Enhanced Gameday is a whole new (yet still poorly animated) ballgame. MLB.com has installed cameras in 22 of the league's 30 parks that provide data for Gameday's pitch-location chart. Previously, some guy in the press box had to guess, Hmm, that looked like a curveball, maybe four inches inside and a couple of inches above the knees. Now the computer generates all of this automatically--how high the pitcher's throwing hand was off the ground when he released the ball, how fast the ball was traveling both when it left his hand and when it crossed the plate, to what degree and in what direction the ball diverted from a straight path on its way to the plate, and finally, if the pitch really was four inches inside and a couple of inches above the knees.There are also rumors of plans to install cameras to track fielders; DiMeo calls this the "last great statistical frontier."
Not quite. What will still be missing: the role of the batter in a pitcher's success. Until we can apply equally rigorous statistical analysis to the mechanics of the swing, we're getting, at best, only half of the equation.
Man, am I a nerd.
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