Pocket Radar and USA Baseball have recently joined forces on a partnership that will focus on making players, coaches, and fans—from youth baseball all the way to the professional ranks—aware of Pocket Radar’s emerging technologies and services that help players improve and enhance the experience of fans in the stands.
While the device is used for pitcher improvement and development, Pocket Radar can also be utilized by hitting coaches, player development staff, and scouts to measure throwing speed and exit velocity in batting practice to help players rise to new levels of performance on the diamond.
“In today’s game where peak velocity is reaching new levels, Pocket Radar allows us to work with pitchers to teach feel and touch without altering their deliveries,” said Los Angeles Dodgers pitching coach and two-time USA Baseball alumnus Mark Prior. “Controlling intensity levels in professional baseball can be a challenge for new professional pitchers. The daily maintenance of a pitcher during a five-to-six-month period will break down even the most physically fit person.”
“Thanks to Pocket Radar, it has been easy to monitor my effort level,” added Miami Marlins closer A.J. Puk. “Everyone at my training facility wanted to check it out...it is a good tool for players all levels to monitor progress.”
USA Baseball is the national governing body for baseball in the United States and is committed to serving, protecting, and supporting the game of baseball and its 15.6 million participants. “[They are] the gold standard,” said Taylor Alexander, VP Strategy & Business Development for Pocket Radar. “They’re at the very core of growing the game by helping players develop and achieve their goals from youth baseball, to USA Baseball events and national teams, all the way to the professional realm. For more than a decade, Pocket Radar has also been part of that journey of helping players across all levels improve and reach their dreams. That’s why we are extremely proud to officially partner with USA Baseball and work together to create opportunities for those who love this great sport.”
Founded in 1978, USA Baseball fields six national teams annually and is a member of the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) and the World Baseball Softball Confederation (WBSC). USA Baseball is a two-time Olympic gold medalist and the 2017 World Baseball Classic champion, and its national teams have won 66 gold medals in international competition. Off the field, the organization is dedicated to the proliferation and health of the sport through the creation and management of numerous development initiatives including BASE (Baseball Athlete Safety Education), Fun At Bat, Pitch Smart, PLAY BALL and the Prospect Development Pipeline.
Part of USA Baseball’s mission is to promote and develop the game on a grassroots level. That includes growing and enhancing the use of technologies that help players improve while also engaging fans by providing them with ways to better understand and enjoy what is happening on the field. That is accomplished through the Pocket Radar Smart Coach and PLUS subscription in the Pocket Radar Sports App.
“USA Baseball is extremely excited to begin this partnership with Pocket Radar,” said USA Baseball Executive Director/CEO Paul Seiler. “We take pride in the development aspect of youth and amateur baseball, and we believe the technology that Pocket Radar provides will allow us to not only enhance the overall experience of our event participants and national team players and coaches, but also provide fans with real-time information to recognize what is unfolding on the field.”
“Pocket Radar was a valuable tool for me coming back from injury,” adds Tommy Milone, who has spent 13 seasons in the big leagues. “I was able to gauge my effort and progress as my arm built up strength. My favorite part is that I can use the radar and app when I’m throwing into my net by myself, and it will voice my readings out automatically without me having to do anything.”
“Pocket Radar allows us to monitor arm health as well as instruct players to add or subtract intensity levels based on readings,” Prior added. “I also encourage our staff to use it to teach new pitches and change speeds or intensity levels on their current offerings.”
The partnership comes at an opportune time for Pocket Radar, considering its newly released Pocket Radar PLUS package, which captures validated velocity for every pitch while adding video evidence and context. This allows for the subscriber to manually tag pitch type, location and velocity, all overlaid on video showing the pitcher’s mechanics and visual outcome of every pitch.
“Pocket Radar is a tool our teams and coaches, as well as individual players use during the season,” said Cape Cod League President Andre Lang. “Whether it’s during early work, bullpens, or on-field team fundamental work, Pocket Radar is always our go-to. We used the new video, tagging and connection features in the app for our summer youth clinics; the athletes that participated got to use the same tech that our players use, and learn how they can benefit from it at home and with their own teams. Keeping record of their progress through data and videos may just help us find a future CCBL stud in one of the young athletes who come out to the clinics next summer.”
These advancements will provide players with factual data and visual evidence that will help them get better, while also being able to share those things with scouts and recruiters who are always searching for rising talent. Through Pocket Radar’s technology and USA Baseball’s comprehensive reach, the partners are confident this new alliance will help them work together to grow the game.
Pocket Radar and its accompanying features are also a staple at training facilities throughout the country:
“I love how affordable and accessible it is for both coaches like me, and my players to own for themselves,” said Eric Lassiter, Director of Development at Diamond Allegiance, Co-owner of Power Baseball. “We really like to use the new features of slow-mo and charting to break down mechanics beyond just velocity. We no longer have to rely exclusively on the coaches’ eye in practice, training or game settings...we now have velocity integrated in the videos taken on the app, along with slow-mo and other context data.
“This ultimately elevates, validates and challenges all that we as coaches are seeing and saying. It also allows us to track progression and development over time, all with the same tool. Our players can send us videos anytime with that same data and info on it that we use during in-person practices, which allows us to help them in the off-season, when they’re getting extra practice at home, or even review in-game footage. Adding these new features to the trusted numbers Pocket Radar already provides has enabled us to coach at a greater level with the same tool we’ve trusted for years.”
About Pocket Radar
Based in Santa Rosa, California, Pocket Radar, Inc. designs, engineers, and manufactures revolutionary speed tracking technology for a wide range of applications. By providing an affordable and convenient solution to pro-performance radar technology, we have forged a new standard in accurate speed-based training making it accessible to the masses. Used by everyone from MLB coaches to youth sports athletes and parents, Pocket Radar is easy to use and rugged enough for professionals and amateurs alike and is ushering in a new era of speed radar technology to transform the way players, coaches, and fans understand the importance of metrics and data.
For more information, visit pocketradar.com.