HONOLULU — Mid-Pacific Institute coach Dunn Muramaru has seen a lot in the game of baseball. After all, he’s been at it for four-plus decades.
But the 2021-22 preseason brought something he had not before encountered. The arrival of newfangled technology – camara-radar ball tracking and analytics for pitchers and batters – was welcome. It also took some time to get used to.
“It’s like trying to teach an old dog new tricks,” Muramaru said with a laugh.
He was aware of Major League Baseball teams using the tracking tech from Rapsodo to shape pitchers’ release points and arm angles to optimize ball spin and velocity. The challenge was how to employ it for his team.
The Owls, who are in contention for a state tournament berth competing in the always-tough Interscholastic League of Honolulu, have gradually settled in with the process of setting up, using, and breaking down the Rapsodo trackers and cameras at weekend practices.
Essentially, Rapsodo has two different scanning devices for analytics – one for pitchers and one for hitters – plus an optional camera system to parse video clips of players in the field. MPI uses cameras from a different company, Realplay.
In near-real time, a coach can check a tablet to see a pitcher’s spin rate and velocity on his or her throws. Batters can track the exit velocity of the ball off the bat, the launch angle and projected distance of the ball (if hitting in a batting cage).
A few seconds after a player throws a pitch or takes a cut at the ball, a tablet will receive data from the tracker, spit out figures and save them to that player’s profile. The display evokes the Toptracer Range golf technology used at the Bay View driving range in Kaneohe.
“For me personally, it quantifies what I know intuitively,” Muramaru said. “If the ball’s hit hard, I can tell, ‘OK, that ball’s hit hard.’ … But it’s good for the kids to see, ‘oh, Giancarlo Stanton got exit velo of 117.’ And they’re like 85. So, they know that. And for us (coaches), it’s good to know what their range is.”
Mid-Pacific believes it is the first high school in the state to use the technology, which is established as a tool at the college and professional levels. The Hawaii High School Athletic Association told Spectrum News that it is not aware of another school using it.
Scott Wagner, the MPI athletic director, took a liking to it last summer while taking his son to the mainland for baseball camps, including one at Stanford where the tracking was in use.
In the preseason, Wagner ordered a set for the Owls’ baseball and softball teams, who share it. With their seasons underway, they employ it about once a week, usually on Sundays.
“We used it weekly during the offseason as the kids were really starting to find their groove and figure out, how hard am I hitting the ball, how well am I throwing the pitch,” Wagner said. “And so early returns have been really good. We’ve seen steady improvements. I rely on the coaches and their data analysis more than myself, but I really like what I’ve seen on the field.”
Cost could be the biggest barrier to wider adoption in the high school ranks. The Rapsodo hitting and pitching trackers cost $3,000 apiece and both require an annual membership fee of $1,500. In addition, players must pay $90 for an individual account. The Rapsodo Insight cameras are another $2,500.
“I think it’s very valuable and important,” Wagner said. “It’s a few thousand dollars of investment per year. So, it’s not cheap, but I think it’s doable.”
Part of the thought process is that coming off back-to-back years of canceled spring seasons due to the pandemic, players can use video clips from the practice sessions to disseminate to college recruiters to increase their profile, although that remains a work in progress for the Owls’ teams.
Senior designated hitter Chance Otsuka said his team is “lucky” to have access to the trackers while other teams do not. But while the analytics are nice, MPI still leans on the experience of its coaches. Muramaru will instruct his players to try to hit situationally in the batting cage, like aiming to the opposite field.
“We’re not trying to base our hitting ability just off of the numbers on Rapsodo,” Otsuka said. “(Muramaru) wants us to make sure we’re not flying out, not hitting the top of the cage. We want to focus on hitting the middle sides of the cages. And then just practicing barreling up. Even if we get jammed or get out front, we try not to get affected by that, (and) try to get the mental side of the game so we’re not shut down when we ground out during the game.”
Softball coach Aiko Gojo brought her team out to the Owls’ field on Wednesday to give her pitchers some feedback. From a half hour of set-up time for a tracker in the preseason, she’s gotten it down around 10 minutes.
“I want to show them spots they’re hitting, or spins or if they adjust a little something here, the effect on their pitch,” Gojo said. “And then we can always compare to the data from the beginning, in preseason. Look at how things have changed, what’s working, what maybe needs to be tweaked.”
As an example, she was able to point out to a player the difference of having her weight properly distributed in her batting stance versus having it shifted to one side.
If anything, Gojo said, she would like to use the system more for her team.
“I like it because it’s showing you how far you’re hitting the ball and you don’t have to (retrieve it),” junior center fielder Jade Retuta said. “If you can see how far you can hit the ball with the cameras and stuff, I would rather do that, and just (hit the next pitch).”
Rapsodo, a global company with locations in Singapore, Japan, Turkey and the U.S., began with personal golf launch monitors in 2010.
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Brian McInnis covers the state's sports scene for Spectrum News Hawaii.