Head coach of the baseball team, Kermit Smith is excited about the partnership between the department of mathematical sciences and athletics at Appalachian State University. Trackman is used for player evaluation and development by all major league and minor league teams in the U.S. as well as teams abroad, and is the leading technology in the baseball industry, driving the next generation of analytics. The College of Arts and Sciences purchased and supported the installation of a Trackman into the Jim and Bettie Smith Baseball Stadium at Appalachian, to create an unprecedented opportunity for students to gain first-hand experience with sports analytics and data sciences.
"The college previously partnered with athletics on a smaller piece of equipment to track pitching. The Trackman technology now takes data collection to the next level. Our students will have a chance to collect and analyze big data, which are skills that have applications far beyond just athletics," said Neva J. Specht, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences.
Trackman collects both pitching and hitting data including: pitch velocity, spin rate, tilt, extension, eff. velocity, zone velocity, release height, release side, vertical break, horizontal break, exit speed, launch angle, direction, spin rate, hang time, bearing and distance. Trackman’s huge library of variables that are recorded throughout a game provide analysts with innumerable options for performance study.
“We used to look at the back of baseball cards for stats, now you can look at a player’s detailed statistics online and Trackman is going to give that to our team now,” said Kermit Smith, varsity baseball team coach. This type of data science can revolutionize athletics' stats.
Baseball has a very natural connection to sports analytics. Methods made famous by Billy Beane with the Oakland Athletics during the early 2000s, making their team decisions via advanced data science and statistics has become an all but certain process within the game. These ideas were portrayed in the films “Moneyball” based on Michael Lewis's book “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” and “Trouble with the Curve.”
While there are numerous benefits for both the coaches and players, students will have the chance to work with live data that is being produced at high speed, vast quantity and substantial detail. Students will have the chance to work with the Trackman software and use the data collected within an academic setting. The Departments of Mathematical Sciences and Computer Science at Appalachian are focusing courses on analytics, data science and machine learning.
“Data science has evolved from the rapid accumulation of large data, mainly from companies in the private sector looking for a competitive advantage, and the need to extract information from that data,” said Dr. Rene Salinas, professor of Mathematical Sciences.
Beginning in fall 2019, the Department of Mathematical Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences will offer an undergraduate sports analytics certificate. The 15-hour certificate will include two data science courses in the mathematical sciences, a sports analytics course that Salinas is currently teaching, an economics of sports course that is currently offered in the Walker College of Business and an internship with an Appalachian sports team or an external athletic organization.
“Students working with this equipment at other universities are leaving with active knowledge of how to use Trackman, and being hired in the MLB just because of being able to use the interface. Our students are going to be able to get that experience, while also getting course credit, which is invaluable in this industry,” stated Smith.
Additionally, the Trackman system assists players with their future careers. The technique of recording performance at both the major and minor league level is standard, with every team in the respective leagues utilizing Trackman equipment. Within the Sun Belt conference, only Coastal Carolina University has the Trackman equipment available, but it is being used in dozens of the top NCAA Division 1 teams.
"As we're learning from other institutions, this academic/athletic partnership is pretty unique, but it's one that will provide important opportunities both on and off the diamond for our students, which is a win-win,” stated Specht.
About the Department of Mathematical Sciences
The Department of Mathematical Sciences offers undergraduate degrees in actuarial science and mathematics, with concentrations in business, computation, life sciences, physical sciences, secondary teaching and statistics, plus a general, self-designed concentration. The department also offers the Master of Arts in mathematics, with concentrations in college teaching and secondary teaching. Learn more at https://mathsci.appstate.edu.
About the College of Arts and Sciences
The College of Arts and Sciences is home to 16 academic departments, one stand-alone academic program, two centers and one residential college. These units span the humanities and the social, mathematical and natural sciences. The College of Arts and Sciences aims to develop a distinctive identity built upon our university's strengths, traditions and unique location. The college’s values lie not only in service to the university and local community, but through inspiring, training, educating and sustaining the development of its students as global citizens. There are approximately 6,100 student majors in the college. As the college is also largely responsible for implementing Appalachian's general education curriculum, it is heavily involved in the education of all students at the university, including those pursuing majors in other colleges. Learn more at https://cas.appstate.edu.
About Mountaineer Athletics
More than 450 student-athletes compete in 20 NCAA Division I varsity sports at Appalachian State University, 10 for men and 10 for women. Appalachian was a dominant force in the Southern Conference for more than 40 years before joining the Sun Belt Conference in July 2014 — one of 10 conferences that are members of the Division I Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The Mountaineer football team claimed back-to-back 10-win seasons and bowl victories in 2015 and 2016, providing a catalyst for comprehensive excellence to grow across all Appalachian sports while competing at the highest levels of college athletics. Learn more at https://www.appstate.edu/athletics.
Oct. 31, 2018
By Andrew Scott and Ellen Gwin Burnette