Sunday, July 12, 2015

Overly analytical, I think

Baseball has always been home to the data geeks and freaks. Even old-timers would go on and on about stats and records and such. With the advent of computers and video games and hi-def television, these tendencies have gone into hyperdrive. Listening to an announcer talking about the exit velocity of a hit baseball -- I can't decide whether to laugh or shake my head or what. Maybe both.

But cruising the Sox website after last night's victory over the Evil Empire, I ran across this little bit of analysis about new Sox outfielder Alejandro de Aza:
Statcast™ tracked De Aza's top speed at 15.95 mph as he raced to thrust his glove underneath the line drive. His route efficiency was 87.237 and his first step was 0.445 seconds, while the ball came off the bat at 79.16mph.
Well, that explains it all perfectly. I now have a perfect mental image of the player and the play.

Man am I getting old.

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