Catapult launches new baseball analysis and injury prevention modules

Catapult, the global performance technology leader in elite sport, has today released its enhanced Baseball Analytics solution, which includes a new algorithm to discern Swing, Pitch and Throw actions specific to baseball players’ motions.

Set to save coaches and teams time when making critical decisions about athlete performance, this innovation will and unify reporting into one platform to keep players healthy all season long.

Introducing the feature, Catapult Chief Executive, Will Lopes (pictured) explained “professional baseball teams have come to expect injuries to be a part of their seasons, to the tune of approximately $423 million each year, but it doesn’t have to be that way.

“We’ve built a solution that can accurately capture all the unique movements and running patterns of baseball players and show those insights to coaches all in one place, so they can optimize athlete performance and avoid costly injuries.”

To enhance the Baseball Analytics solution, Catapult included insights from professional and collegiate baseball players, ensuring it offers the best accuracy possible, working with some of the best teams in the USA to track bat swings, pitches and throws.

Offering the most accurate algorithm possible, the enhanced solution discerns between a range of fine movements, including deciphering between general throwing and pitching, to give coaches an accurate view of player performance and empower them to customize training and rehabilitation plans.

This enhanced view ultimately helps clubs avoid costly injuries that could sideline top players.

Among the metrics provided for each event tracked in Baseball Analytics are:

• Throw, pitch and swing count

• Max Rotation by throw, pitch, and swing

• Max PlayerLoad by throw, pitch, and swing

• Sum of Max PlayerLoad per all events of that type

The data is captured by Catapult’s performance analysis software and wearable solution, Vector, the world's smallest GNSS/LPS device for elite sports, which delivers live algorithms, communications, and enhanced performance insights and functionality to coaches and athletes. The inertial sensors inside Vector are capable of delivering detailed baseball-specific analytics that go beyond video tracking and ball mechanics to accurately measure the physical demands of the sport.

Catapult has been providing performance analytics to professional baseball teams since 2015. The enhanced Baseball Analytics solution will be available from December 2021.