Yankees Create App for Scouting Reports By DAVID WALDSTEIN March 27, 2014 TAMPA, Fla. — A quick survey of the most popular applications that Yankees players have on their tablets might reveal several versions of Angry Birds and perhaps a stock market tracker. But the one app they will all be expected to have this year cannot be bought on iTunes. It is a new internal app that will make all the club’s scouting material, including videos and written reports, readily available through the players’ iPads. Manager Joe Girardi said the app was developed by Brett Weber, the baseball operations coaching assistant for the Yankees. “It’s a better way to communicate important information with the players,” Girardi said. “And it can be tailored to what each guy wants.” It also enables players to access the information wherever they are. If they want to see what a left-handed reliever throws, or check the video on a right-handed slugger, they can watch at home, at their locker, on a plane or in their hotel rooms, without having to get any special equipment. “It’s a good idea,” said Derek Jeter, the team captain. “I don’t know if I’ll be looking at it in my hotel room, but it does mean you can look stuff up whenever you want and you don’t necessarily have to wait for a video screen to be free in the clubhouse.” Jeter is not one to dwell on complicated scouting reports. He likes to know what the pitchers throw, and how hard they throw it, and the rest is up to him. But the new app could prove more useful to others. Weber and the Yankees started developing the system last year, and a few players, like Brett Gardner and Mark Teixeira, received an advance version. Weber then spent time over the winter and this spring training refining it and preparing it for teamwide distribution. During the season, he and other members of the Yankees’ technical staff will gather and update information daily, and it will then be pushed to the players’ tablets. Players can also get individualized information on their past performances against specific opponents. “It’s just like an app,” Gardner said. “I used it last year, and whatever I asked for, it would just appear.” If a player loses his tablet, the Yankees can just wipe away the information. At the very least, the new app could change the way players prepare for games. Over the past 15 years, the visiting clubhouse included a table where players sat and watched scouting videos. If all the computers were taken by teammates, they might have to wait their turn. Many teams, including the Yankees, also handed out scouting reports on paper. Girardi noted that N.F.L. teams now use tablets instead of playbooks, and he said the Yankees always try to be in the vanguard of technology. “The next thing you know, they will just implant chips in their heads,” he said with a smile. The Yankees are not the only baseball team that uses computers and iPads for scouting. Alfonso Soriano said that he had been using his computer and tablet for the past five or six years, primarily for video, going back to his days with the Texas Rangers and the Chicago Cubs. He would have the scouting videos of pitchers downloaded on his device and would watch it at home. He said most of the hitters on the Cubs did the same thing. “Then you don’t have to go to the video room,” he said. “If I’m home and I don’t have anything to do, maybe I’ll watch before I go to bed and then I’ll have an idea for the next day.” One more benefit of the new system: The Yankees hope they will no longer have to print out daily scouting reports. “We’re going to save paper,” Girardi said. “We’re going green.” INSIDE PITCH C. C. Sabathia made his final start of what has been a productive spring training, and he acknowledged that all the weight he lost last season, perhaps 30 pounds, contributed to the worst season of his career. “I didn’t know that the weight loss would affect me that much,” he said. “There were just some games that I was short. Just didn’t have the stuff. It was frustrating, but I can accept getting beat this year, if I do, just because I feel so much better.”
Posted on: Sat, 29 Mar 2014 01:10:29 +0000
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