The Dodgers have always been at the forefront of technology and innovation. They have been using their Trajekt Arc pitching machine to help hitters prepare for opposing pitchers. The machine replicates release points and deliveries, while also showing the batter specific pitch characteristics.
Dalton Rushing has been below average in challenges to called pitches so far this season. So the Dodgers thought they would try something out of the box -if the Trajekt Arc pitching machine helped batters see
pitches better, maybe it could help Rushing see them also.
They started using one of their own pitchers, Justin Wrobleski. Each simulated pitch showed one of three data points – how Rushing caught it, where the pitch was, and if Rushing should challenge or not.
From Fabian Ardaya of The Athletic:
“It’s weird, because you don’t see the ball the whole way,” Rushing said. “It’s not like an actual pitcher, obviously, on the mound. The catching side of it is a little weird. The pitches are sometimes better, sometimes not as good off the machine. But at the same time, it’s giving us an idea to train our eyes a little bit.”
The Dodgers are one of only a few teams using this technology, and it still has some kinks to be worked out. But it seems to be helping Rushing in the margins, pun intended, as he correctly challenged two pitches in Yoshinobu Yamamoto’s start on Sunday which turned those at bats into strikeouts.
Also in The Athletic, Katie Woo covers how the Dodgers use of the six-man rotation is working for them so far this season. The team has been able to weather the loss of both Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow, still having one of the top pitching staffs in the majors and the second-best record in all of baseball.
“The benefit is it allows (Ohtani, Yamamoto and Sasaki) to be on a routine that they’re more accustomed to,” pitching coach Mark Prior said. “It’s also another way for us with some of our younger guys to come up not tax them right out of the chute. In this environment, you’re already adding the stress of pitching to this level versus the minor leagues, so these are all just little benefits I think we’ve seen in the margins.”
While pitchers like Roki Sasaki, Shohei Ohtani and Yamamoto are used to working with six days rest, it is benefitting pitchers like Emmet Sheehan who is used to the traditional time between starts.
“Six days rest is awesome,” Sheehan said. “Getting a little bit more recovery every week, keeping guys fresh, keeping the innings down on the year, I think, are probably the biggest things.”
The Dodgers pitching staff currently are averaging 5.71 innings per start, best in the majors, and way above last year’s mark where they finished in 28th. The team hopes this goes a long way to keeping the staff healthy heading into the playoffs.
