Dodgers: Lack of In-Game Video Has Impacted Pitchers As Well
Hitters have been missing the in-game video feedback that they’ve come to rely on so heavily over the years. And perhaps that it was is contributing to a league-wide dip in offense in 2020. The Dodgers lead the league in run production, but even they have felt the difference.
Prior admits that not only batters, but pitchers as well as the coaching staff have been impacted by the lack of in-game video feedback. "Not being able to see the game feed has been limiting." #Dodgers
— Dodgers Nation (@DodgersNation) August 20, 2020
As it turns out, hitters are not the only ones dealing with the change of limited feedback. Not having in-game video for pitchers has also become somewhat of a learning curve. Dodgers’ pitching coach Mark Prior talked about the change in his pitchers’ approaches and the shift to a sort of old school method.
From a pitching standpoint, we have no access either so it’s hard to see, we’re relying on our eyes from the dugout. You know is the pitch in our out, you can kind of tell some vertical stuff if it’s up if it’s down. But it’s really hard to say ‘is the cutter moving, is the slider moving, how’s the sink on a two-seamer’ so we’re flying blind a little bit there too and trusting what our catchers…the in-game video has made it a little more challenging from that standpoint.
In terms of adjustments being made, everything has to be done on the fly these days. Prior recognized that so much more of the in-game adjustments now rely on the Dodgers pitchers and catchers.
I don’t want to say it’s old school, but there is a little bit of read and react. If somethings not working, trying to figure out why it’s not working in the moment. We gotta make an adjustment if it’s switching from the gameplan.
The interesting thing is that you wouldn’t even know that Dodgers pitchers were being impacted by this change. Los Angeles has the best staff ERA in the entire National League, and it’s not really even close.
The change to not allowing players access to in-game video stems from the Astros cheating scandal that broke in the offseason. MLB has limited access to video rooms to only certain personnel after the Astros used the video room to steal signs from other teams. The Astros took down the Dodgers in the 2017 World Series utilizing that method.
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So, all that is left is what managers and coaches depended on before video and they are sounding like they are being deprived. Does the absence of availability of such information make them less competent? Sounding like it does, that they now have to use brains and experience instead of computers and programs solving their problems. Maybe the coaches and their decision process is not too far away from being replaceable by programmed robots. Then we will have IT specialists deciding when a pitcher needs to be removed and when a player needs to be benched. Coaches should be alerted to be careful what they wish for. And do us older timers need be concerned about a major shift in the dynamics of the game?
Back to the old drawing board as they use to say. They use to have everything written on boards hanging on the walls of the dugout. Managers had their list of the opposit team of what they could hit & couldn’t hit. All stats were on paper. So if your that good you should have no problem.