Drones, TrackMan, multiple cameras — Mets are going high-tech

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — Mets camp in season two of the Brodie Van Wagenen era looks different, and not only because of the major renovations to their Clover Park complex. These early days of spring training have featured a marked increase in the use of technology relative to a year ago, from a helpful eye in the sky to smarter practice fields to souped-up bullpens.

The Mets’ technological buildup, under assistant general manager/analytics overseer Adam Guttridge, has been a focus for the past year-plus.  This and last spring training represent convenient checkpoints to mark that progress, which also has included the start of a culture change — a greater degree of acceptance from Mets players.

“While we might use some unfamiliar technologies, nobody is recommending anybody throw underhanded or reinvent the wheel,” Guttridge said. “What this is really about is providing players with a better awareness of how their body works, how their pitches work, connecting the field to feedback and allowing them to chart their own course and track their own improvement.”

Here is a look at three tools the Mets have now but did not have last spring training.

Drones

During certain drills — baserunning on Thursday, for example, or when outfielders are practicing tracking fly balls — the Mets record the runners’ routes from above with a drone.

Manager Luis Rojas framed it as a coaching tool. With video of, say, a player going from first to third, coaches can identify if he stepped on the second-base bag correctly and if he made his turn tightly enough (and then perhaps offer instruction on how to do it better). It’s similar for outfielders’ routes.

The idea of using drones for that purpose came from Colin Schwartz, the Mets’ minor-league information coordinator, Guttridge said.

“People say in some ways, some instances, baseball can be a game of inches, and that’s true enough,” Guttridge said. “The details that matter are shaving inches, shaving angles, making routes as efficient as they can be, both on defense and on baserunning so that we win more of the [close] plays. That’s it.”

Tracking tech on back fields

On the four-field setup where the minor- and major-league portions of the complex overlap, two fields now have a TrackMan system installed at the top of the backstop. The other two fields have portable TrackMan units.

TrackMan, a regular presence in major-league ballparks in recent years, is a radar system that precisely records virtually every movement of a baseball, from how fast it travels to how much it spins to how it moves up and down and side to side. Having this technology on practice fields — not just in stadiums — allows the Mets access to that data when pitchers throw live batting practice. The more data available, the better.

“Things like whether or not a pitch got an extra inch of movement in the direction we want it to are tough for the pitcher and the pitching coach to accurately assess with their eyes pitch to pitch,” Guttridge said.

"Full force'' bullpens

The number of cameras trained on a pitcher during a given bullpen session would make a casino surveillance boss proud. There are two or three pieces of extra equipment, all of which have become standard throughout baseball.

An ultra-high-speed camera is positioned behind the rubber, allowing the Mets to analyze a pitcher’s delivery to an extreme degree in super-slow motion, potentially spotting the slightest of flaws. Behind the catcher is a portable TrackMan. And, sometimes, another high-speed camera is on either side of the pitcher, just to offer another point of view.

The Mets started to incorporate those tools into the side sessions around this time last year, but now they are fully equipped. “This is the first spring we’re going full force,” Guttridge said.

All of that is part of the Mets’ analytics catch-up effort after lagging behind most of baseball under Sandy Alderson. It helps, too, that their new personnel are analytically inclined. That includes Rojas, whom Guttridge called the Mets’ “information quarterback” as the quality control coach last year. Pitching coaches Jeremy Hefner and Jeremy Accardo have similar backgrounds.

“Most or all of our players have a great attitude and understand that we’re working for them and not vice versa,” Guttridge said. “If we have a separator, it’s the human talent. Data capture by itself doesn’t really achieve anything. It’s interpretation, analysis, communication, understanding there is a progression and goals and having people who can communicate that message to help guide a player.”