To Rob Walton, pitching isn’t synonymous with robotics.
Despite Walton’s reservations about baseball’s shift toward analytics, he can’t avoid the trend. With an app on his cellphone, Walton, the Oklahoma State pitching coach, can read the Cowboys’ statistics, including spin rate, release height and pitch velocity. He also can compare OSU’s data to numbers from other college pitchers and major league players such as Max Scherzer and Clayton Kershaw.
This became possible because of a gift from Andrew Heaney, a former Cowboy and pitcher for the Los Angeles Angels, and his wife, Jordan Heaney. They bought OSU a system called TrackMan, which is widely used in professional baseball and the NCAA.