On the first floor of the Gaylord Opryland Resort & Convention Center in Room B3, there are about 15 booths set up and spread out over the concrete floor at MLB’s Baseball Technology Expo. As part of the multitude of things that occur over this week of events, companies are selling their wares, hoping to make inroads with the baseball community.
What is baseball technology, you ask? In 2023, it’s more than pitchcoms and fancy fungo bats. The kiosks feature such items as motion capture programs with data visualization charts to help hitters log pitching data. Phrases such s “astute biomechanical analysis” and “dynamic vision excellence” appear on boards and if it weren’t for all the graphical representation, you might not even know any of these products related to baseball.
One such product is Pocket Radar. A tool that ostensibly looks sort of like a digital umpire’s counter, it tracks not just throwing speed but also has an app functionality that can sync with other programs to help compile data all the way down to the types of pitches thrown. According to its promotional video featuring Oakland A’s manager Mark Kotsay, it’s clearly a multipurpose tool. I learned all this from the one brotha in the room.
“Over there you see more video of high school and how those guys are being trained and developed. But it’s really to give you a snapshot of where you are. And it’s quick and easy. And you’ll see here too, you have the ability … we have slo-mo ability,” the salesman explained. “We have tracking ability, like if you’re tracking bullpens or even a game. You’re able to track location and pitch type along with the velocity, too, so it gives you context with that. And then with that, it can take that information and then when you make video clips, or if you’re recording video, once it exports those video clips, it will import that into or embed that in your video clips so that you can see where it was, too.”
But this isn’t just any salesman. His name is Ethan Faggett and he used to play ball. A touch reluctant to relive his playing days, once he started, he reminded himself that his particular path to this room is one that many have not taken.
He’s an app engineer who used to be a pro ballplayer. From Fort Worth, Texas, he ended up playing in the Red Sox system and bounced around the minors and independent ball for a decade. Not knowing what to do with his life, he went back to school to become an engineer.
That’s when he got a call from Ben Cherington, who is now the general manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Then, he was the director of player personnel for the Red Sox. When talking about the chance he was given, Faggett becomes emotional.
“There’s very few people that have been on the field, whether it be Major League or minor league, and there’s very few people that have been developers that understand it, that can contribute and create things for it,” Faggett noted. “You have a lot more of those in those individual columns, but those that come together and do both of those, I’m not saying it’s a unicorn, but it’s closer to a unicorn than those two silos that we talked about.”
So, now he’s trying to get his app in more places, particularly in the youth game. He’s been a part of the front offices of the Red Sox and the Rangers, but understands how much adaptability matters.
“When I first got involved, I said, ‘I’m in player development and I will do player development because that’s what I love.’ I love the game. I love being around. But being around it, being honest, I needed to look out for myself because I’m an engineer and I’m in player development,” Faggett said. “But that was a good decision because, in essence, I could do this anywhere because this is about the data. This is about the technology. This is not about a label. This is not about a name on a jersey. This is about your understanding, your information, your experience, your ability. So that’s why I wanted to do that, because it’s more important about being able to work for whoever you want to work for, but also being able to be a contributing factor on that team.”
In recalling how he ever made it from the field to the world of application engineering, the tears came quickly, even surprising himself.
“[Cherington] extended the olive branch to me to give me an opportunity,” Faggett said, wiping his eyes. “The thing is, you can impact people’s lives. You can do a lot. It’s not what you’re supposed to do, it’s what you choose to do, how you help people that need help.”