The 2020 Major League Baseball season was unlike any other in history: Played amid the coronavirus pandemic, the regular season lasted only 60 games, and some of the game’s best hitters struggled uncharacteristically. Stars such as Jose Altuve, Javier Baez, J.D. Martinez and Christian Yelich each hit .219 or worse.
Perhaps the reason was regression, aging or a smaller-than-usual sample size that yielded weak numbers. But across the league, there was a notable absence of a tool that players had used — and, in the Houston Astros’ case, done so illegally — to help their performances for years: live in-game video.