For a baseball player, getting recruited takes more than just talent.
To catch a scout’s attention, players often attend multiple showcases each year and join elite travel teams. At most of these tournaments, a player gets a few innings to make an impression, if a scout happens to be watching.
But one San Diego sports tech company aims to change that.
Known for their golf simulators and PGA partnership, Full Swing recently launched the Baseball KIT – a small device that measures Major League-level metrics, records video and automatically uploads performance to an athlete-owned profile.
Every swing is tracked, verified and ready to be shown to a scout or coach.
A Full Swing machine records stats during batting practice at Mission Hills High School in San Marcos. Today, tracking most of these statistics requires multiple sensors and radar systems, often integrated only in Major League stadiums. Full Swing has combined those radars and sensors into a single portable device that records these metrics that coaches and scouts look for. (Sandy Huffaker / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
“Instead of just knowing what they do during a game, we can see what they do at home. Does this guy just show up for tournaments, or is he actually grinding?” said Kyle Attl, director of strategic partnerships at Full Swing.
Attl walked into the batting cage at the Carlsbad headquarters to show the device in action after Full Swing announced a partnership with Marucci Sports, a baseball and softball equipment brand.
The former Washington Nationals MLB player swung the bat over 70 miles per hour, according to the device.
From fairways to ballparks
“What we found was that baseball is actually a lot less saturated with tech than golf, so there’s a bigger opportunity to bring what we’re good at into a space that really hasn’t had it yet,” said Evan El-Saden, vice president of innovation at Full Swing.
In 2021, private equity firm Bruin Capital bought the golf company. “They’ve supported us getting into new sports,” said El-Saden.
The Baseball KIT, which retails for $6,499, is the first portable launch monitor to measure bat speed without requiring a sensor on the bat. The KIT tracks key metrics like launch angle, spin rate and exit velocity.
Today, most of these statistics require multiple sensors and radar systems, often integrated only in Major League stadiums. Full Swing has combined those radars and sensors into a single portable device that records these metrics that coaches and scouts look for.
Executives at Full Swing say they want players at every level to have access to the technology, from mom-and-pop batting cages to minor league outfields.
Batting stats are displayed on a cellphone app fed from a Full Swing device. Players and coaches can create profiles that can track statistics and videos from every practice. (Sandy Huffaker / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Every swing counts
In the month since they launched the product, Full Swing has sent 40 KITs to batting cages and high school teams.
The first thing coaches ask for is video and stats, explained Robert Bafia, assistant coach for the Mission Hills High School baseball team, during a recent practice.
One of the varsity players cracked a fast ball to left field. The coaches looked at the KIT they recently purchased.
He swung at 62.7 miles per hour. The ball had an exit velocity of 77.8 miles per hour. At a 17.6 degree launch angle, the ball landed 198 feet away.
On Bafia’s phone, an instant replay appeared. “Look where your hand position was. Like your load wasn’t quite right,” he said.
Mission Hills is a young team. They don’t have any recruiting opportunities for the senior class, but a few younger players have a shot, said Griffin Teisher, head coach of the Mission Hills baseball team.
“We’re gonna track these guys for three years, and you see how much harder they’re swinging,” he said. And that’s what coaches look for — potential.
Between the ages of 17, when high school players are scouted, and 21, when they are being considered by the big leagues, “these players got room to grow,” said Bafia.
Mission Hills baseball coach Griffith Teisher and Robert Bafia look over stats from Full Swing that show up on a cellphone app. (Sandy Huffaker / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)
With this technology, coaches can track how much players have grown — and how fast — an important metric for scouts, he said.
After purchasing the device, Full Swing offers a tiered membership system where coaches and players can access video and better insights. The player Pro account costs $100 per year and includes video with long-term performance tracking. A coach account, for managing multiple players, costs $800 annually.
Their biggest competitor is TrackMan, which sells a portable device that uses dual radar systems and typically costs $14,000 to $25,000.
Integrating AI into America’s past time
Of Full Swing’s 300 employees, its largest team works to develop the software behind these devices.
As the device collects more data, Full Swing wants to integrate AI software that provides high-level insights to help players improve their game.
Because they’re capturing the same stats big leaguers see, “Full Swing can start to say, ‘your profile looks a lot like this type of hitter,’ and recommend who you should train like,” said Attl.
By recommending an MLB match, integration would tell players how to practice like the pros, to one day become one, Attl and El-Saden said.
A Full Swing device records Mission Hills’ Noah Litchfield during batting practice. (Sandy Huffaker / For The San Diego Union-Tribune)