2020 Rapsodo Pitching 2.0 Update

As we all know, rapid advances in player development continue to evolve, and Rapsodo is at the forefront of the affordable, reliable, and practical baseball technology options for coaches, facility owners, and players alike.

Rapsodo released its pitch-tracking system in 2016, Rapsodo 1.0. This unit sat on a tripod behind home plate providing great value to its users, but it still had some areas for improvement. In 2019, Rapsodo released the 2.0 unit, now featuring a “tank” set up on the ground 15.5 ft. in front of home plate, facing the pitcher. This created a far more convenient set up, and more accurate readings. Fast forward another year, and Rapsodo has released a new update for the 2.0 Pitching app and unit, featuring a pitch tracking update.

Rapsodo 1.0 Rapsodo 2.0

RAPSODO PITCHING 2.0 UPDATE – JULY 2020

What stood out in this update is the percent of pitches tracked due to the increase in measurement zone. Rapsodo typically has more difficulty reading pitches that end up approximately a foot or more outside of the zone, and will provide only a velocity reading. These readings are important in pitch design and evaluation, so two of us went out to throw a bullpen to test the pitch tracking update.

In July of 2019, Driveline Baseball validated Rapsodo 2.0 and found that out of 781 pitches, Rapsodo 1.0 captured roughly 62.1% of pitches and Rapsodo 2.0 captured 78.7% of the pitches. So how did our own pitch session with two pitchers fair?

TESTING PITCHES TRACKED

Our bullpen pitch count was far less than the above (only 76 total pitches), but this was enough to give us an idea of how well the update worked. Subjectively, we were pleasantly surprised by the tracking ability of pitches outside the zone. Objectively, of the 76 total pitches between two pitchers, only one pitch was not tracked for all metrics - roughly a 1.32% misread rate.

While there was a limited sample size of pitches, this is a telling sign that the update works. And trust me, our pitchers weren’t the most accurate… 68% of our pitches were balls, leaving 32% as strikes. With the majority of our pitches landing outside the zone (sometimes way outside the zone), it is clear that Rapsodo did a great job capturing our pitches outside the zone.

Suns out guns out – please ignore the trash

mechanics… we’re working on it…

And for reference... here's the pitch that didn't register. We might all be better off without the over-gripped, spiked changeups anyway...

Overall, Rapsodo continues to improve, innovate, and roll out updates that show these advances to the naked eye, and on paper. Looking back on where Rapsodo was in 2016 to where they are now is incredible to watch, and we’re excited for everything else that may be under the hood and the value they’ll bring to everyone using their products.