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Speed/Power Development

(28) PITCH LOCATION VARIABILITY OF FASTBALLS FOR FIVE BASEBALL TYPES ACROSS THREE SPEEDS AND TWO PITCHING MACHINE FEEDING INPUT METHODS

Thursday, July 11, 2024
2:00 PM – 3:30 PM East Coast USA Time
Location: Exhibit Hall
Abstract Details: Utilizing a pitching machine during batting practice can help to automate the reps and ball types used to prepare for a game. Quality batting practice can come from the type of ball used, however, current literature lacks scientific data examining the effect of different baseball types on the plate location.

Purpose: To examine the effect of using different baseball types on pitch location at home plate with different fastball speeds and pitching machine feeding input methods.

Methods: Five types of baseballs {i.e., Old Game Balls (OGB) [5 yrs.], New Game Balls (NGB) [i.e., never used], Dimple Balls (DB), Old Pitching Machine Balls (OPMB) [5 yrs.; kevlar], New Pitching Machine Balls (NPMB) [i.e., never used; kevlar]} were fed through a 3-wheel pitching machine (I-Hack Attack, Sports Attack LLC., Nevada, USA) set at a slow speed of 60 mph (26.8 m·s-1), a moderate speed of 75 mph (33.5 m·s-1), and a fast speed of 90 mph (40.2 m·s-1) into a strike zone net placed directly over home plate. A total of 30 pitches were recorded at each speed for each ball type and each feeding input method. The distance between the net and the pitching machine was 50 ft, 6 in (15.4 m). A radar-based ball tracking system was used to determine ball location (TrackMan Portable B1, TrackMan, Vedbaek, Denmark). For the controlled feed input method, balls were fed with seams, specifically in a 4-seam fastball position immediately in front of the wheels. For the random feed input method, balls were rolled from the top without any specific ball orientation. Two 3-way ANOVAs were used to determine significant main effects and interactions between each of the three independent variables, speed, feeding input method, and ball type, on two continuous dependent variables (plate location height and plate location side). Bonferroni post-hoc analyses were used to identify differences between conditions.

Results: Significant interaction effects were observed for Ball Speed x Ball Type x Input Method for both plate location height (p=0.001) and plate location side (p=0.002). Post-hoc analyses showed significant differences between NGB and DB as well as  NPMB and DB, irrespective of ball speed for plate location height. For the plate location side, significant differences existed between OPMB and DB, irrespective of ball speed. Standard deviations (SD) were used to measure variability to determine how dispersed each ball type was across home plate. Across all speeds, input methods, and ball types for the dependent variable plate location height, OGB had the largest SD, the only exception being OPMB, which was larger at the moderate speed with a random feeding input method. Significant results of the post-hoc analyses were reported for variables compared to DB, as the standard deviation for DB was the smallest across all speeds, input methods, and ball types for plate location height.

Conclusions: For plate location height, OGBs had greater variability, indicating greater spread across home plate for all conditions except one. DB had the smallest SD across all conditions, indicating less dispersion across home plate. PRACTICAL APPLICATION: These findings may allow coaches to understand which types of balls they would want to use in the pitching machines for batting practices. DBs and/or NPMBs could provide more accurate pitches than OGBs.

Acknowledgements: The authors would like to acknowledge the support of this work by the Wu Tsai Human Performance Alliance and the Joe and Clara Tsai Foundation.