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Data, Metrics & College Baseball Recruiting — What Your Numbers Mean and Where They Fall Short | EMD Shorts · Dugout Dish Baseball Recruiting Podcast powered by EMD Baseball

• 0:02
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• 1:10
  Speaker B: welcome to this week's edition of in the Clubhouse with EMD Baseball. I'm Andy Kiri Cuties, joined by my wonderful, Wonderful Co host, Mr. Keith Glasser. How we doing?
• 1:19
  Speaker C: Great. How are you?
• 1:20
  Speaker B: We're good. We are squarely in the age of information, as they may say, and we're going to take a couple minutes to talk about data analytics in the recruiting process here. You know, we, we have a lot of markers and the ability to track quite a bit of information these days, whether it's with trackman or, you know, different video platforms. And you've got exit velos and pop times and, you know, 60 times and all that kind of stuff. And I think that sometimes we get fixated on those pieces and I think the conversation around how that's used and what, how coaches leverage that information from a recruiting perspect, I don't want to say it gets glossed over, but I think sometimes it gets simplified a little bit. So I wanted to, you know, we wanted to take a couple minutes here to, to talk about how coaches actually leverage that information, the, the importance that they put into it and, you know, how that plays a role in the recruiting process. So I'll, I'll kick it over to you for some, some opening thoughts here. Coach
• 2:27
  Speaker C: sure. The, a lot of data nowadays in, in the 2026 world, it's not just in the big leagues. It's trickled all the way down to college where, you know, these guys are leveraging whether it's going to be. ROB soto, trackman. There's a lot of different metrics and data that you can parse out in Especially from a pitching standpoint with trackman, but it filters over into hitting as well. You're getting launch angles and exit velos and, you know, you're obviously getting pitches and, you know, the ride and the vertical break and the horizontal break and the, you know, all of those things that are pitch shaping and how the hitter is actually perceiving the pitch and your extension and all the stuff. You can go down a rabbit hole with a lot of this stuff, but there. There's a lot out there, and it's becoming more accessible for student athletes in the recruiting process to be able to, you know, be on trackman or, you know, get Rapsodo reports, things like that that you can send to college coaches, and they can use that data to kind of see where you stack up from a recruiting standpoint of guys that they've recruited in the past and that are in their program and how that's working for them. So, you know, it's a. Something that, you know, is probably, you know, for all of college baseball has become more prevalent probably in the last four or five years. I think, you know, 10, 15 years ago. It was really just the big guys that were able to kind of leverage a lot of that stuff where, you know, it's become a lot more accessible over the course of like anything else with technology. It's become a lot more accessible in the lower levels and of Division 1 and in Division 2 and 3, where they're. They're able to use that data and get it and leverage it from a development standpoint to be able to help guys find success, but also from a recruiting standpoint of like, hey, this is where. This is what this guy does with these pitches. We value that, and we think that those are things that we can continue to, you know, develop and get better here, where that guy is really going to be able to have a chance to have success within our program because, you know, metrically, he does a lot of the things that we believe in here and that we can go down that road where, you know, and I think in a lot of instances, the data has, you know, confirmed a lot of the things that we knew before we had all of this stuff. But we've. We've also been able to go a little bit further and parse out, like, why it does what it does, how hitters perceive what, you know, extension and ride and things like that through the zone are. Are helping pitchers be successful. And it makes sense in a lot of regards. But then from a recruiting standpoint, they can parse that out and say, okay, this guy does these couple things that very well that we think are, you know, we do very well in our pitching staff. That's a guy that we're going to recruit and vice versa, right? Like, you know, hey, this guy doesn't really do a lot of stuff that we like from a metric standpoint in our program with his pitches and we're going to pass on him doesn't mean he's a bad pitcher. He's not going to play baseball somewhere just for that particular program. It's not going to be a fit for them.
• 5:32
  Speaker D: If you're the parent of a high school baseball player with college aspirations, you already know the recruiting process can feel overwhelming. Endless showcases, non stop emails and big promises with very little clarity. That's why we recommend Diamond College Showcase Camps, the nation's premier academic baseball showcase. At Diamond College showcases, every college coach in attendance is there with a purpose to coach, instruct, evaluate and recruit. Every player is seen, every player is engaged, and every family leaves with a clear understanding of where they truly stand. This is not a mass camp. College coaches run the drills, evaluate every athlete and provide honest professional feedback that you can trust. Diamond College Showcase Camps are built for serious student athletes who value both baseball and academics. If you're looking for transparency, clarity, and a recruiting experience that respects your time and your players future, Diamond College Showcase
• 6:26
  Speaker C: is the place to be.
• 6:28
  Speaker D: To learn more, visit Diamond College showcase dot com.
• 6:36
  Speaker B: Yeah, I mean I'm a, I'm a data guy and for me data it's, it's information that helps you make a more informed decision. And I think where people they, A lot of times we have this conversation, it's like, well, it's only about the data. And I think that that's not the truth. Right. And I think we've had a lot of guys on this podcast who are really good at their jobs at the college level and you, they speak to how the data is a piece of the puzzle. And I think it's the same recruiting is that, you know, you talk about being able to confirm like, hey, that's stuff that tracks with guys that are already in our program. Like from a pitching perspective, hey, this, we, we've had a guy who looks like this from a data perspective and he's had a lot of success. Really what that does is it clues that coach into. I need to spend some more time figuring out if this is the right type of person to have in our program. I need to go spend some time to figure out can this guy compete? How does he handle failure. Then you start to check all of the other less tangible boxes that are really important. Because I think that you run into a couple different situations where guys with really high end metrics can overcome maybe some. Some character flaws. Maybe they're a little bit, you know, up and down emotionally, right. Maybe they don't deal with failure real good right away, and you can kind of coach some of that stuff up. But if they've got metrics that really play, you might bank on like, hey, I can build this kid up and we can teach him how to play the game a little bit better, maybe make some better swing decisions, or find a way to get him in the strike zone a little bit. And then you have some guys who metrically might not quite be exactly where you want them to be, but they elevate because they do some of the other stuff that you really value, you know, at a high level. But I think for a lot of guys, what it does is it, it helps them filter out guys that physically don't have the capability to play at their level or, or where they don't think can play at their level. Right. If you can only hit a ball 85 miles an hour, you know, that, that might not play at certain levels of college baseball. Might play at some, but that might be a way for a coach to filter out, hey, that kid's probably not right at our level. Same thing with velocity, right? That might filter you out, or it might filter you in, depending on what these programs are looking for in the different levels of play. So I think it's used as a way to identify guys that are worth your time. But in the the end, all be all is that there's no coach out there who's simply taking a guy just on metrics. You got to feel pretty good about the person. You got to feel good their ability to compete. You got to feel good about the character portion of it. And I think that's where the metric stuff we get really hung up on. Well, if I can get to 87, I'll be a Division 1 arm. Okay, well, you're in the conversation now. Right now you got to do the other stuff. You got to throw strikes. You got to, you know, you got to manage the running game. You got to be able to. To do some stuff with your secondary stuff. Same thing with exit velocity. Well, I hit a ball 99 off a T. Well, great. Now we got to take that into a game. We got to have some performance stuff that shows up. We got to have the pitch recognition and the baserunning ability and do some of the other stuff defensively that's going to allow you to get there. So it's a big piece of the puzzle, but it's not. There's no coach out there that, that we talk to. Right. That are in our network. Guys that we've either interviewed or guys that we have grown up kind of in the game with that are solely making a decision off of a radar gone or a trackman report. I think it's Coaches value it because it allows them to make a more informed decision. I think is probably the best way that I could put it.
• 10:07
  Speaker C: Yeah, I think it adds more context to what you're capable of doing in game, which again, to my point earlier, like, we've. It confirms a lot of the things that we've known before technology, but also allows you to go a little bit deeper on why and how, you know, you still have to check all the boxes. From a character standpoint, a teammate standpoint, can you hold runners? Can you feel their position? You know, if you're a position guy, can you defend? Can you run the bases? What are your reads? Like, you know, there's a lot of other things that you're still going to have to check the boxes on to be, you know, can you play the game? You know, but it, like we always say it, it's a, it's a foot in the door, but it confirms a lot of the things. No one's going to look at a track ran report and be like, yeah, I mean, now if we're living in absolutes like we don't like to do here at EMD baseball, like, you know, if we look at a trackman report and you're 99 to 101 with a Snapdragon slider, like, yeah, man, we might, we might just flat out recruit you as long as we, you know, the first couple phone calls check out right, like he throws the ball 101 miles an hour. Let's, let's see what happens here. But by and large, it's always going to be, yes, this, this profile is a profile of a kid that we would recruit in our program that a lot of the other guys in our, in our program profile this way. Or conversely, it might be like, hey, this is a different look than some of the other guys that we have on our roster. And this would be a good change of pace type pitcher to try to go after who's not like some of the other guys that we have. He does some things a little bit differently, like his Slider is an outlier pitch. That's a guy. We should get a guy in here who, you know, can pitch out of the bullpen early on with a wipeout slider and then hopefully develop him into a weekend guy, you know, so there's two ways to kind of look at it, but you still have to, you know, check the box from a character standpoint, from an academic standpoint, from, you know, are you going to be a good teammate? All of those things. Can you defend, like, all the things that actually matter as well? It's not just going to be your metrics that matter. And I think we chase those quite a bit to say that these are the things that college coaches want and that's what's going to get you recruited. It's a starting point. Like, yeah, he fits in for what we have here. We got to figure out the rest of it. It's not just, here are your metrics. Yeah, you're recruitable here at this school. It's, these are the metrics. Let's figure out if it's going to be a good fit for this kid to be recruitable at our school.
• 12:43
  Speaker B: Yeah, you, you mentioned like tendencies and looks and diversity of a staff. And I think it helps guys hone in on the things that they really value. Right. Because you had. It's quantifiable. Like some guys really value guys who can command a breaking ball and that's a huge piece of their pitching puzzle. They don't focus so much on the fastball velocity, but hey, can you spin the ball and can you throw it for a strike? Because we feel like we can really develop velocity in our program with our strength program and how we manage our pitchers. So they can hone in on things, really value. They can also look at things and go, all right, well, that's something that we're really good at developing or we feel like that kid is going to develop into something. Right. If you're, if you're an offensive coach and you're able to get some good, like, back to ball metrics on a guy, you might not see the exit velocities that jump off the page, but if you look at it and you go, all right, well, that kid's 6 foot 2, he weighs 170 pounds, doesn't have the bat speed that we're looking for right now, but he never swings and misses in the strike zone. You might feel really good about. All right, well, when we get that kid into our weight program, all those bat to ball skills that are showing up in the data, I feel really good about that kid developing and being able to play at our level. So I think it, it allows you to make some better assumptions about what somebody might be going forward. And I think it really allows you to narrow in on things that you value or that you feel like you can comfortably develop stuff that you've had success from a coaching perspective on getting guys better at. At least that's the conversation that I've had with guys and I know you've had the same one is, hey, I really value guys who do this type of thing because I think that we can teach them to do the stuff that they might be missing right now.
• 14:22
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• 15:05
  Speaker C: yeah, and I think it's, you know, you talk to a lot of people and I did this when I was coaching. You know, I think the pendulum swung so far one way where we were reliant, very reliant on the technology to try to use that as coaching, where now it's, it's a piece of the development puzzle. I don't want you throwing and then immediately wanting to know what your trackman or Rap soda number is. I want, you know, this is data that we can use as part of your development piece to get you to where you're going to be uber successful and put the trust, trust in the coaches that are breaking down that data to be like, okay, these here are some tweaks that we can make to sharpen up your breaking ball to, you know, be able to get a little bit more movement on your fastball. Maybe we do need to have a little bit more extension. Maybe our extension needs to be a little bit shorter, whatever it might be. So it's become, I think the ones who leverage it the best are the ones who use it as a piece of the development puzzle. Not something that this is hard and fast. True. Because you're still dealing with human beings. Right. We're using very advanced data and metrics to impose it on Human beings that might not be able to do the same thing over and over, repeatable over and all the time, you know, so you're, you're still dealing with the human aspect of it. But I think that being able to use the data from a standpoint of, hey, here's a. Another tool that we can use in our toolbox to be able to develop a kid to get him to be better at X or get him to be better at Y and thus give him more opportunities to be successful when he goes in. That ultimately leads to you winning more baseball games. Not something where it's like, you need to do this in order for this outcome. It's, let's try this and see if, you know, being in this range with your slider from a horizontal break standpoint lends us to have more success. Or let's be in this range from a, you know, vertical standpoint with our, our two seamer and our fastball and see if that lends us to more success. And if it does, awesome. If not, back to the drawing board, you know, So I think that it's. It's something that the pendulum swung back, I think, to the. To using it more as a development type. Mode modality. Is that the word? If you will.
• 17:34
  Speaker B: It can be.
• 17:35
  Speaker C: You're the data guy with seven degrees. I'm just a history major with one.
• 17:39
  Speaker B: It can be for sure. Yeah. I mean, this is a little bit beyond recruiting, so I'm not going to exhaust this point. But I do think the other element of the data portion that becomes really important at the college level is the scouting report and the tendencies and the ability to get information and help prepare your guys. Right. That's kind of the next phase of it that you get exposed to in college is that you can, you can get all these amazing tendencies to help guys become better. So you're using the data from a development and kind of a competitiveness standpoint in that fashion as well. So anything else you want to add to that, Coach?
• 18:17
  Speaker C: No, sir.
• 18:18
  Speaker B: All right. Data is a piece of the puzzle. It is a valuable piece of the puzzle, but it is not the whole picture.
• 18:27
  Speaker E: Thank you for listening.
• 18:29
  Speaker B: Talk to you next week. Thanks, everybody. Thank you for listening this week.
• 18:32
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• 18:36
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• 18:38
  Speaker E: Check us out on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcast, as well as Spotify. You can follow us on Twitter and Instagram MD Baseball. If you want to find out what
• 18:48
  Speaker B: me and Keith do to help families
• 18:50
  Speaker E: and players navigate the recruiting process. Go ahead and check us out on emdbaseball.com take a few minutes to check
• 18:57
  Speaker B: out our new online academy.
• 18:58
  Speaker E: I promise you'll get some good information out of that.
• 19:00
  Speaker B: Thanks again for listening.
• 19:02
  Speaker E: Check in with you next week.
• 19:12
  Speaker B: Just watch.