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THE ABNER BATTER TRAINING SYSTEM throws regulation baseballs at just
about any speed to any location in the strike zone. Randy Johnson’s
slider. Roger Clemens’ fastball. Abner can even reproduce a Phil Neikro
knuckleball.
The machine replicates the
features of live pitching by combining an eight-axis industrial robot,
digital animation projection and a movable screen with a high-speed
shutter device.
The Cleveland Indians and
the St. Louis Cardinals used the system in spring training — at a rental
fee of $13,000 a month — and a number of players were so impressed they’re
considering purchasing units for themselves.
By enabling players to practice against replicas of major league
pitchers they might face during a game, Abner has the potential to
revolutionize training.
Doug Crews and
Richard Richings, two mechanical engineers, hit upon the idea while
swinging at a run-of-the-mill batting cage in Seattle three years ago. If
pilots can train on realistic flight simulators, they reasoned, why
shouldn’t ballplayers? |
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The men formed
Fastball Development Corporation and spent the past three years building
Abner, which weighs 2,700 pounds, from industrial steel and aircraft
aluminum. A 850 MHz Pentium III computer controls the machine, talking to
the motors and ensuring that they replicate the precise motions
needed.
“It’s old technology that’s just
employed in a new way,” said Crews, Fastball’s chief technology officer.
“It has a very high degree of precision that enables us to deliver the
ball in a certain way every time.”
The
biggest challenge was figuring out how to make the ball appear to fly
right out of the pitcher’s hand.
Professional hitters need to see the hand on the baseball all the
way up to the moment of release, in order to see the finger placement on
the ball. By watching how a pitcher is holding a ball, pro players can
predict the type of pitch and the trajectory of the ball. |
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Fastball was able to simulate this by integrating a high-speed
shutter system with an LCD screen showing 3-D animation.
“Basically, the machine is shooting a 90-mile an hour ball
through a screen moving 500-inches-per-second,” said Richings, the CEO of
Fastball.
REALISTIC BREAKING
PITCHES
Richings demonstrates how
the machine works by inserting a baseball into a metal gripper located
behind the screen. Unlike the dimpled yellow balls many pitching machines
use, Abner uses regulation baseballs so that the pitches break
realistically.
Depending on how Richings
inserts the ball, the machine can replicate two-seam or four-seam pitches,
just like the pros throw. |
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The back of the Abner
pitching machine, where the operator inserts the balls.
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 Once the ball is inserted,
Abner sets the speed by propelling the ball forward using a linear motor
launching mechanism, similar to those used in amusement park roller
coasters.
Abner then determines the type of
pitch with two spinning aluminum alloy flywheels, which pinch the ball. If
the top one is faster, there will be top spin on the ball — making it a
curveball. If the bottom one is faster, there will be bottom spin on the
ball — a fastball. If they are about the same speed, there will be no spin
on the ball — a knuckleball.
Other rotary
motors control the axis of rotation, the elevation and the windage (the
deflection left or right), enabling the machine to reproduce nearly any
type of pitch.
Meanwhile, the 3-D pitcher
has begun his motion. Just as the pitcher is about to release the ball,
the shutter in the LCD screen opens in the exact spot where the image of
the ball is, and the flywheels shoot the ball through the screen. As the
shutter closes, the image of the pitcher’s hand reappears and he finishes
his motion. |
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‘CREATE-A-PITCH’
Custom-built software, called “Create-a-Pitch,” enables you to
choose the type of pitch by pointing at a touch-screen. You can set the
speed and location of the pitch; the height of the batter; whether the
pitcher is a righty or lefty; and whether you want to throw a fastball,
curveball, slider, slurve, changeup; cutter, sinker, splitfinger fastball
or knuckleball. You can also call up one of 2,500 preset pitches from a
database Fastball has created, pitches that replicate most of those you’ll
find in the major leagues. |
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The folks at Fastball created the
database by examining major league pitches on video frame by frame.
Slowing down the images enabled them to determine the rotation, spin
magnitude, velocity and location of a pitch and replicate it by adjusting
the machine’s variables. “Create-a-Pitch” enables them to set the ball
speed at up to 100 mph; the spin on the ball at up to 1,400 rpm; and any
type of spin along a 360-degree axis.
“Our
software enables us to create a pitch of almost any shape,” Richings said.
“However, typing it to any one pitcher is left up to the
observer.”
Right now Abner can pitch righty
or lefty, but throws every pitch from the same point in the pitching
motion. The next version of the machine will add two more motors, enabling
it to release the ball from any point in a pitcher’s motion. That’ll
enable the machine to better simulate pitchers, particularly those who
throw side-arm or with unusual motions.
FINGER GRIPS YOU
CAN SEE
Abner can replicate just
about any pitch from any pitcher. But when the machine was used in spring
training, the players mostly wanted to see was two basic pitches: 80-mph
fastballs alternating with 70-mph curveballs. This helps them with their
timing and with their ability to tell the difference between the two in
terms of velocity and break. |
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If you look at the screen closely when the pitch is coming, you can
see exactly what the major league ballplayers see.
When the pitcher throws a curveball, the hand is on the side of the
ball and the fingers come across the top — causing the ball to spin
forward. When the pitcher — or Abner — throws a fastball, the hand is
behind the ball and the ball rolls off the fingers — with
backspin.
Professional ballplayers have
about 1/10th of a second to spot this before they determine how to swing.
This skill can make the difference between a mediocre player and a great
player, and thus a machine that helps players gain that edge could be very
valuable to professionals.
And it better be,
for Abner doesn’t come cheap at $175,000 a unit. Fastball hopes to sell
the system to major league and college teams, training academies and
individual players. The company has sold one machine since spring
training, to a training academy in Washington state, and is meeting with
Cal Ripken while he’s in town for the All-Star game about possibly selling
him one for his training academy. And with the average salary of major
league players at around $2 million, Richings expects individual players
to be bringing Abner home as well.
The
technology may create new markets as it evolves. For example, Crews
envisions writing software that operates the machine over the Internet,
and foresees the potential for a new type of fantasy league baseball, one
in which you can actually throw opponents who are thousands of miles away
a Pedro Martinez fastball.
Of course, that
might not be much fun if you can’t hit it. Abner can give you all the
practice you want, but it can’t make you replicate Mark McGwire’s
swing.
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 What do you think about fantasy leagues using Abner?
Post your thoughts on our discussion board.
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