Dartfish, a leader in Baseball-Softball player development and game planning-preparation tools, today announced a new addition to its game planning toolset. This toolset provides coaches the ability to analyze hit zone tendencies based on their pitching plan against specific hitters. Chuck Wilmot, Dartfish’s Diamond Sports Director, stated “These new tools improve traditional spray charts by analyzing hitting zones based on the pitch type and pitch location thrown to the hitter”.
Below is the example how a coach would use the new tools to predict the proper defensive alignment against a specific hitter.
STEP 1: DETERMINING HIT ZONE TENDENCIES: The first step is to determine the dominant pitch type and pitch location thrown when that hitter puts the ball in play. This is accomplished by opening the “SWING TENDENCY REPORT” selecting the team and hitter to analyze then selecting the Ball in Play Chart. The report will filter the data on all the balls put in play by the chosen hitter displaying the dominant pitch types, location and hit zones.
STEP 2: PITCH PLAN ANALYSIS: The hitter is a left-handed hitter. From the report we have determined from both R/L pitching results that best pitch pattern for this hitter is to pitch them away with movement away from the hitter mixing in some off-speed pitches.
The spray chart above displays the hit zones based on a pitch plan to pitch this hitter with pitch types movements to outside strike zone locations. Using the resulting hit zone chart, we would align our defensive with the outfielders cheating towards left field and the infielders cheating away from the corners.
STEP 3: SHARING PITCH VIDEO FROM REPORTS: Our Silver and Gold products provide a direct link to the video playlist created from the results of the visual reports. This makes it extremely easy for coaches to prepare the defense by sharing the video playlist to the players allowing them to view either in a team meeting local or remote meeting or review the video playlist on their mobile phone.
OPTIONAL PDF HIT ZONE REPORT: Coaches have the option to print or create electronic reports for in game reference using our new PDF hit zone report. Staff members could easily create this report by selecting the hitting zone report from our PDF print options. Below is a sample of the hitting zone PDF Report.
EXPLANATION OF PDF REPORT: The rows show a hitter based on the pitchers’ sides. The columns show the highest percentage pitch types, pitch locations and hit zones thrown to a specific hitter. The result of this matrix allows coaches to align their defense based on how they choose to pitch to a specific hitter.
Dartfish thanks you for taking the time to read this article on this new enhancement. The new feature is currently being delivered and included in Dartfish’s Bronze, Silver and Gold product bundles.
For more information on the Dartfish Baseball-Softball products please contact Chuck Wilmot by mobile phone at 214-336-5584 or by email at chuck.wilmot@dartfish.com
