With Major League Baseball in hiatus, Giants manager Gabe Kapler and his staff are using a cornucopia of technologies to stay on top of the game and keep players as ready as they can be, including videos, statistical tools, video games, virtual-meeting sites and …
Wait. Back up a minute. Video games?
Indeed.
Kapler said he and some of his coaches are employing a PlayStation baseball game called “MLB: The Show” to study tendencies of major-league players, an idea suggested by hitting coach Justin Viele.
Ordinary enthusiasts play The Show to virtually throw pitches and take swings in competition against the computer, one another and strangers online. They can create their own lineups of players whose skills are programmed through real stats and body movement.
Kapler uses it another way. He fiddles with the “quick manage” mode to make in-game moves and familiarize himself with National League rosters.
“It’s just kind of a cool way to stay connected,” Kapler said. “People are using it as an advance tool to stay familiar with the league. I’ve been playing several games a day.”
San Mateo-based Sony Interactive Entertainment produces the game, which has been on the market since 1997 and soon will be available on other platforms, possibly Nintendo and Microsoft, under a new licensing deal with Major League Baseball and the Players Association.
Gamers now can play competing games, such as RBI Baseball, on the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft’s Xbox.
Many big-league players enjoy the games. Giants outfielder Hunter Pence participated in a four-player “MLB: The Show” tournament Friday that fans could follow online. Reds pitcher Amir Garrett won.
Whether major-leaguers can maintain any skills on a game console is debatable, but Pence would not discount it.
“I hadn’t played much since I was a kid,” Pence said. “This one I got into because we have a lot more free time. It’s really wild how real it looks, facing pitchers, their movement, even hitter anticipating movement.”
All of the products have become more realistic, from the graphics to the player tendencies, the part of the game that Kapler said he and his staff are studying.
Sony produces “MLB: The Show” at a subsidiary in San Diego.
Chris Gill, the game-play director, said his staff grades players based on their stats over three prior years and use the same advanced metrics that fans and the media have become accustomed to studying online.
Besides mathematical stats, they include reaction time, fielding ability, arm strength, break on pitches, exit velocity, hot and cold zones for pitchers and hitters, and the first step and reaction time of fielders.
Sony uses former major-leaguers to create animations through motion-capture technology then refines them for each player based on videos from its library.
Pence put former Rangers teammate Joey Gallo on his team and noticed the ball comes off his bat the way it does in real life. Pence also has put himself at the plate in the videogame, although he admitted he is not a popular choice among gamers.
“I’ve seen nobody online play with my character,” he said.
This all might be a lark. When baseball resumes, Kapler and his coaches are more likely to rely on traditional video and scouting reports to devise strategy. But for now, why not?
“Part of the reason we have interest in using it as a tool is we’re really confident in the way they evaluate and rank players,” Kapler said. “They’ve done really deep statistical dives and really thoughtful ones.”
“I think it’s a fun, easy way, with as much time as we have inside right now, to look at ever player in the National League.”
Henry Schulman covers the Giants for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: hschulman@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @hankschulman
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April 02, 2020 at 04:57AM
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