The expanded usage of data, and the importance of it in regards to player development and player assessment is a legitimate, undeniable tool used by high school, college, and professional teams across the country. Today we break down some of the data from our recent Stars Baseball Scout Day event in Manassas, VA. See which players stood out in regards to Trackman data. 

Glossary Terms Intro & Links:

Induced Vertical Break: VB or IVB
Vertical Approach Angle: VAA 
Horizontal Break: HB
Release Speed: RS or Velo
Release Height: RH or RelHei

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Ryan Marohn

Class of 2023 / LHP

Player Information

• Graduating Class: 2023
• Primary Position: LHP
• High School: Freedom (South Riding)
  State: VA
• Summer Team: Stars
• Height: 6-3
  Weight: 190lbs
• Bat/Throw: L/L

Fastball: Had the hardest fastball at the event. High spin efficiency and threw it mostly from 10:45 to 11:15 while getting above average IVB. Averaged 17” with a max of 19.9”. Has extremely flat VAA due to low release combined w/ high-end velocity and vertical break. Had a -3.7° VAA pitch on a pitch about 0.2 ft above the zone. Release was 5.51 ft and he sat at 88.4 mph hitting 89.7. Has only average spin (2,196 rpm) but does a good job of getting behind the ball to create heavy backspin.

 

Slider: Had the sixth-highest zone rate at 60% and had a good shape. Hit 79 mph and averaged 77.7 while throwing the pitch with almost entirely sidespin. Dropped his efficiency to limit true movement and get heavy gyro spin. Averaged 0.3” IVB and 4” HB on the third-hardest breaking ball at the event.

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Luke Proehl

Class of 2023 / RHP

Player Information

• Graduating Class: 2023
• Primary Position: RHP
• High School: Freedom
  State: VA
• Summer Team: Stars
• Height: 6-2
  Weight: 185lbs
• Bat/Throw: R/R

Fastball: Created above average IVB from a vertical axis that led to slight cut at times (less than 7” of IVB on 3 pitches) but also had some run on other pitches (more than 13” of HB on 2 pitches). When his FB was at 12:15 to 12:30 he was creating the most amount of IVB because he was still staying behind it enough even while still cutting it slightly. Hit 88.7 mph, averaged 87.5.

 

Slider: Had some sweep with depth at 77 mph, up to 78.6 at 2,298 rpm. Had 15.7 inches of HB on one pitch that he was able to get the axis to 8:45 on, whereas he was at 8:00 to 8:30 on his other ones. 

Fastball: Fills up the zone with it and gets plus IVB from a low enough slot to create a flat VAA. Touched 86.3 mph and averaged out at 84.4 mph. Has below average spin at 1,921 rpm, but he’s getting high spin efficiency from a 12:30 axis and therefore creating enough backspin naturally to pitch up in the zone effectively. 

 

Curveball: Throws it just south of 7:30 and gets a near equal amount of side/top spin so it can look like a slurve in theory, though he gets 11.3 inches of drop and throws it hard at 70.6 mph. It’s another below average spin pitch (1,788 rpm) but he does a good job of getting on top of it to create drop combined with a hard shape.

Slider: Very tight pitch that has a slider-like movement profile at 77.7 mph. The tilts were inconsistent, but one of his pitches thrown at 9:00 had 0.1” of IVB with 3.7” of HB at 78.3 mph; which creates some late depth thanks to an extremely low spin efficiency and heavy amount of side spin combined with gyro. Due to the spin-based (how trackman measures movement) movements being similar with different tilts and an extreme amount of gyro spin; there’s likely some sort of a seam-shifted wake (when the direction/tilt of a pitch changes in the last 15 feet) at play here.