Articles written about Professional Baseball Video Coordinators. Organized by date.

10/3/2007
BATTER ROYAL: Phils’ potent offense gets another crack at Rockies’ fast pitchers
By Marcus Hayes/Philadelphia Daily News

The Rockies’ late surge into the wild-card slot meant a little extra work lately for video coordinator Kevin Camiscioli and his staff - but just a little.

There’s just not much film on the likes of Jimenez and Morales. They have made a combined 24 career starts.

Thanks to Camiscioli’s computer mouse and DVR, every pitch they have thrown is at the Phillies’ fingertips. Read more…

7/25/2007
Biggio ready for next stage of life.
MLBPLAYERS.COM

Utley says there is a good reason he is so studious.

“You try to find tendencies,” he said. “You try to figure out what approach he’s going to take to you. Sometimes you’re right. Sometimes you’re wrong. There are plenty of times when you’re wrong. But (video coordinator) Kevin (Camiscioli) does a good job getting [an opposing pitcher’s] most recent starts. I watch those and see what his game plan is going to be. Like I said, sometimes it’s a huge advantage. There are other times it can mess you up a little bit. But that’s the chance you take.

“But I think video is a huge advantage, especially against the guys you’ve never faced before. It helps you get an idea of what it might look like. Every pitcher is a little different. Why would you not want to watch a guy or watch yourself?” . Read more..

01/30/2007
Greatest hits, in the palm of your hand.
By Jayson Stark/ESPN.com

It’s hard to say exactly which moment it was that we realized the iPod had taken over our entire civilization. But it might have been this one:

The day we first heard, last summer, that baseball players were using their iPods to do their pregame video studies — as opposed to, say, their pregame Shakira video studies. Read more…

2007
Colorado Rockies Turn At-Bats into Bits.
SEAGATE.COM

It’s where the crack of a bat meets the click of a mouse.

As chief video coordinator for baseball’s Colorado Rockies, Brian Jones sees himself as a “digital librarian” whose job is to quickly provide ballplayers and coaches with all the information they need to win. But rather than searching for texts on a library shelf, Jones and his crew work in a large room packed with high-definition TV screens, computer servers, laptops and Seagate hard drives.. Read more..

10/3/2006
Scouts’ arsenal of video, clipboards, radar has MLB teams playoff-ready.
By Paul White/USA Today

“I’d rather just watch a pitcher on video, like I do all season,” Damon says. “Watch his mechanics, see if he’s tipping his pitches.”

Players have become so accustomed to using video that teams are altering their way of preparing for games. Nearly every team has a video coordinator who creates packages tailored to each batter or pitcher. Read more..

06/17/2006
Behind the Scenes with Mark Topping: Royals video coordinator feels part of the team.
By Matt Fulks/Gameday

Mark Topping didn’t have the same zeal for baseball. Many die-hard fans didn’t after the 1994 strike. Sure, having grown up in nearby Anaheim, he’d been a huge Los Angeles Dodgers fan, even attending Orel Hershiser’s three-hit shutout during the 1988 World Series.

But baseball wasn’t the same for Topping, a news and sports photojournalist by trade. That is, until he became the Royals’ video coordinator in 2003. Read more…

6/9/2006
A Swing of Beauty: The sweet stroke of the Cards’ Albert Pujols has put him on a home run tear and made him the game’s best hitter
By Daniel G. Habib/Sports Illustrated

“He has the ability to repeat his swing over and over and over, which leads to him being very consistent,” says Chad Blair, the Cardinals’ video coordinator, who has taped and charted every pitch of every one of Pujols’s major league at bats. “The adjustments he makes are tiny, minute. To take that approach for 700 at bats, to have his swing that fine-tuned, is amazing.” Blair laughs and adds, “That, coupled with a burning desire to be the baddest man on the planet swinging a bat for a living. Read more..

05/17/2006
The video tells the story: Tribe’s two-man staff helps players, coaches scout.
By Joseph Gartrell/Special to MLB.com

CLEVELAND — Shortly after Indians fans watch Travis Hafner’s at-bats on television, Hafner watches them, too.

“I always watch all of my at-bats to look for mechanical things,” Hafner said, “to see if the pitches were the location that I thought they were.”

And Hafner, the Indians designated hitter, is able to do that watching because of Bob Chester and Frank Velotta. Read more…

5/5/2005
Notes: Sweeney shines brightest
By Dick Kaegel / MLB.com

“I’ve been working hard with Pent and I’ve actually had a lot of help from Mark Topping, our video coordinator,” Sweeney said. “He put together all my home runs since 1996 and he played it on his DVD for me. Read more. . .

5/1/2005
‘Three Nights in August’: Field of Doubts
By John Grisham/New York Times

Across the hall is the video room, home of Chad Blair, also known as the ”Secret Weapon.” Blair is the team’s video coordinator, which means he’s in charge of the computerized editing system that gathers cable and satellite feeds from every major-league game. He collects, catalogs, computerizes every pitch delivered in the season, and somehow organizes it all so that when Albert Pujols has a bad at-bat, a rarity, he can sprint from the dugout, through the tunnel, into the video room, and Blair can show him exactly what went wrong. Read more…

9/4/2004
An Artist Who Makes the Field His Canvas
By Lee Jenkins/New York Times

As Suzuki stands in the batter’s box, he looks at where the infielders are playing him and often concentrates on a target, usually up the middle or between third base and shortstop. He gauges how hard he will have to hit the ball for it to reach the hole.

If the ball ends up even a few feet away from his desired location, Suzuki will later charge into the video room between the dugout and the clubhouse. There, he sits with Carl Hamilton, the Mariners’ video coordinator, and decides whether he needs to add or subtract pace. “This wasn’t part of my game when I started,” Suzuki said. “Along the way, I just picked it up.” Read more..

4/10/2003
Agent wants some credit for Rodriguez renaissance.
By South Florida Sun-Sentinel (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service

“We went back and retraced all his steps about his drills,” Boras said last week in San Francisco, where he was attending the Marlins-Giants division series. “We went out and did his footwork with catching and throwing, ball blocking. We went through all those patterns and made him a tape of his history as a hitter. He’s required to go in and watch that tape before games so he can see himself execute.”

Not that Marlins video coordinator Cullen McRae doesn’t do that already. Read more…