rate but we don't know where they will end up on the scale of 1800 – 2400 RPM for fastballs. Not every pitcher throwing 98+ has a ridiculous high spin rate. Just like not every pitcher throwing 90 has a low spin rate.

You can see this laid out further in this Statcast piece on velocity vs. spin rate.

What are Bauer Units?

In order to better compare spin rates at different velocities between pitchers we created Bauer Units (BU).

BU = Spin Rate (RPM)/Velocity (MPH)

This enables us to normalize the spin per the velocity of the pitch. If a pitcher is spinning a fastball at 2400 RPM, that is less impressive at 99 MPH and much more impressive at 89 MPH. Making spin rate more useful over a wide range of pitchers of varying velocities.

To more effectively compare Bauer Units of varying pitchers, we can normalized Bauer Units into a new unit, called BU+, which accounts for the league average Bauer Unit of pitchers.

BU+ = (Player BU/League Average BU)*100

This gives you an idea of how much high or lower a pitcher's spin is vs. Major League average, where a BU+ of 100 is perfectly average. A BU+ of greater than 100 would indicate a higher than average spin rate fastball, where as a BU+ of less than 100 would be a lower than average spin rate fastball.

Unfortunately, MLB and other statistic collecting agencies have yet to recognize our pioneering efforts into the field of baseball statistics.

This was also discussed on Statcast's 8/26/16 Podcast: The Art of Spin Rate

Are pitchers with higher spin rates more likely to be injured?

No, not that we can tell.

Though there is a growing belief that drastic changes in spin rate (usually sharp decreases) can be a sign of an injury or pending injury.

Each pitcher is going to have a small range around their average spin rate. Sharp changes from that normal range can be seen as an early sign of unhealthy fatigue. So teams can monitor their pitchers spin rate to see if there are any sustained drops of spin rate from their average. This would also work hand in hand with monitoring a pitcher's velocity.

Now this method of injury prevention hasn't been proven to be predictive over a large group of pitchers but it's simply another variable for teams to watch. Obviously at this time these types of analysis are only able to be done with MLB/MiLB pitchers.

This idea was also explained further in these Fangraphs pieces: A New Way to Study Pitching Injury and Pitcher Spin Rates and Injuries.

How can we use spin rate to our advantage?

For pitchers that come to our facility we can use either Trackman or Rapsodo to get measurements of their spin rates and then make recommendations on how to best use their pitchers or make tweaks to improve their pitches. In the case of fastballs, again we don't know how to change spin rate, but we can make recommendations on how to sequence pitches or location preferences.

An example would be a pitcher with a high spin fastball consistently being told to throw fastball at a hitters knees. In this case his fastballs aren't going to drop as much compared to the 'average' fastball meaning he might have a higher chance of getting hit being down in the zone. Pitching middle/up in the zone may be more beneficial in hopes of inducing pop-ups and swinging strikes.

The reverse is true for pitchers who have low spin fastballs. Staying down in the zone would be the best option because hitters should swing just over the pitch resulting in more ground balls. If someone if sitting right in the average range then we move on to looking at the other pitches he throws. Because we want pitches that are further away from the 'average' spin.

Hopefully this answers some basic questions on what we know about spin rate right now, we look forward to continuing our research with Trackman and Rapsodo.

This article was co-written by Assistant Researcher Michael O'Connell, Engineering Intern Joe Marsh and edited by Kyle Boddy

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Why Every Baseball Player, Regardless of Age, Should Care About Their Launch Angle and Exit Velocity | STACK

Given that "Launch Angle" and "Exit Velocity" are the two biggest buzz words in the industry today, I figured I would get up to speed on this and some of the more advanced metrics listed above.  JK ;)

from fangraphs.com
https://www.fangraphs.com/tht/uncovering-dips/

Let’s discuss the specific coefficients for a moment. As has generally been acknowledged (most importantly by Voros himself in introducing DIPS 2.0), strikeouts and home runs serve to drive down BABIP. Why? Well, to start, both are associated with fly ball tendencies, and fly ball pitchers allow less hits on balls in play. Strikeout pitchers may also allow easier to catch batted balls because their pitches are harder to hit (and, so the theory goes, to hit well).

from STACK.com
Why Every Baseball Player, Regardless of Age, Should Care About Their Launch Angle and Exit Velocity | STACK: 

Launch angle.

It's a term that was barely uttered five years ago, yet it's quickly become one every modern baseball player needs to know.

Launch angle refers to the ball's vertical angle of trajectory off the bat. Anything below 0 degrees is an automatic ground ball, and advanced statistics have found ground balls to be one of least productive types of contact a hitter can make at any level. For decades, young ballplayers were told to "swing down on the ball." We know now that's a bunch of a baloney, as such a technique will likely lead to little more than groundouts, double plays and the occasional single that sneaks under an infielder's glove.

In the MLB, where we have access to all batted ball data, there's been a clear trend toward higher launch angles. In 2015, the league average launch angle was 10.1 degrees. That crept up to 10.8 degrees in 2016 and 11.1 degrees in 2017. It's likely no coincidence there were 6,105 total home runs hit last season, smashing the previous league-high of 5,693 from the year 2000.

Many have referred to this trend as the "fly ball revolution," but it might be more accurate to dub it the "ground ball revolt." The best teams are teaching their players to abhor ground balls and the launch angles associated with them. Inside the Los Angeles Dodgers' practice facilities, you'll find a sign that says "No Ground Balls Ever." At the University of Iowa, players take batting practice in front of a wall of nets which span from third base to first base. This "Wall of Launch Angles" helps the players focus on driving the ball over the nets, as opposed to blasting grounders into them.

So if a launch angle under 0 is not ideal, what is? Well, any launch angle under 10 degrees isn't going to have a great shot of being an extra base hit, and any launch angle over 35 degrees is likely to be a sky-high fly ball easily tracked down by an outfielder. A launch angle between 10 and 25 degrees seems to be most fruitful, as it's a meaty trajectory that results in a high percentage of not only hits, but extra base hits. For pro hitters who can smoke the ball, the top end of that range is a bit higher. But launch angle is only half of the equation in this data-driven hitting revolution—the other being exit velocity. That refers to how fast the ball comes off, or exits, the bat. Being able to pair a high exit velocity with the right launch angle on a consistent basis is key to being a productive hitter. The average exit velocity for high school players is about 75 mph, while elite high school players often hover around 90. A player with an optimal or near-optimal average launch angle but a poor average exit velocity isn't going to be a great hitter, nor is one with a great average exit velocity but a poor average launch angle.

"Even just a few years ago, no one talked about launch angle or exit velocity or spin rate of a pitch. Now, even at the youth level, it's going down into the academies. Colleges are starting to ask 'what's a kid's exit velocity or what's his spin rate?' All that data is really quantifiable and it's a great measuring tool for evaluation," says David Mayberry, a Baseball Application Specialist for FlightScope.

FlightScope is the company collecting much of the data players and coaches now use to inform their swings. The technology actually has roots in the defense industry, where it was first used for missile tracking beginning in 1989. Thirty countries still rely on FlightScope for missile tracking data, but the tech has since crossed over into sport.

After making inroads in cricket, golf and tennis, the tech came to baseball and softball about three years ago. It's since been a revelation for many pro and collegiate teams. The unit used in baseball, which is known as the FlightScope Strike, relies on 3D Doppler radar to track the full flight of a projectile. "It's sending out microwave signals, and then with the Doppler effect and the disturbance in the frequencies, we're able to detect the full flight of a projectile—whether it's a missile or a pitched or batted baseball," Mayberry says.

The unit utilizes a built-in camera and Wi-Fi hotspot to easily display data on a tablet such as an iPad or Microsoft Surface. Its flexible mounting allows it to be deployed in about any game or practice situation you can imagine, including indoor batting cages. Once the unit is up and running, it collects data with no need for additional human input. The sheer number of metrics it can collect is astonishing:

At $18,000 a unit, the FlightScope Strike isn't cheap. However, the number of college and pro teams who have invested in the technology are a testament to its value. The New York Yankees own three units solely for the purpose of scouting, and have deployed them in Venezuela and the Dominican Republic in an effort to identify the next international star. The Philadelphia Phillies plan to roll out the units at every level of their organization. Stanford, Illinois, Arkansas and Bucknell are among the collegiate teams looking to gain an edge with FlightScope.

While the highest levels of baseball make use of most (if not all) the metrics collected by FlightScope, it's launch angle and exit velocity that have the most universal appeal and application. Showing ballplayers a 3D representation of their hit trajectory, exit velocity and launch angle on a tablet results in quick comprehension and a vested interest regardless of age.

"Everybody's a visual learner these days, so when they can actually see the shape and trace of their hit, it becomes a part of their approach," Mayberry says. "Even in the youth level, 14-U and into high school, the players—when they see this data, they're visual learners and they're really engaged. The engagement factor is huge when it's on a screen—a lot of players tune out verbal cues or authoritative figures. But when it's on a screen, they're really engaged and taking ownership."

The data gives purpose to practice. While a ball hit off the back of the batting cage used to be lauded as a great piece of hitting, we now know that it's likely to result in a ground ball. Technology like the FlightScope takes the guess work out of it and allows players to see, feel and repeat the type of contact they want to be making.

"Traditionally, if a baseball player was training in a cage, a hard hit ball off the back of the cage was commendable. When it really shouldn't have been. That's a launch angle of 0 degrees—it's coming out straight. That's a ground ball. No matter how strong you are, if you hit if off the back of the cage at 0 degrees, that's a grounder," Mayberry says.

Access to this data can also help better inform a player's sports performance training. If they see their average exit velocity and launch angle are improving over time, they can have confidence the work they're putting in in the weight room is translating to better functional strength, improved hand-eye coordination and harder contact.

"I use this term cause and effect. You can make adjustments and see the real-time effects. If you're working on your ground reaction forces, how much force you're putting into the ground, you can immediately see what effect that has on your average launch angle, exit velocity, batted ball direction. Same thing if you're a pitcher, your velocity and spin rate. Then you can check your biomechanics. If you're doing a certain type of movement, and you're getting better torque from your hip and shoulder separation, then you can see the immediate cause and effect in real time," Mayberry says.

The data can also be a valuable gauge for recovery—if a player is sitting at a significantly lower exit velocity than they're used to, perhaps they need to examine their recent habits. How much sleep have they been getting? What kind of foods have they been eating? Are they overtraining and need to ease up a bit? Feeling sluggish was not something easily quantifiable for baseball players in the past, but that no longer has to be the case.

While this data is still fairly new in the world of baseball, teams have quickly learned that it has tremendous value. Although traditional stats like batting average or extra base hits can be skewed by factors like level of competition, luck, field dimensions, etc., these metrics do not lie. If a kid has an impressive average exit velocity and an efficient average launch angle, college and pro scouts know those skills are likely to translate to the next level. "Everything's evolving as we speak. I was talking to a youth academy located in South Carolina, and they said Clemson and the University of South Carolina are reaching out and asking about a 14-year-old player's exit velocity. So it's becoming a requirement," Mayberry says.

Mayberry believes that even T-ball players aren't too young to be thinking about their average exit velocity and launch angle. Because at the end of the day, those two metrics are what determine how hard and how far you're going to hit the ball. Focusing on those two factors can help a young ballplayer build a powerful, athletic swing. "Ground balls should be getting out of their vocabulary. Maybe they'll hit it too high at first, but then they can zero in and bring (that launch angle) down," Mayberry says. "All of this rolls up to a better understanding for the player. They're taking ownership and they're being more accountable for their own success."

Photo Credit: Icon Sportswire/Getty Images

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Pablo Sandoval pitches perfect ninth inning

Leave it to Panda to bring some levity to the situation. I'm already more confident in him than Melancon (and some others). Of course, the Dodgers will say "It's hard to hit when you're laughing" but to them I would say "Duck the Fodgers".

from mlb.com

https://www.mlb.com/news/pablo-sandoval-pitches-perfect-ninth-inning/c-274318552

Panda pitching alert! Sandoval fires perfect 9th  Apr. 28th, 2018

SAN FRANCISCO -- Giants-Dodgers baseball is serious business, but Pablo Sandoval's joyful spirit gave one of sport's most intense rivalries perhaps its funniest moment ever.

 Sandoval, a third baseman by trade, pitched a 1-2-3 ninth inning for the Giants in their 15-6 loss Saturday to the Dodgers. Sandoval's relief appearance had a practical purpose, since it spared Giants manager Bruce Bochy from wasting a reliever's energy in a lopsided game.

Most importantly, the sight of Sandoval pumping across strikes -- eight in 11 pitches -- entertained all who witnessed his outing. That included the Dodgers, whose closer, Kenley Jansen, laughed helplessly as he watched Sandoval.

"Have fun," Sandoval said. "That's one of the things we're going for every day."

Chris Haft has covered the Giants since 2005, and for MLB.com since 2007. Follow him on Twitter at @sfgiantsbeat and listen to his podcast.

Read more: San Francisco Giants, Pablo Sandoval

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Giants’ Mac Williamson does it again — homer beats Nationals - SFGate

It looks like the only thing that can slow Mac down is the Giants ridiculous on-field bullpen mound. and perhaps Hunter Pence's triumphant return to the lineup as rally-killer.

Remove the mound. Build a 21st century bullpen. Ignore the return of Pence as far as lineup changes go. We won't get Adam Duvall'd again.

from SFGate.com
Giants’ Mac Williamson does it again — homer beats Nationals - SFGate:

"The Giants have their first three-game win streak and their second consecutive series victory regardless of how they fare against Max Scherzer on Wednesday.

They have taken four of their past five games in a run fueled largely by homers from Williamson and Brandon Belt. On Tuesday, both homered in the same game for the first time."

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Why you need to become an “elastic” thinker to succeed in today’s working world

There's a lot of great advice on how to think in the article, but the visual gives me the impression that it will be very difficult and painful for me to implement. And perhaps impossible to accomplish.

from LinkedIn.com
How colleges are copying car dealerships, the rise of the 3D-printed squid robot, and more top insights | LinkedIn:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/why-you-need-become-elastic-thinker-succeed-todays-working-mlodinow/?published=t

One last idea:  Today’s rapidly changing environment means we need to think differently, writes physicist Leonard Mlodinow. And that means we need to get a lot more comfortable being wrong.

“To open your mind to new original ideas, you have to open it to ideas, period. Some will be good, some will be bad, and it won’t always be easy to distinguish the former from the latter. Don’t be afraid to pursue what may not be promising.“

'via Blog this'

Eye And Hand Dominance – Baseball Performance | Psyched Online

Great article on an under-rated area for development of baseball performance.

from PsychedOnline.com
Eye And Hand Dominance – Baseball Performance | Psyched Online:

Eye And Hand Dominance – Baseball Performance

By Paul Schienberg, PhD

Introduction: Background And History

Except for a few isolated cases, such as the preference of the lobster, crab and rat to use the right claw or paw, and the preference of cats to use their left paw, most animals are said to be ambidextrous and do not display lateral preference.

Preference for the right hand occurs in 90-95% of the population. Left hand preference is close to 10%. Ambidexterity occurs in approximately 5%. Left handedness is more common in males and in mentally retarded individuals (so if you are a male and retarded…..which to many women is redundant…..you figure it out.

Ocular or eye dominance is an entirely different situation. The first written description of ocular dominance is credited to Giovanni Battista della Porta in 1593. It was not until the late 20th century that serious attention was focused on this matter.

It might be expected that the eye that sees best is the dominant eye. This is not, in fact, the case. The dominant eye is usually considered to be the preferred eye for sighting. Eye dominance, preference or superiority is different from handedness or motor dominance.

Handedness is concerned primarily with motor aspects of motor organs. The eye is a sensory organ and has no conscious pro-prioception. And vision is for each eye represented bilaterally and equally in the brain in the occipital lobes, for most binocular animals. We have no consciousness of having a right and left eye as one is conscious of having a left and right hand. One does not see the world from a right or left eye, but from a single so called “cyclopean eye” which combines information from both.

When an athlete is asked to perform sighting tests, the cyclopean eye often seems to be located behind or close to one eye or the other. Eye dominance seems to be genetically predetermined. It is said that lateral dominance of a field of vision corresponding to the dominant eye, and it is easier for directional scanning to occur toward the field on the dominant eye and field. If persons are divided into only right or left eye dominance, then about 65% of the population is right eyed dominant and 35% are left eye dominant.

An individual who is right handed and right “eyed” or left handed and left “eyed” is said to have an uncrossed pattern of eye-hand dominance. Right handed and left “eyed” or vice versa is called crossed eye-hand dominance. There is no correlation between handedness and eye dominance.

A Study Of Baseball Performance

The study was conducted by a person (JMP) whose greatest frustration in childhood was that he didn’t become a good enough baseball player to make the major leagues. He could pitch but he could not hit a lick. He tired switch hitting and found much better success. He is right handed and has right eye dominant, uncrossed eye-hand dominant. He consulted his father’s history who was more successful in baseball. He found that his father was crossed eye-hand dominant, right handed with a dominant left eye, and had been a very successful batter, while uncrossed JMP had been a relatively successful pitcher. His father also had difficulty, in contrast, in pitching. The study looked a college varsity baseball team.

All twenty five, male, varsity athletes from the University of Florida baseball team were examined. Visual acuity, stereoscopic vision, ocular motility and eye sight dominance and handedness were established. All athletes batted the same “hand” as they threw except for one “switch hitter” who was right handed but who batter left handed.

Athletic performance was measured by data obtained from the prior year’s statistics. The pitchers were evaluated by their earned run average (ERA) and the hitters were rated by their by their batting average (BA).

Let me review some of the results of this study. College varsity level baseball players are twice as likely as the general population to have crossed dominance. The incidence of central eye dominance is considerably higher than the general population. The best hitters were centrally eye dominant or crossed eye-hand dominant. The poorest hitters were uncrossed eye-hand dominant. The top four pitchers were either uncrossed or centrally ocular dominant. Three of the top six pitchers were centrally ocular dominant.

What conclusion were the researchers able to draw from the results? There is strong support for the idea that the pattern of eye-hand dominance is significant and related to athletic success in baseball. There seems to be high probability that central ocular dominance helps athletes succeed in this form of athletic endeavor. The central ocular dominance players (batters and pitchers), whether right or left handed, were consistently and distinctly in the forefront. The central ocular dominant subgroup had both the best BA and the best ERA. The crossed eye-hand dominance pattern seems to be of benefit only to the batters – may even be a handicap to the pitchers. An uncrossed eye-hand dominance pattern is an advantage to the pitcher and a disadvantage to the hitter, and a crossed eye-hand dominance pattern is an advantage to the hitter and a disadvantage to the pitcher.

The situation for baseball hitting is very different from pitching in that the sighting action is to the side of the athlete. The explanation might be that there is increased ability of the eyes to sweep in the direction of the field of the side of the dominant eye. Certainly that is what the batter does. The pitcher is to his left and as he watches the pitcher he must make rapid sweeps of his eye from the plate in front of him to the pitcher on the mound, waiting for the pitch and watching the ball as it proceeds toward him. Even as the ball approaches him it is still primarily in his left gaze field, not the right gaze field, which it enters only when it crosses the plate and caught by the catcher. The batter must initiate his swing based on his vision of the ball’s course when it is perhaps only halfway or so from the pitcher to the plate, so it is irrelevant that the ball finally crosses into his right visual field as it crosses the plate. It is for these reasons why the crossed eye-hand dominant player is at some advantage in the batting situation over the uncrossed dominant player. The best combination for a baseball player would be a left handed centrally ocular dominant, or if not centrally ocular dominant, a left handed crossed eye dominant person. Many successful players do not follow this formula however.

Conclusions

Among those athletes that possess the other necessary qualities (speed, fast reactions times, coordination, competitiveness, etc.) for success, it may be that ocular dominance and the pattern of eye-hand dominance is another variable that is measurable and predictable.

Eye hand dominance could serve as a factor in scouting athletes, or guiding a young player on whether to hit left or right handed or to switch hit. It may be possible to determine what sport to concentrate on, as knowledge grows concerning the relations between ocular dominance and patterns of eye-hand dominance in other sports. Tennis is a natural next sport for examination
.

Giants beat Nats on Williamson's 464-foot HR | MLB.com

I think Hunter Pence just got Wally Pipp'd. It seems like the kid is on an even keel even after this prodigious start. He is anticipating the adjustment the league will make to his revamped swing.

I liked his chances to be the answer in LF better than Jarrett Parker. Better approach, less strikeouts, similar power production in the minors, but Parker lit it up early with his 3 HR game, before fizzling. Now it's Williamson's turn to take the reins.

That is an impressive looking swing and some impressive metrics attached to the swing.

from mlb.com
Giants beat Nats on Williamson's 464-foot HR | MLB.com:

by Chris Haft mlb.com

SAN FRANCISCO -- The legend of Mac Williamson continued to grow with San Francisco's 4-2 victory Monday night over the Washington Nationals, just like the reputations of previous Giants capable of prodigious feats.

From recent years, think of Tim Lincecum throwing unhittable pitches with his impossibly long stride or Madison Bumgarner pitching as well as hitting his way to victory. From previous eras, ponder Barry Bonds and Willie McCovey hitting balls literally out of sight, Juan Marichal creating shutout masterpieces with his leg kick as well as his arm action or Willie Mays doing just about anything.

 Sheer power is Williamson's stock-in-trade. In Monday's sixth inning, he drove a two-run homer to right-center field at AT&T Park, an area rarely reached by right-handed batters such as him.

View image on Twitter

David Adler

✔@_dadler

Mac Williamson's 464-foot HR in San Francisco tonight is the farthest by a right-handed hitter to the opposite side of the field (i.e. right of dead center) since #Statcast started tracking in 2015. #SFGiants

12:17 AM - Apr 24, 2018

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The numbers proved that Williamson's clout was as impressive as it looked. According to Statcast™, it traveled a projected 464 feet.That ranked second among Giants only to Brandon Belt's 475-foot drive on May 22, 2015 -- the year of Statcast™'s inception. It also tied for the fourth-longest homer in the Major Leagues this season.

Williamson's round-tripper was the fifth-hardest tracked by Statcast™ from a Giant, complementing his all-time, hardest-hit ball just last Friday at Anaheim (114.2 mph).

Giants manager Bruce Bochy insisted that he had never seen a right-handed batter deposit a ball into that area -- not even in batting practice. "It shows you how strong the guy is," Bochy said of Williamson, who connected off Nationals reliever Shawn Kelley's first pitch.

Having divided his previous three seasons between Triple-A and the Majors, Williamson refused to get too excited.

"I'm encouraged, but this is a game of adjustments," he said. "So I'm not complacent with where I am right now. I know that it's always going to be a game of adjustments. As you have success, they're going to adjust to how you're doing and you're going to adjust back to what they're doing. It's a constant chess game."

'via Blog this'