May look like 'third grade calculator,' but this new technology is taking over baseball |
CLEMSON – The 'third-grade calculator,' also known as a pitch signaling device, had the college baseball world abuzz during its opening weekend as pitchers and position players looked at their wrists and belt buckles in between pitches.
Gone are the days of a catcher calling his own pitches or the pitching coach using hand signals to call pitches from the dugout. Just a few years ago, the NCAA allowed college catchers to wear earpieces to enable coaches to tell them what pitch to signal to the pitcher. Now, pitchers (and others) across the country are wearing small devices similar to a Fitbit or an exercise watch that tells them what pitch to throw. Clemson head coach Monte Lee said the system the Tigers are using takes him back to his day in elementary school. "I don't know what it's called, and quite honestly, it looks like my third-grade calculator," Lee told TigerNet Sunday after the Tigers swept Indiana. "It's a little blue thing with a bunch of buttons, and it looks like the calculator I got in the third grade." The change in pitch calling and the added technology was necessary because, as we've seen in all levels of baseball, sign stealing has become a major issue. "In college baseball, sign stealing is rampant. It's absolutely rampant, and it's because everybody uses the same video system," Lee said. "We all use a video system called Synergy. Basically, you can see the catcher. It's the centerfield camera view on everybody, so everybody can sit there and study your catcher's signs. When you have runners on second base, a lot of times can just decode the signs unless you have some sort of system where there are no signs being put on. That's why you're seeing all of these wristbands and these different things." It's a necessary step toward leveling the playing field, Lee says, despite some reservations. "It's not easy for me because I'm more of a baseball purist when it comes to that kind of stuff, but I will tell you this, if you don't use something like that with runners on second base, you better have a lot of different sets of signs because your signs are going to get stolen and then all you've got to do with a runner on second base is verbal what pitch is coming in. It basically puts your pitcher at a disadvantage if you don't use it," he said. In years past, we would see Clemson pitchers make a motion with their glove if they didn't like the pitch selection. Even with the new technology, something similar will still happen, but the new pitch will be radioed to the catcher. "If he waves a pitch off, we would just put the sign on because we wouldn't necessarily have time," Lee said. "The great thing about the system we use is we literally punch in the pitch, and he looks down at a wristband, and he just knows. There are no cross-ups either. We radio into the catcher what pitch is coming, and we plug the pitch into the pitcher, and he looks at it, so there are no signs being given between the catcher and the pitcher, so there's no confusion as to what he's going to throw so they can't get crossed up." At Clemson, only the pitchers are wearing the new devices; however, at places like Vanderbilt, all nine players on the field are wearing them, something Lee said could be beneficial when determining positioning. "We do not use them for signs on offense," he said. "I think, and I'm just assuming here is what Vanderbilt and some schools are doing that wear them all over the field - let's say you're throwing a curveball, as the pitcher is starting, your infielders are going to shift more to the pull side of the field because breaking balls are going to be pulled more. If it's a fastball, they're probably going to hold their position a little bit more. I think a lot of it helps the infielders - and maybe the outfielders - with their positioning based on the pitch that's being thrown."
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