Workload Management: What, Why, and How

January 11, 2019January 11, 2019 Heather Article, By Sean Stacy, News

With all of the advancements finally being made on player development, it’s important to note that development in its maximal capacity is only possible with maximal arm health (and body health in general). While a lot goes into arm health specifically, I believe that workload management, or a lack thereof, is one of the primary […]

New Rangers Coach Had Innovative Ideas At Tarleton State

January 10, 2019January 10, 2019 Heather Article, By J.J. Cooper, News

On Tuesday, Tarleton State head coach Bryan Conger announced he was leaving the Division-II program located in Stephensville, Texas to become a coach in the Texas Rangers organization. Just a few days before the announcement was made, Conger spoke at the American Baseball Coaches Association (ABCA) convention. As the head coach at a Division II […]

A Changing Game Demands Changing Methods

December 6, 2018 Heather Article, Research

What if I told you the pace of play dilemma or MLB’s attendance decline are two small features of a much larger issue? In order to see what lies beneath the surface of concerns that Major League Baseball currently faces, we must take a deeper look into why the game has changed so drastically over […]

Checking In On the Mariners’ New Health and Wellness Program

June 27, 2018August 9, 2018 Heather Article, News

In a quiet offseason (by Jerry Dipoto’s standards, anyway) Dr. Lorena Martin was one of the Mariners’ biggest acquisitions—in terms of splash, at least. Hired to coordinate off-field efforts to maximize performance, it hasn’t been particularly clear what sorts of effects she has had on the team’s training or preparation. This is by design, of […]

Seattle Mariners Embrace Data, Tech like Rapsodo, K-Motion, Motus, TrackMan

June 25, 2018July 3, 2018 Heather Article, News

Seattle Mariners lefty pitcher James Paxton has been dominant at times this season, striking out as many as 16 batters in a game and throwing the first no-hitter of his career. The stats he began tracking this year, however, aren’t generated on days he starts. In his sixth big league season, Paxton started wearing Motus’ […]

Nolan Ryan’s 1974

June 17, 2018June 18, 2018 Heather Article, Research, Will Carroll

Thirteen innings. Nineteen strikeouts. Ten walks. Nolan Ryan’s outing on June 14th of 1974 was a stunner, especially given the pitch counts of modern baseball, but even in 1974, it was an extreme outlier. Pitchers simply did not go 200 pitches, even in the “single pitcher” era when complete games were the rule rather than […]

Who Broke Shohei Ohtani?

June 11, 2018June 14, 2018 Heather Article, Will Carroll

The news of Shohei Ohtani’s elbow sprain came as a blow not just to the Los Angeles Angels, but to baseball as a whole. Ohtani is a world wide star who’s two-way success was like nothing in baseball over the past few decades. As always, the question for any pitcher facing an extended period of […]

A Data Walk Off

May 16, 2018May 29, 2018 Heather Article, News

There’s nothing better than a walk-off home run, is there? Turns out there is. St. John’s of Washington DC didn’t just walk-off with a win; they walked off with a championship on Michael Campbell’s big fly. You might remember that SCHOOL was part of a big study completed last year, where Dr. Sameer Mehta tracked […]

The Positional Unknown of Elbow Injuries

May 14, 2018May 29, 2018 Heather Article, Research

The Tommy John epidemic continues in baseball, but position players have long seemed immune. That’s not entirely true, with several position players over the years, including some stars, damaging their ulnar collateral ligament (UCL) enough to require the surgery. The most recent is Dodgers’ star shortstop Corey Seager, who’s gone from Rookie of the Year and […]

Raise your analytics game with motusDASH

March 8, 2018 Heather Article, Research

WHAT’S NEW WITH motusDASH? For our clients who use motusDASH, you’ve seen a lot of updates over the winter. Here’s a brief summary of the current features of motusDASH, just in case you’ve missed it. First, the homepage of the dashboards quickly diagnose each player with their AC Ratio and Chronic Workload status. If someone is […]

New season. New app. New arm.

March 8, 2018March 8, 2018 Heather Article, Research

We’ve made some amazing advancements to our motusTHROW app. As existing users, we’re providing you with an exclusive at-a-glace overview of the new features to get you up and monitoring “readiness” in time for the new season. READINESS: BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER Since we first launched motusTHROW in 2014, we’ve collected millions of throws from users, […]

How Does Monitoring Workload Help Arm Health?

March 6, 2018March 6, 2018 Heather Article, Research

Spring training is in full force, and with pitchers competing for starting roles and getting their arms in shape for the season, there isn’t a more crucial time to measure workload with Motus. Our dashboard is designed to provide pitchers with state-of-the-art workload measurements and workload simulation tools to help give them the safest and most […]

Testing The Twist

November 15, 2017November 16, 2017 Heather Article, Research, Will Carroll

As velocity numbers and DL days have tracked up over the last few years, there’s been a lot of discussion about some of the more granular areas and changes. However, there’s been little publicly available data to test any of this. At Motus, our lab-accurate system to measure throwing mechanics of the pitcher’s elbow gives […]

Rethinking Feet

November 11, 2017 Heather Article, Will Carroll

I’ve had a pet theory for years that, as Mars Blackmon tried to tell us, it’s gotta be the shoes. There has been a significant uptick in foot and ankle injuries – especially complex injuries like Lisfranc and Jones fractures – over the last twenties years. I believe that a confluence of bigger/stronger/faster athletes and […]

Surgery: What To Do When Things Go Wrong

October 25, 2017 Heather Article, Will Carroll

For athletes, surgery often feels like failure. A blown elbow ligament. A knee that buckled. A bone that snapped. All that training, time, and passion is gone. Except it’s not. Surgery is a setback, not an end in most cases. The advances in surgery and rehab in just the twenty years I’ve been covering sports […]

The Origins of Velocity, Part I

October 18, 2017 Heather Article, Will Carroll

There’s no question that velocity has increased in Major League Baseball and at the levels leading up to it. However, there’s really been no explanation of how this happened. Using the data we have at Motus and with some key assistance from Motus’ Mike Lambiaso, I’ve tried to figure out if there’s any clear answer […]

Recharging the Pitching Schedule

October 12, 2017 Heather Article, Research

I spent most of a morning digging through data, looking at both the kind of data we can get with the motusTHROW and velocity logs from both this season and some notes I took from a research project I did back at Baseball Prospectus in 2004. While this is hardly definitive, I believe that it’s […]

Readiness or Roles?

October 10, 2017October 10, 2017 Heather Article, Will Carroll

Watching the playoffs this year, it’s clear that Andrew Miller’s usage last year wasn’t an aberration. Pitchers, at least in the playoffs, are going to be asked to work to get outs, not fill roles. One-inning closers are pushed to go more than one. Starters are used as relievers. Innings are extended, as are pitch […]

Compression Sleeve

October 9, 2017October 10, 2017 Heather Article

With proper planning, workload management, and the use of a certain compression sleeve with a sensor in it, this could also work in the long term, changing the game. “Bullpenning” is the hot new term in baseball right now. After two games of quick hooks for the starters, the playoffs have shown that a new […]

Pitching Arm Care

October 5, 2017October 10, 2017 Heather Article

Pitching arm care is recommended for most athletes. There’s no question that pitching injuries are up. From the major leagues to the little leagues, far too many pitchers are coming off the mound and into the waiting room due to overuse, poor mechanics, and a real lack of basic pitching arm care. This could be […]

Pitch Count

September 18, 2017October 10, 2017 Heather Article

Of all the stats that came out of the sabermetric revolution of the 2000’s, it’s a bit surprising that the one that shows up in nearly every broadcast is one that really has nothing to do with advanced analytics. Instead, it’s pitch count that is ubiquitous, ticking up with an on-screen counter, right there by […]

Arm Soreness

September 10, 2017October 10, 2017 Heather Article

The arm soreness might not be the worst part. Waking up the day after a start and feeling that deep soreness as you first move your arm always brings a feeling of sick dread. “Is this normal? Am I hurt?” Most of the time, the answer is standard. Soreness is normal after any sort of […]

Throwing Biomechanics

August 12, 2017September 20, 2017 Heather Article, Will Carroll

In major league baseball, the fact is that very few teams have any idea about throwing biomechanics. For very good reason, MLB is a results oriented business. Someone that could stand on their head, throw underhanded, or do a Simone Biles backflip and still consistently get the ball past Aaron Judge and Mike Trout would […]

Injury Prevention

July 21, 2017September 18, 2017 Heather Article, Will Carroll

The Cubs pulled off a big trade with their cross town “rivals” the White Sox, dealing four prospects for Jose Quintana. Quintana is a big upgrade to a staff that has underperformed, but the key to this deal might be how good the White Sox are at injury prevention. For the decade-plus that injuries have […]