Photo by Sol Tucker/TalkNats
The main observation of Washington Nationals camp in West Palm Beach is technology, work ethic, and smiles. It is everywhere. There is effort with a purpose and positivity. At every turn there are player development people monitoring multiple screens of information. You have heard about the Rapsodo, Trackman, Statcast, and Trajekt Arc. There is much more than that. Now they have incorporated new training tools and wearable technology in addition to other tech.
As Daylen Lile said on MLB Network Radio a couple of weeks ago, “It’s been awesome — it’s been really great. A lot of new guys especially from the front office, coaching staff, and players. We’re not in the dark ages anymore. It’s a bunch of new stuff. So I’m excited to see what comes with it. And I know we’re gonna do some great things.”
Photo by Steve Mears/TalkNats
As you see players in camp, there are position player wearables that look like black brassieres that players wear over their shirts or under their jerseys. They are tech made by STATSports. Not only do they have GPS built into the wearables, but they use smart load monitoring tools to quantify and qualify the player workloads, apply thresholds, and all of that works towards the goal of injury prevention. As we know, minimizing injuries increases athlete availability. Also, those wearables support every step of recovery with accurate, reliable data that informs safer, faster return-to-play protocols.
Photo by Nathan Hansen/TalkNats
In addition, the Washington Nationals pitchers are wearing black “Pulse” armbands over their biceps and/or forearms on their pitching arm to monitor workload and prevent elbow injuries. Pulse was developed by Driveline Baseball, these sensors track arm speed and stress, allowing coaches to adjust training if fatigue is detected.
An observation about the many games going on at the backfields, some of the prospects did not get into these five inning intra-squad games. Based on the bio-feedback, a source said, that they were getting “recovery” days if they weren’t playing. They are there to observe from the bench and be a good teammate. All part of this new process.
The team feedback to players is being seen in results so far. Pitchers have added new pitches, and Cade Cavalli discussed that in the offseason that pitching coaches Simon Mathews and Sean Doolittle got on a ZOOM call and literally showed him the grip of a sweeper to give him a horizontal pitch against right-handed batters to complement his repertoire with his more vertical curveball. We have heard the same from Jackson Rutledge who added a splitter that he has been pitching more and more in games. These are pitches that are works-in-progress.
The same goes for hitters where we discussed how the team was having contests for players to compete on hitting the most balls with at least 90 mph of exit velo at launch angles of 10-to-30 degrees. The emphasis is to get balls off the ground and into the line drive range. So far in Spring Training games, the Nats are the 7th best in getting balls in the air. Last season, the Nats were second to last as having the most groundballs.
There is new information coming into the player’s lexicon that they have never been exposed to before. And the team understands information overload. Players can choose what they want from a buffet of analytics. And simple math is you must out-score your opponent. “The overarching philosophy and the goal of the offense is to score runs. We’re going to value every aspect of hitting that we can to maximize that run-scoring potential of the offense, whether that’s hitting the ball over the fence, in the gap and driving for extra bases, or whether that’s taking a good at-bat, taking our walks and really owning the zone. … The way you relate to a player is extremely important … and what you say has to have some substance,” new hitting coach Matt Borgschulte said.
Seeing results will happen in enough small sample sizes to piece together to where it will become meaningful. Seeing positive results will enforce what this is all about. The process and the amount of work is incredible. Getting to the CACTI Park of the Palm Beaches at 10 am was not early enough. The coaches were already there — and they were there for hours. And their days are long. From working on the backfields to then heading to an afternoon game, we were hearing that these coaches are working 12 hour days on most days.
On one field, Mathews had his starting pitchers in the outfield working on pitcher PFPs. The drills were intense. Doolittle was working with Double-A and Triple-A pitchers on a pitching mound. They were doing a typical side-session.
In the following photo you will see TV screens with analytics and the TruMedia software. In addition, their are video camera at every angle, and Trackman and Rapsodo along with Statcast.
Photo by Steve Mears/TalkNats
The Single-A coaches were on Fields 1 and 2 holding intra-squad five inning games. Directly behind homeplate were at least 10 members of the player development and coaching staffs analyzing data. They also served as de facto umpires.
We overheard them calling out pitch velo and exit velo when it was worthwhile to highlight. These players are working hard. We made sure to ask several players how camp was going, and with a smile they would all say how much they are loving camp.
Pitchers are working on arm strength, and you see them warming up with weighted balls against backstop pads with numbered zones. Batters are working on increasing bat speed with weighted bats that is another key from Driveline coaches. As we saw a cart ride by, you could see a medicine ball in the back of the cart with a lot of other equipment they cleared off of the practice areas.
For the autograph seekers, I had never seen this level of fan interaction ever at a Nats camp — and in a good way. Yes, there were clearly a couple of autograph profiteers there. But mostly there were a lot of people just wanting to meet their favorite players. One person told me that James Wood signed about 50 autographs, and that Dylan Crews signed before and after his workout. Even when Caleb Lomavita probably knew he was signing for a guy who would be selling his autograph, he still signed three of the same cards on a page for some guy.
There is so much to be excited about if this team plays some improved baseball when the actual season starts. Will every player improve? No. Not even the best-run teams like the Dodgers have total improvement. And the Dodgers are so good that some of their players are at the top of their game. The Nats have the advantage that the only way to go for some players is up!
“One thing I’ve told a lot of these guys is that they are going to be pushed like they’ve never been pushed before — and that comes from a place of genuine care. … At the end of the day, in terms of who I am as a manager, I’m going to push these guys.”
— Nationals manager Blake Butera
