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Showcase  | Story  | 11/12/2021

PG Tech Opens New Era of Hitting Analytics

Blake Dowson     
Photo: Andruw Jones in the PG Tech Cage (Perfect Game)
There was a time when batting averages and RBI were the only output numbers tracked in baseball. Next, baseball started tracking output production numbers, including exit velocity and launch angle. But there was a problem – these were output numbers too; there was no way to see beneath the hood, what was driving all those numbers. 
 
Enter PG Tech, a technology company formed by Perfect Game and K-Motion that’s putting together all the piece of the puzzle – Trackman launch data, K-Motion 3D motion data, Pocket Radar ball data, Edgertronic high speed video, and Diamond Kinetics bat data.  It’s a breakthrough in player scouting and development that for the first time allows you to see exactly what in your swing is producing the outcome.
 


“You can chase exit velocity numbers all day, but until you change what is actually happening at the root of the swing, those might not change,” Jake Bivens, an MLB consultant with K-Motion, said.
 
“The K-Vest and the 3D body data is the cause of the swing,” Bivens, who is a former Tigers prospect and a PG Tech cage leader, continued. “The ball flight and the exit velocities are the effect. Each of those individually is valuable. But to paint the full picture, you have to put all that together. In terms of the player development, you can start to determine what part of a swing you need to focus on to make an impact on the ball.”
 
What’s exciting is this collection of technology has only been available at MLB organizations and elite training facilities, and in many of those places the technologies are not linked together to show the full picture. Now, PG Tech is available at every Perfect Game Showcase.
 
What’s great in a hitter, we could only show with numbers before. Now we can show why it is great too, deepening everyone’s understanding.  Recruiters, scouts and prospects can now fill in the gaps that before this, they couldn’t even see in a swing.
 
“Each player and each swing is unique,” explained Katherine DeLoid, another PG Tech Cage leader. ”We’re seeing who is a tight mover, who is a loose mover, and so much more because each player is built and moves differently so everything is about understanding the strengths and opportunities for the individual.  Ultimately, we’re re here to help players get discovered and get to the next level, and to do that you have to understand them as the unique individuals they are.”
 
Participants at Perfect Game’s National Showcase in July each took a turn in the PG Tech Cage, and ended up learning just as much about their own swings as they did about the technology that highlighted it.
 
Andruw Jones, the No. 4 overall player in the 2022 class and son of the former MLB All-Star of the same name, said the technology would help him be a better hitter than he is now.
 
“Most of the time you don’t see the differences in your swing, but with PG Tech you can tell and it helps you know what swing plane you are on and what you need to do to be able to stop whatever you don’t want to do,” Jones said.
 
With the announcement that PG Tech will now be at all Perfect Game showcases, prospects in every corner of the country can start to get a better understanding of who they are as a hitter and learn how to efficiently make themselves better.
 
At the same time, the information gathered is uploaded onto that prospect’s PG profile so that college coaches and professional organizations can get a better idea of who that prospect is at the plate.
 
“This has never happened before, but these two roads have merged finally,” Kevin Barr, a longtime MLB strength and conditioning coach and PG Tech cage leader, said. “With Perfect Game participants and this technology all in one place, we can collect it and send it to the cloud and make it actionable at the end of the day, opening up a whole new world of opportunities.”



For more information, visit the PG Tech web page.
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