It’s hard to imagine that in the early 2000s, certain baseball teams that relied heavily on analytical insights regarding player performances were decried by the sport’s purists as a bunch of nerds. The old-time scouts lambasted the practice of using copious amounts of data to judge a baseball player, saying they offered better insights using their own two eyes.
Well, the stat-inclined nerds won that war a long time ago. These days, the teams that aren’t using every scrap of data available to them are lagging mightily in the arms’ race of information. Case in point: The Minnesota Twins this week became the latest MLB team to adopt Blast Motion sensors and apps throughout all levels of its organization. Blast Motion brings real-time swing analytics to in-game data capture for postgame analysis.
“As a native Minnesotan and lifelong Twins fan, being able to provide solutions and insights to help a great organization become even better is extremely exciting,” Roger Weingarth, Blast Motion president and chief operating officer, said in a statement. “Through our work with the majority of the MLB teams, we’ve seen the positive impact that Blast information has had, and I can’t wait to see the benefits it will bring to the Twins. This is going to be a great season for baseball fans.”
CEO Michael Fitzpatrick told Sports Techie that more than half of MLB teams uses Blast Motion — the league’s official bat sensor — but the Twins and Houston Astros are the only teams who have publicly acknowledged its use to date. The sensors can be attached to either end of the bat, though their use is prohibited during games. In addition to MLB teams, Blast Motion technology is expanding to collegiate programs, elite travel teams, high schools, and baseball academies to help measure improvement through objective swing data, video and 3D visualizations, advanced insights, and personalized performance reports.
So if you’re looking to obtain some objective information on your swing — because maybe your coach could never catch up to a 90mph fastball — the Blast Baseball mobile app and sensor can be purchased for $150. The Carlsbad, California, company also offers cloud services, providing players and coaches with advanced features. Premium package subscriptions are available to players for $60 per year and coaches for $100 per year.
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