The recent catcher pop times thread got me thinking. As an engineer, I'm always prone to deep diving into the metrics, so I've put together a video of a successful stolen base on my DD. There's been more than a few stolen bases on DD, but this is an example of a VERY fast and on time baserunner, basically she smoked DD! But all's well that ends well as DD threw her out on the next play trying to steal 3B.. HA!
This was taken in FL this fall, 18u TBolts Rocky, their premiere team. This was the leadoff baserunner who I believe is committed to Duke as a slapper, very fast and a tremendous baserunner.
Here's the timeline:
1- Runner gets an amazing jump, imperceptibly early, but definitely early!
2- The pitch.. Absolutely the worst case scenario for the catcher. Off speed change up and low and in pitch location on a righty which naturally gives the longest distance for the transfer and release time.
3- 0.747sec has elapsed between when runner has left and start of the POP time for the catcher, that is HUGE.
4- Baserunner time from leaving 1B and sliding safely into 2B is 2.565sec which is super super fast.
5- In this instance, a pop time of less than 1.840secs and perfect location gets this runner thrown out.
6- DD throws a 1.977 pop. It's amazing how being .133secs behind is an ETERNITY on this play.
Areas to improve.
1- To me, the pitch location necessitates throwing from the knees.
2- Throw location needs to be at or near the dirt.
3- Throw velocity is not good enough, DD needs to give it the beans and go for broke on this play.
This was taken in FL this fall, 18u TBolts Rocky, their premiere team. This was the leadoff baserunner who I believe is committed to Duke as a slapper, very fast and a tremendous baserunner.
Here's the timeline:
1- Runner gets an amazing jump, imperceptibly early, but definitely early!
2- The pitch.. Absolutely the worst case scenario for the catcher. Off speed change up and low and in pitch location on a righty which naturally gives the longest distance for the transfer and release time.
3- 0.747sec has elapsed between when runner has left and start of the POP time for the catcher, that is HUGE.
4- Baserunner time from leaving 1B and sliding safely into 2B is 2.565sec which is super super fast.
5- In this instance, a pop time of less than 1.840secs and perfect location gets this runner thrown out.
6- DD throws a 1.977 pop. It's amazing how being .133secs behind is an ETERNITY on this play.
Areas to improve.
1- To me, the pitch location necessitates throwing from the knees.
2- Throw location needs to be at or near the dirt.
3- Throw velocity is not good enough, DD needs to give it the beans and go for broke on this play.
