Baseball’s annual winter meetings, when the entire industry descends on one hotel for a week every December, are littered with chance encounters between insiders that can lead to trades, free-agent signings, or new partnerships. At last month’s event in Las Vegas, Driveline Baseball founder Kyle Boddy and KinaTrax president Steven Cadavid shared an elevator in the Mandalay Bay.
The two had met before, but the coincidental reconnection prompted Cadavid to suggest they should talk shop. Driveline Baseball is a leading training facility for baseball players known for its data-driven research and extensive use of technology. KinaTrax is a marker-less motion capture system used by four MLB organizations, including two of the last three World Series champions (the Cubs and Red Sox).