I’ll start right out by saying this post is not a criticism of the Rapsodo technology. I think what these folks have provided for the price is pretty amazing (and I’m really geeked about their new camera, which looks like a game changer) But, like any technology, it has limits, Continue Reading
General
Things that don’t neatly fit into the other topics
The State of Baseball Aerodynamics: Post 47
The State of the Baseball Aerodynamics is Strong! Sorry, always have wanted to do that. I’ve been at this for about 14 months. I thought this would be a good time to provide a (hopefully) concise summary of what we have learned. Seam Effects on Pitch Break I nearly said Continue Reading
Magnus Models and Constant Acceleration Assumptions: Post 46
There are two major issues with current pitch tracking in the MLB. The measurement system, Trackman, does not make a direct measurement of the spin that contributes to Magnus force. It assumes all accelerations are constant over the entire flight of the ball. Each of these is important. I know Continue Reading
Scuffed Baseballs: Post 44
What happens to the flight of a baseball once it is scuffed? We decided to find out. We started with a new 2019 MLB ball and fired it 12 times from our WSU cannon. The pitch distance is the standard 60.5 feet. The pitches were just below 90 mph and Continue Reading
Toward a Better Pitch Tracker: Post 43
All commercial pitch tracking devices either Measure the ball movement and total RPM and compute the active spin and axis based on a Magnus Effect model (Trackman) or Measure the RPM, axis and pitch location and predict the ball path (horizontal and vertical break) based on a Magnus Effect model Continue Reading
2019 in Review: Post 40
With 2020 around the corner, I thought I’d step back and look at what we have learned. Just about a year ago, I wrote the questions shown below in italics. Below each question, I will describe my current understanding of that topic. What effects baseball drag? Seam height Center of Continue Reading
How Does Pitching Work?: Post 39
I’d like to have a discussion between various the stakeholders of pitching. The three groups I am thinking of are pitchers, analytics folks, and physicists. I hope no one will complain if I put myself (a Mechanical Engineer) in the last category. This will be mostly (or maybe completely) about Continue Reading
Magnus Effect – Seams and Roughness: Post 38
Magnus effect causes a force on a round spinning translating object that is perpendicular to the rotation axis and in the direction that the front surface of the ball is moving. These effects are critical to baseball pitching and also affects batted balls. The question that I’d like to answer Continue Reading
Kelvin-Helmholtz Instabilities and Baseballs, Jets, the Atmosphere, and Jupiter: Post 31
[If you are new to our measurements, you may take a minute to read here about vorticity (the colors in our plots), boundary layer separation] Anyone who studies fluid dynamics (flow of liquids AND gasses) probably has a fetish for vortices, or little whirls of fluid. Walk into any Fluid Continue Reading
Primer on Understanding Our Results: Post 28
Starting in June, 2019, we use 2019 MLB balls in our testing unless otherwise stated. We measure the airflow over a moving ball using a measurement technique called Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The data we get back is the air velocity and direction everywhere in our image. In the picture Continue Reading
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