HawkDashboard: Post-Action Pitcher Reports
--
HawkDashboard was created over a year ago with the idea of creating a central location for player information and automated reports. This web application acts as the internal information system for the Iowa Baseball program, with pages such as player profiles, post-action reports, statistics leaderboards, and more to come in the near future.
Despite not being around for very long within the program, HawkDashboard is constantly growing with new ideas and improvements. With the addition of new data analysts this Fall, our analytics department has the capacity to fine-tune the creation into a well-rounded internal database system.
In the past, I’ve shared previews of HawkDashboard’s pages on Twitter. Now, I will be starting a series of blog posts breaking down certain pages and how they keep the player development cycle moving in Iowa City.
This article will focus on post-action reports for pitchers, covering both a bullpen report and a game report. At Iowa, we use two different pitch-tracking devices - Rapsodo for bullpens and Trackman for games and live at-bat situations.
The Rapsodo report is a one-pager that summarizes each bullpen session using the following metrics: pitch velocity, raw spin, true spin, spin efficiency, spin direction, vertical break, and horizontal break. Since most bullpens accumulate around only 20–25 pitches, it is best to simplify the data into an easily digestible report.
Normally you’ll see us censor the name of the athlete but in this case I wanted to let our head student manager, Ryan Gorman, get a little street-cred for his pitch-ability.
Beyond the summary table you’ll find a pitch movement plot, pitch location plot, and a spin efficiency plot. These visualizations take numbers from a spreadsheet and turn them into something easy on the eyes to understand how each pitch moved, where they were thrown, and the spin efficiency distribution. At the bottom of the report is a small table that tracks the number of pitches in the session and a grey box for the athlete and staff members to write comments.
Once our pitchers get on the field and face batters in games, scrimmages, or live at-bats, they throw in front of a Trackman unit which tracks batted ball data in addition to most of the pitching metrics from Rapsodo. These game reports are double the size of the bullpen reports given the fact that we are now collecting data from pitcher vs. batter matchups.
The Trackman report spans across two pages that summarize in-game appearances using pitch metrics and performance indicators. These reports are viewed for both individual game appearances and over the span of multiple games. This time I have censored the name and date to protect the player’s anonymity.
The first page of this report includes the pitcher’s line score that you would normally find in a box score. The two tables below display pitch characteristics and summary statistics showing how each pitch and the overall arsenal performed. To round out the first page are four pitch location plots that depict every pitch the pitcher threw, as well as the pitches that induced swings, swings and misses, and balls in play.
The second page of the report includes multiple plots that visualize some of the information presented in the tables. In addition to the pitch movement plot you’ve already seen are plots that depict pitch usage, release points, pitch velocity trends, and spin rate distribution.
Both the bullpen and game reports have been circulating within our program for over a year and have allowed our pitchers and staff members the ability to view development over time. After each bullpen or game appearance, a report is generated, printed, and stored in a binder unique to each pitcher on the staff. Over the length of a Fall or Spring season each athlete can look back on previous outings to view their progression and take notes.
These are just two pages within HawkDashboard that keep the player development cycle spinning in the Iowa Baseball program. Behind the scenes, this is just a simple input (spreadsheet) and output (report), with the goal of presenting easily digested information. These reports have created a platform that ensures each player and coach have all the information at their disposal to make data-driven decisions.
