Skip to content

Baseball Aerodynamics

The fluid dynamics of baseball pitches

  • Home
  • Seam-Shifted Wakes
  • Drag
  • General
  • Links
  • Glossary
  • Press
  • About
  • UMBA
  • Ninja Dictionary
  • Services

Seam-Shifted Wakes

aka laminar express

PitchTracker: Post 69

Posted on April 1, 2021April 1, 2021 by bartonlsmith

Nice. One of the first challenges we encountered was a means to detect Seam Shifted Wake in pitches. Doing so requires a measurement of vertical and horizontal movement as well as spin metrics. Right now, if you are anyone other than a major league team (meaning you have a HawkEye Continue Reading

Posted In General, Seam-Shifted Wakes

2020 Seam Shifted Wake Leaderboards: Post 68

Posted on February 10, 2021February 10, 2021 by bartonlsmith

This made me realize it was high time that I made one. First, the best SSW T-shirt is this one: There are other boards out there. BaseballSavant.com has one I use often. Click leaderboards and then pitching and spin. For any given pitch type, you can sort on the “Deviation” Continue Reading

Posted In Seam-Shifted Wakes

UMBA future

Posted on January 20, 2021November 10, 2023 by Andrew Smith

UMBA 2 is simply a first pass at solving a fairly complex problem. Unfortunately, I don’t believe the rest of the solution can be solved only on a computer. The research we’ve done so far has filled in one or two locations in our parameter space. That means that, of Continue Reading

Posted In General, Seam-Shifted Wakes, UMBA

Cliff Notes Seam Shifted Wake: Post 65

Posted on December 23, 2020August 11, 2025 by bartonlsmith

If you are new to this and you don’t feel like sifting through the last 64 posts or watching a 90 minute Zoom explanation, this post is for you! For more than a decade, baseball has worked under the assumption that pitched balls move primarily due to the competing forces Continue Reading

Posted In Seam-Shifted Wakes

Magnus and Seam Shifted Wake Effects on Wilson 1030 and MLB baseballs: Post 64

Posted on December 13, 2020December 13, 2020 by bartonlsmith

My 14-year-old son plays baseball, and his fastball is about 90% efficient. So naturally, I was wondering if the baseballs that they use, which have very large seams compared to an MLB ball, move similarly to MLB balls. In my previous post, a Wilson 1030 baseball was found to move Continue Reading

Posted In General, Seam-Shifted Wakes

Loopers, FA, CH, CU in the lab: Post 63

Posted on December 6, 2020December 8, 2020 by bartonlsmith

Here is an overlay of all the pitches I will be talking about in this post. Many thanks to Michael Augustine for making this beautiful overlay on short notice. Pitches 1-7, described below I am teaching a graduate measurements course this semester and the course requires a final project. I’ve Continue Reading

Posted In General, Seam-Shifted Wakes

Advice to Young Pitchers: How Can You Use SSW On Your Fastballs? Post 62

Posted on November 25, 2020November 25, 2020 by bartonlsmith

I get asked about this a lot, and I finally have an answer based on the data reported in our recent Baseball Prospectus article. Here’s my take: 1. Know Your Efficiency It is hard to generate Seam Shifted Wake effects without some gyro. I recently posted a video that explains Continue Reading

Posted In Seam-Shifted Wakes

Seam Shifted Wake Zoom

Posted on November 16, 2020November 16, 2020 by bartonlsmith

On Tuesday, November 10, 2020, I hosted a public Zoom presentation on our current understanding. It was attended by 100 people (my Zoom limit) including representatives from 14 MLB teams (that I know of). Click the photo below for a link to the full presentation.

Posted In Seam-Shifted Wakes

Not All Shifted Wakes Are Equal: Post 61

Posted on October 26, 2020January 11, 2021 by John Garrett

Twitter: @jwillyg20 It’s time to define a Seam Shifted Wake (SSW) pitch more carefully. The main feature is that a baseball’s seams can cause earlier flow separation on one side of the ball relative to the other. This asymmetric wake is what we refer to as the “shifted” wake (see Continue Reading

Posted In General, Seam-Shifted Wakes

The Effect of Gyro on Optimal SSW Orientation: Post 60

Posted on August 18, 2020August 18, 2020 by bartonlsmith

If you are new to the idea of Seam Shifted Wake pitches, I recommend downloading and viewing this presentation which is about 45 minutes long. I realize that is a lot of time, but this is a complex topic. That said, I think the presentation is easy to understand. As Continue Reading

Posted In Seam-Shifted Wakes, UMBA

Posts pagination

Previous 1 2 3 … 5 Next
Copyright All rights reserved. Theme: Flash Blog by Unitedtheme.