A Data Walk Off

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 hundreds of thousands of throws using the motusTHROW and presented it at this year’s ASMI Injuries in Baseball Course.

Mehta used the data from motusTHROW to give the coaches a daily report, which informed their choices about who was available and who might be most effective on a given day.

“The data allowed me to see the vast discrepancy between each pitcher’s workloads revealing thousands of ‘hidden’ or untracked practice throws each pitcher makes throughout the season,” explained one of St. Johns coaches. “[motusDASH] showed when each pitcher was at his physical peak, impacting pitching decisions, and keeping our staff at optimal levels.”​

The coaching staff also pointed out one other benefit of using the motusTHROW on everyone, not just pitchers: “[the motusTHROW] protected catchers by determining their true volume, and effort.”

This year, St. Johns turned that data and talent into results, burning through the season and taking it all the way to a championship. We love having St. Johns as part of #TeamMotus and wish that every team could know the joy of winning like this.

Not everyone can win multiple championships, but everyone can do what St. Johns did: they made it through the season free of major pitching injuries. With 13 players moving on with their careers into college, this championship shows that talent can be augmented by the proper use of data.