ASHDOWN, Ark. - Technology has the capability to help humans improve upon many different aspects of life.
For Ashdown baseball, the Rapsodo batting and pitching cameras look to fill that high-tech void in the form of collecting data.
The pitching device records pitches, spins and angles, while the batting camera records swings to help perfect players' baseball skills and provide computer science students the real-time data to analyze and communicate with the players and coaches.
"There are two different machines; one for pitching and one for hitting," Ashdown baseball head coach Chuck Cross said. "I think that it will be a game changer. Will it produce more wins that losses? I don't know. We have done analytics on a small level and now we can do it on a larger level.
"We will have an analytical team combined with a computer science class that is offered here at the school. The Rapsodo will put the information in a cloud and it will give us pitching metrics, speed of the ball and the actions of the ball. And there is so much more."
The Margaret Daniel Foundation provided an $8000 grant for Ashdown to get the devices. The goal of the foundation is to support creative learning opportunities and school programs, to provide resources for teacher, to nurture the creative minds of children and to increase the range of educational opportunities available to the students.
"We have been doing small parts of it on the hitting level by recording data ourselves," Cross said. "The coaching staff and I have collected the velocity off of every hit in practice this year. It usually takes us 2-3 hours to get all of the data into excel. We can have the device in the batting cage and tell the players to get 10 reps at 80 mph. They will get higher quality reps.
"The coolest thing about it is that we get to bring computer science students out. They get to bring their computers out and that can open up opportunities. There are several analytical jobs available in Major League Baseball. All of this is going to be a neat deal."
Cross expects to have the devices at practice by next week.