Friday, July 10, 2009
From PITCHf/x to HITf/x…now GAMEf/x?
Posted by Mike FastSportvision is taking leaps and bounds with expanding their ability to track the game of baseball. The Second Annual PITCHf/x Summit convenes in San Francisco this upcoming weekend, and if I could be anywhere other than with my newly expanded family, it would be at the summit. One of the main topics of the summit is sure to be the recently released HITf/x data, but potentially more exciting is the news that Sportvision and MLBAM are undertaking a project to install cameras at every stadium to track not just every pitch and the flight of the ball leaving the bat but the entirety of the game!
If this project works out as early data promises it will, defensive positioning, routes of fielders, baserunning plays, and perhaps even umpire positioning will all be tracked and digitized. The potential to revolutionize analysis of the game and even the game itself looms large!
Mike Fast is a Royals fan who enjoys investigating baseball questions using data of many sorts. He is a member of Complete Game Consulting. He welcomes comments via e-mail.