Spitters tap into analytics for scouting
Jun. 9—TRAVERSE CITY — Analytics are nothing new in the baseball world.
But the scouting tools used by Major League teams are quickly making their way through other levels of baseball, giving managers, coaches and players another weapon when taking the field.
Northwoods League teams are no strangers to data-driven scouting, with teams having access to Synergy Sports Technology player data.
When the Traverse City Pit Spitters start a series, coaches put in hours going over in-depth scouting reports on not only the opposition but their own players as well.
Before last week's home series with Battle Creek, manager Josh Rebandt and pitching coach Tucker Waddups comb through pages of data collected by Synergy and also through the Trackman program used at Turtle Creek Stadium.
"So he's hunting fastball," Rebandt says four hours before game time, flipping through a Battle Jacks player's information as Spitters players get in extra batting cage work down the hall.
The powerful tool is right up there with speed, average, power, throwing arm and defense — the five tools players are typically judged by. The sixth is that scouting report.
"That was a big part of all of our success," said Pit Spitters outfielder Trey Truitt about the team winning its second NWL championship in three years. "Going into it, we had scouting reports, we knew what their velocities were, what their favorite pitches were, like in certain counts what they were going to do. Kids who take stuff like that very seriously, it's going to benefit them in the long run, just because you're not going to be taken by surprise."
The Synergy system all the Spitters coaches have access to collects massive amounts of data on players, puts it in a searchable format, and allows users to sort through a bevy of filters to locate tendencies, strengths and weaknesses. It also draws info not only from players' NWL games, but also from all their college games. Synergy says 96 percent of Division 1 college teams use the technology. When Battle Creek came to town last week, the Spitters coaching staff already possessed analytics on eight of the team's nine starters and the starting pitchers.
Pit Spitters hitting coach Casey Wila said the movement toward data analytics is moving farther down the NCAA ladder as well. Aquinas College, where he's an assistant coach in the spring, uses similar technology from a different source to increase its scouting.
"We're definitely using on a much larger scale here in Traverse City," Wila said. "I'm at a small NAIA school down in Grand Rapids. And I'd say the biggest thing for us is the spray charts that we use. We use a service from an independent guy that created his own software program, and it's been a huge help for us at a small school with limited funding to be able to go into every game with a large amount of information to be able to shift our defense and kind of have an idea of what hitters are going to do against us to give us an advantage at that level."
Synergy started as Quantified Scouting Service in 1998 to track National Basketball Association players during games to reveal offensive tendencies.
For baseball, it can even be possible to layer an entire team's spray charts — a map of where players hit the ball — into one to identify a defense's strengths and weaknesses by where opponents are and aren't collecting base hits.
The Synergy system collects data from videos required to be submitted by teams after every game. The Pit Spitters have four cameras mounted around the field, two to capture video of right- or left-handed pitchers, and a pair doing the same for batters.
Turtle Creek Stadium also has its own added data collection via the Trackman program that pinpoints what type of pitch is being thrown, the spin rate, break, release point and many other factors for pitchers. It tracks exit velocity, launch angle and much more for hitters as well.
Rebandt said the system can create a reasonably accurate scouting report after as little as 15 at-bats from the same player. Waddups concentrates on opponents' hitters, Wila views pitchers, and bench coach Todd Reid focuses on defensive alignment.
Coaches can also watch short video clips of specific plays, such as the times a specific catcher fielded a bunt.
The video clips can be used to identify tells in a pitcher's motion, from leg kick, follow-through or even how they squeeze their glove on certain throws that tips what pitch is coming.
"With the app, too, it's going to pair the film with it," Wila said. "So we're going to use it a lot to try to pick up on pitchers tipping pitches as they come set differently on the fastball, on the slider, pickoff moves. There's a lot that you can find out when you dig in there."
They also have pop times on catchers (the duration from the time the ball pops in the catcher's mitt on a pitch to when it arrives at second base on a steal attempt), tendencies such as whether catchers peek at baserunners or not, and where pitchers miss most often.
"I feel like if the information is there, we have to use it," Rebandt said. "It does create a lot of legwork."
They can track if a pitcher changes tendencies as the game progresses and he tires, or in situations such as when there are base runners, a certain amount of outs or playing with or without a lead.
Truitt played at North Carolina State last season, and said the Wolfpack used a lot of analytics to prepare batters for the pitchers they'd face.
"When we played Georgia Tech this year, they had a lefty who was a big off-speed, changeup, curveball guy with nobody on base," Truitt said. "But as soon as there was a runner in scoring position, to a left-handed hitter, he ended up throwing like 80 percent fastballs, which we thought was extremely backwards."
The Traverse City Beach Bums, the precursor to the Pit Spitters, never used analytics like this in the team's run from 2006-2018.
The Pit Spitters took advantage of the technology last season and probably would have more in 2020 if the season wasn't reduced to a "pod" of several local teams playing each other continuously all season.
They can pull it up in the dugout if they want, although they go over much of the data prior to the game/series to get ahead of the curve and not react late. Rebandt said he'll use time on the team bus to review data as well.
The information can also lead to introspection as well. Players can view their own scouting report to see if they can address tendencies.
"It's that double-edged sword where it's a huge advantage for us on one side, but other teams are also going to have that resource and opportunity, too," Wila said. "It's a conversation we can have with our guys about using more of the field or having an opportunity to increase the bunt game. Or just some teaching moments as they start facing advanced defenses. It's only going to be that way at the next level as these guys continue to progress as well, so better to cut your teeth now and improve those skills before the money's on the line."
Teams across the NWL will soon have enough data even on brand new players to develop a detailed scouting report.
Then the chess game starts as teams begin to shift defenses to fit a hitter's profile and pitchers try to break habits and stray from the scouting report. Batters will have their numbers crunched and teams will attack weaknesses and holes in their swing.
That happened last season with Truitt after opponents saw his data. Opposing pitchers went from throwing fastballs away to jamming inside because he started the season on a tear hitting those outside heaters.
"I love looking at the scouting report on the pitchers that I'm going to see," Truitt said. "Especially up here last year batting leadoff, some pitchers won't throw as hard while they're warming up, so it's hard to get their timing. But when you see the numbers, you have a good idea of what to expect, like what their secondary and third pitches are, how he likes to throw when there's runners in scoring position. Having those numbers is really nice. That way you're prepared for everything in any situation."
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