2B The Daily Union. Saturday & Sunday, Feb. 23 & 24, 2019 www.jcdailyunion.com

By Lynn WorthyThe Kansas City Star

SURPRISE, Ariz. — For coaches, managers and front-office personnel, data represents answers to ques-tions, a means to make important decisions and assess performance. For Kyle Zimmer, data repre-sents a path to fulfilling his dream of pitching in the majors.

Zimmer has spoken can-didly about how that dream has been tested and even faded at times amid numer-ous injuries throughout his professional career. The Royals took him off the ros-ter last year following his body’s most recent break-down.

He spent six months working with the staff at Driveline Baseball trying to calibrate his body again, and cameras, motion-cap-ture equipment and a small triangular contraption called the Rapsodo were his guides.

“Usually, different guys have different tendencies, so you try to sort of narrow down one or two things to look at because you know if you’re doing those things right then everything is on time and sequenced up,” Zimmer said. “If they’re off, then you’ve got to evaluate sort of what you’re doing. It’s just a great other avenue that we have with all the tech that’s getting intro-duced to the game to be able to analyze at a more scientific level than the eye test.”

This spring, the Royals have implemented the Rap-sodo pitch-tracking system throughout camp. That small portable triangular device — 7.1 inches tall, 15.1 inches long and 7.9 inches wide and priced between $4,000 and $4,500 each — includes a camera

and sits on the ground between home plate and the pitcher’s mound. It’s present just about every time a pitcher throws off a mound.

The Rapsodo uses a cam-era and radar system to measure things like veloci-ty, spin rate and pitch break. It can also produce three-dimensional trajecto-ry imaging and be used to analyze things like the spin axis of a pitch and release points.

Yes. This is baseball in 2019, a mix of athletics and aerodynamics.

If Zimmer wants to look at his spin rate or spin effi-ciency on his fastball, study where he’s consistently releasing the ball or find out exactly what happens when he throws a cut fast-ball as opposed to a two-seamer or four-seamer, that information is available.

“It’s interesting to me that you heard about Bos-ton’s success with Brian Bannister as their kind of analytical guy that is the go-between the analytics and the pitching coaches,” Royals manager Ned Yost said. “Then Dave Bush, who pitched for me in Mil-waukee, is under Bannie and he’s doing the same thing in the minor leagues.”

For an old-school man-ager like Yost, the data-driven analysis certainly isn’t his focus, but the Rap-sodo is ever-present and the information it gathers will quickly become a part of the daily conversation for members of his coaching staff.

“They understand all that crap,” Yost said. “I just make sure that they understand it. If they understand it and I need to understand it, they can explain it to me so at least we’re not missing the information. (Bullpen coach Vance Wilson) can

tell you, he likes that stuff. (Quality control/catching coach) Pedro (Grifol), they love that stuff. Me, I’m just like can you get somebody out. “

Wilson and pitching coach Cal Eldred have been charged with making use of the data. Wilson said so far they’ve simply been collect-ing data to provide a start-ing point for each pitcher.

“Then I think where we’ll use it the most is who is having issues,” Wilson said. “So it’s almost like we use it like a triage. For example, hypothetically, if they’re not swinging at Brad Keller’s slider and by the eye test they should be, let’s look at the numbers in Rap-sodo.”

Wilson, a former major league catcher, is in his first spring training working full time with the Rapsodo. He spent part of the offseason learning the equipment and familiarizing himself with the data.

Rapsodo focuses on movement and how the air influences movement, Wil-son explained. Measure-ments, such as spin effi-ciency, convey how the ball is getting its movement from the air.

“Our analytics depart-ment does a really good job of explaining it,” Wilson said. “It’s actually kind of a hard concept to grasp at first. “They’ll tell you that sliders actually don’t move. In my mind I’m like I’ve swung at a lot of sliders that move — I can promise you that — and missed them. I think it has more to do with the fact that it doesn’t use the air to move. So it really takes a while to grasp what it is, what they’re telling you.”

The Royals hired former minor league pitcher Mal-com Culver, who Wilson managed at Class A and

Class AA, as an assistant to player development. Culver will serve as the go-be-tween for the Royals simi-larly to Bannister’s position with the Red Sox.

Eldred views the infor-mation collected by Rapso-do as another statistic to be used in the evaluation and coaching process, just like walks or strikeouts.

“You say you’re getting underneath your slider,” Eldred said. “I can see that with my naked eye, and a lot of times the video or the Rapsodo information will help you say OK, yeah this is what I’m seeing. This is numbers that prove that, plus a slower video that will show you exactly what a player is doing. Some play-ers respond to that, some players don’t. Being in edu-cation, you realize people learn a lot of different ways.”

Despite all the informa-tion pitchers like Zimmer love to devour, it’s not a replacement for traditional methods.

Wilson will tell you the information about pitches mimics the types of obser-vations you get from good old-school scouts. Eldred considers it just another tool at the disposal of coaches and players.

Even Zimmer admits in the early stages of his rehab with Driveline, the staff were the ones closely moni-toring the data. His job was simply to focus on making pitches.

“I still don’t try to lose myself in any of that stuff too much,” Zimmer said. “The hitter is the ultimate decider of how you’re doing. If they’re not making firm contact consistently, then you’re doing some-thing right. If they’re squar-ing you up, you probably need to evaluate some-thing.”

Royals staff, players integrating latest pitch-tracking technology into daily routine

John Sleezer/Kansas City StarKansas City Royals pitcher Kyle Zimmer throws during a spring training workout on February 19, 2018, in Surprise, Ariz.

By Keith PomPeyThe Philadelphia Inquirer and Daily News

PHILADELPHIA — The Portland Trail Blazers are a bad matchup for the 76ers when the Sixers are healthy. So you kind of knew going into Satur-day’s game that the Sixers, without All-Star center Joel Embiid, could struggle.

And they did as the Blazers pre-vailed, 130-115, in a matinee at the Wells Fargo Center.

The Sixers (38-22) suffered blowout losses in both of this season’s games against Portland (36-23) without Embiid. The Blazers rolled to a 34-point rout on Dec. 30 in Portland. Embiid missed both games due to soreness in his left knee.

This game marked the second of three consecutive games the Sixers are expected to play without Embiid. They are to travel to New Orleans to face the Pelicans on Monday night at the Smoothie King Arena. Embiid will

be reevaluated next week and could return in time for Thursday’s game against the Thunder at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City.

On this day, Ben Simmons tried to will the Sixers to a victory. The All-Star point guard had a season-high-tying 29 points to go with 10 assists and seven rebounds. The Sixers, how-ever, couldn’t overcome Embiid’s absence, especially on the defensive end.

Jusuf Nurkic had 24 points on 9-for-13 shooting for Portland. The 7-foot, 275-ponder also grabbed 10 rebounds for his 28th double-double of the sea-son. All three of the Sixers available centers — Boban Marjanovic, Jonah Bolden and Amir Johnson — and reserve power forward Mike Scott tried to defend the player nicknamed “The Bosnian Bear.”

The only real competition for him came from Simmons. And that was when the two exchanged words while Simmons was on the foul line with 5

minutes, 48 seconds left in the third quarter.

The TV audio picked up Simmons saying, ‘You talk a lot of (stuff) for being (trash).” They both received technical fouls.

Simmons was later involved in an altercation with Portland’s backup center, Enes Kanter, with 9:16 left in the game.

Simmons bumped into Kanter as Simmons scored a layup. Kanter fell to the floor. He immediately got up and walked after Simmons. Scott had to come to his teammate’s defense, and Scott and Kanter received dou-ble-technicals.

The Blazers (36-23) also had a com-manding 19-7 advantage in offensive rebounds. Fourteen of their offensive rebounds and 14 of 19 second-chance points came in the first half.

Portland took command of the game by outscoring the Sixers, 41-26, in the third quarter.

Embiid sits again with sore knee as Sixers fall to Trail Blazers, 130-115

By Kevin AceeThe San Diego Union-Tribune

PEORIA, Ariz. — Since the Manny Machado news broke Tuesday, Padres play-ers have had the wide eyes and giddy hop-steps of kids told on Christmas Eve that Santa and his reindeer were spotted flying low over the rooftops.

And these Padres kids are ready to become men.

This rite of passage has been long envisioned inside the organization, and the anticipation is that Manny Machado’s presence will accelerate its implementa-tion.

“We need a little fire in the clubhouse,” outfielder Travis Jankowski said.

And on the field, where losses have piled up and the Padres feel they have too often gone down meek-ly.

“We could use some edge and start bullying some people around — as we’ve been bullied for a long time,” Austin Hedges said. “… You can feel it when you face teams that have an edge. We haven’t had it, but I think now we just might.”

What the Padres acknowledge they might have characterized as “dirty” before this week is viewed as “edge” now. Pure blood-pumping edge.

This altered view is not a surprise. Happens all the time.

Machado is among the game’s best players and its most controversial — the kind of player that, in Jankowski’s words, “you hate playing against but you absolutely love him when he’s on your team. A lot of great players are like that.”

The Padres not only have been absent a great player for a long time, they haven’t had the kind of player at which the Red Sox throw six pitches in a week.

Truth be told, the Padres have known for a couple years that they are too nice.

That they have lost a bunch of games is mostly because they’ve lacked enough talent. But it is something else they felt they lacked that would make it difficult to stop the losing.

On the topic of Machado coming in with a reputation in the minds of some for being a dirty player, one uniformed member of the organization said, “We needed a little more ‘(exple-tive) you’ on the team. The whole vibe of San Diego, laid back. When is the last time we had a little of that ‘(expletive) you’ on the team?”

The acquisition of Eric Hosmer last spring, which Padres brass acknowledged came at least a year before they expected to be truly competitive, was about a World Series champion and natural leader helping lay the foundation of a winning culture.

Signing 13-year veteran Ian Kinsler this offseason was as much about allow-ing his intensity to seep into the fabric of the clubhouse and blood flow of his new young teammates as it was acquiring his still-Gold Glove at second base.

In his strongest com-ments to date on the topic, even as he continued to

dodge questions about the then-still-not-officially signed Machado, manager Andy Green on Thursday addressed what was clearly a question about Machado’s perceived style of play.

“Everybody sees the game a little differently,” Green said. “We’re going to play with edge. If people look at us and think we play dirty because we play with edge, I really don’t care. We need more edge in the clubhouse. We brought it in. We brought in Ian Kin-sler this year. That doesn’t mean he’s a dirty player. He just plays with edge. He plays with intensity. I think our team can really grow from having more edge on the baseball field.”

Kinsler and Hosmer are the only Padres players with World Series rings. Between them and Machado, they have six World Series appearances.

And yes, Hosmer agreed, having an intensity that some might deem a bad attitude is requisite.

He often recalls for team-mates facets of the growing process for the Royals, as they grew from a young, perennial also-ran to a team that won the second of its two successive World Series appearances. Among his recollections was that they weren’t the most pop-ular team.

“A lot of teams didn’t like how the Royals handled their business,” he said. “But we’re trying to make a statement we’re here and we’re for real.”

Hosmer, like Machado, is from the Miami area and has known Machado for more than a decade. As he did to Padres management when they sought his feed-back, Hosmer has defended Machado this week when asked about the “dirty” label.

Hosmer has explained the passion with which players from Miami tend to play and suggested there might be back stories to some of the incidents in which Machado has been singled out.

The list of ways Machado has upset the sensibilities of fans and opponents includes his clipping the foot of Brewers first base-man Jesus Aguilar in the NLCS in October, several aggressive slides into sec-ond base, a shouting match with Josh Donaldson after the then-Oakland third baseman tagged him and multiple bench-clearing brawls after Machado was thrown at and/or hit by a pitch.

Asked Friday at his intro-ductory press conference what type of player he was, Machado said: “I’m a win-ner. I’m a gamer. I like to play the game. Since I was a little boy, that’s all I’ve done. I love every time I put on the uniform and go out on the field. … Just go out there and have fun. Have a smile on my face every day. That will be there.”

And right behind him, no matter what, will be his new teammates.

“He’s a Padre now,” Hedges said. “And whatever he ends up doing, if it piss-es off the other team, we’ve got his back.”

Padres ready to follow Machado

to the edge

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