Be A Better Catcher: Improving Pop Time
The implementation of the pitch clock in college and professional baseball has had a major impact on the run game, resulting in a significant increase in the number of stolen base attempts. This has increased the importance of catcher’s pop times, providing more opportunities to get outs on the basepaths and effectively manage the running game. At the lower levels, stolen base attempts are more common as catcher’s are generally less skilled and pitcher’s are much slower to home plate and at the upper levels runners are faster and the rules encourage stolen base attempts.
Pop time is a statistic that is calculated as the time it takes for a catcher to throw the ball from home plate to second base during a stolen base attempt. The clock starts as soon as the pitch hits the catcher’s mitt and stops when the second baseman or shortstop catches it at the base.
This metric is one that has been around for quite some time, but has one fatal flaw: human error. When a coach or other individual is using a handheld or phone operated stopwatch there is a small, but noticeable delay in the actual pop time versus the recorded pop time due the additional milliseconds that it takes for an individual to start and stop the drill.
Pison’s BASEBALL Pro device has put an end to this problem, ensuring near-perfect accuracy scores. These devices are worn on the non-throwing arm wrists of the catcher and the infielder and equipped with the technology to sense the firing of neurons at certain impact points. When applied to the pop time drill, the devices can accurately sense the exact times at which the ball hits the catcher’s mitt and when the infielder catches it at the second base bag. By eliminating the element of human error, Pison has revolutionized the accuracy of this drill, increasing its value as a metric to coaches and scouts.
In the BASEBALL Pro app, player’s with a Pison device and BASEBALL Pro subscription will have the ability to track their scores across the pop time drill and other drills. They will be able to see where they stack up against their teammates and competitors and what the average scores are for players at the next level, giving themselves a benchmark to reach.
Additionally, in the app, players will be able to initiate training sessions where they can continuously track and upload their scores to their own personal database for an overarching view of their scores and progress. Furthermore, there will be levels of trust among teams and organizations where training sessions can be verified and uploaded by a “trusted” user to discourage cheating the drill.
In the app, users will initiate the beginning of the rep, complete the rep, and initiate the completion of the rep and will see their data and scores pop up almost immediately. This seamless process can happen as many times as necessary and will lead to precise results every time.
Pop time is a crucial statistic for understanding the abilities of a catcher and the impact that they might have to their team. Through Pison’s engineering and design, a product, the BASEBALL Pro, has been created that transforms the way that the pop time drill is recorded and performed.
