The MVP Machine: How Baseball's New Nonconformists Are Using Data to Build Better Players
by Ben Lindbergh
“It turns out the quickest way to acquire a new skill is to force yourself to do that skill with a constantly changing environment, implement, or activity,” Bauer says. “If you can vary one of those [elements] every single time, with the same goal, then your body acquires that skill a lot more quickly.” The camera helped Warren win a long-standing argument he’d had with his son. Trevor believed pitchers decided when to release pitches, but Warren didn’t believe this was a conscious action. The camera confirmed his suspicion. It showed that pitchers don’t release the ball by moving their fingers. Rather, the hand accelerates the ball linearly, forcing the fingers to extend or open. This led to a key finding that would shape Trevor’s future approach to pitch design: grips were best thought of as escape routes for the ball.
“It turns out the quickest way to acquire a new skill is to force yourself to do that skill with a constantly changing environment, implement, or activity,” Bauer says. “If you can vary one of those [elements] every single time, with the same goal, then your body acquires that skill a lot more quickly.”
It’s not that he won’t listen, Bauer says, it’s that he rejects bad advice. He explains that he’s very coachable if someone is presenting useful information and can explain its logic. He just doesn’t automatically acquiesce to authority. More often, he questions it. He wants to know the logic or science behind any practice or drill he’s being asked to do. This is part of the Bauer DNA.
By 2017, the Astros were establishing clear, individually tailored goals for their pitchers in spring training and giving them feedback based on TrackMan data after every outing, with portable and mounted Edgertronics—seven of which the Astros have installed at Minute Maid Park, with seven more at each minor-league park in their system—available for more detailed looks.
Branch Rickey had understood this, forbidding his managers from criticizing a player’s mistakes without telling him how to correct them. “It isn’t enough to tell a youngster that he strikes out too much—he knows that as well as the manager,” Rickey’s comrade Fresco Thompson wrote. “What he must be told is how to reduce his number of strikeouts.”
Cultural critic Maria Popova writes that with a fixed mindset, “avoiding failure at all costs becomes a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled,” whereas a growth mindset regards failure not as evidence of stupidity or lack of ability but as a “heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities.”
"“It turns out the quickest way to acquire a new skill is to force yourself to do that skill with a constantly changing environment, implement, or activity,” Bauer says. “If you can vary one of those [elements] every single time, with the same goal, then your body acquires that skill a lot more quickly.”"
"The camera helped Warren win a long-standing argument he’d had with his son. Trevor believed pitchers decided when to release pitches, but Warren didn’t believe this was a conscious action. The camera confirmed his suspicion. It showed that pitchers don’t release the ball by moving their fingers. Rather, the hand accelerates the ball linearly, forcing the fingers to extend or open. This led to a key finding that would shape Trevor’s future approach to pitch design: grips were best thought of as escape routes for the ball."
"“Elevate and celebrate” and “Ground balls suck” became batting-cage cries. In 2018, Red Sox skipper Alex Cora said, “We don’t like hitting ground balls. We like hitting the ball in the air.” His statement mirrored a Cubs catchphrase—“There’s no slug on the ground”—as well as Pirates manager Clint Hurdle’s advice to his team: “Your OPS is in the air.” An outsider philosophy had spawned insider slogans."
"It’s not that he won’t listen, Bauer says, it’s that he rejects bad advice. He explains that he’s very coachable if someone is presenting useful information and can explain its logic. He just doesn’t automatically acquiesce to authority. More often, he questions it. He wants to know the logic or science behind any practice or drill he’s being asked to do. This is part of the Bauer DNA."
"By 2017, the Astros were establishing clear, individually tailored goals for their pitchers in spring training and giving them feedback based on TrackMan data after every outing, with portable and mounted Edgertronics—seven of which the Astros have installed at Minute Maid Park, with seven more at each minor-league park in their system—available for more detailed looks."
"Branch Rickey had understood this, forbidding his managers from criticizing a player’s mistakes without telling him how to correct them. “It isn’t enough to tell a youngster that he strikes out too much—he knows that as well as the manager,” Rickey’s comrade Fresco Thompson wrote. “What he must be told is how to reduce his number of strikeouts.”"
"Cultural critic Maria Popova writes that with a fixed mindset, “avoiding failure at all costs becomes a way of maintaining the sense of being smart or skilled,” whereas a growth mindset regards failure not as evidence of stupidity or lack of ability but as a “heartening springboard for growth and for stretching our existing abilities.”"
- →“It turns out the quickest way to acquire a new skill is to force yourself to do that skill with a constantly changing environment, implement, or activity,” Bauer says. “If you can vary one of those [elements] every single time, with the same goal, then your body acquires that skill a lot more quickly.”
- →If Bauer loses feel for pitching in an inning, he’ll sometimes leave the dugout during the next half inning and throw some Plyo balls to try to remove the feeling of throwing a baseball and get his feel back on track. He’s also explored the benefits of slapping himself in the face to reorganize his mental focus.
- →There are two types of spin that affect a ball: transverse spin and gyroscopic spin. The spin type is determined by the spin axis of the ball, which in turn is determined by the pitcher’s grip. Transverse spin makes a pitch move, a slider swerve. That’s because transverse spin is sensitive to the Magnus effect.
- →Those devices allowed support staff to push him hard enough to get better but not hard enough to cause setbacks. His timeline was determined by the data, rather than an athlete’s, trainer’s, or doctor’s intuitions or expectations about typical recoveries, which may be misleading.
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