Kyle Boddy Entrepreneur, Hacker, Biomechanics Researcher, Baseball Lover.

Portfolio

Here are some of the projects I have worked on in the past. Consulting work sold to businesses is typically not listed here, but private references are available upon request.

I also have a GitHub profile.

Current Projects Under Development

• Developing a baseball pitcher vs. batter model (2 person team project)
  • Mined all publicly-available information on platoon splits and used odds ratio analysis to control for different components and how they are affected by platooning
  • Controlled for platoon biases - must account for the fact that differing skill levels of pitchers and hitters will face different distributions of hitters and pitchers, respectively
  • Properly regressing components to the league mean based on sample sizes
  • Primary Concepts: PHP, MySQL, Regression

Web Programming: Baseball Projects

Advanced Injury Database

Advanced Injury Database

The Advanced Injury Database is a PHP/CodeIgniter/MySQL web application developed to provide baseball fans with a single place to search for historical injuries to baseball players and to examine PITCHf/x data for pitchers. The MySQL databases driving the application contain approximately 3 million rows and were assembled through custom parser scripts written in PHP and Perl.

The goal of this database is to run regression analyses on the data to see if we can correlate some PITCHf/x variables with pitcher injuries. With the aid of Max Marchi from The Hardball Times, I've implemented release point corrections for PITCHf/x data dating from 2007-2010 and will have forward-going corrections and PITCHf/x data.

A RESTful interface was developed for the Advanced Injury Database. I detailed how to access this service (including example code).

ML Splits

ML Splits

ML Splits is a PHP/CodeIgniter/MySQL/jQuery web application developed using Jeff Sackmann's open source minorleaguesplits.com data. ML Splits was created to give the data a home on the web with an interactive user interface and easy-to-understand charts/graphs. Original derivations of Major League Equivalencies are underway, and the existing MLEs were ported to pitching categories using translations derived by overlapping/grouped data.

Future improvements and features will include forward-looking data; I plan to collect minor league box score data for the 2011 season. Projections may be developed as a result of collecting and analyzing this data, but the primary focus is to publish and improve Major League Equivalencies for minor league players.

Scripts

GeoCode

A simple PHP script that does mass geocoding for addresses stored in a MySQL database. Has simple address checking and is suitable for repeated use with cron as it geolocates addresses that have no coordinates in the table. Improvements that can be made: Geolocate addresses that have been changed (timestamp check), better error handling.

GitHub link for GeoCode.

Videography

Brandon Morrow (click for animated version)

Professional Pitching Database

I have game footage of over 120 professional pitchers in my database for non-profit research purposes. These files are used to analyze the professional pitcher's mechanics (basic concepts) and compare them to injury databases to see if correlations could be found between simple mechanical traits, injuries, and overall performance.

Research is ongoing.

High-Speed Video Baseball Scouting

Using our portable high-speed cameras from Driveline Baseball, I have taken high-speed film from amateur pitchers in the Pacific Northwest. Static planar kinematics can be calculated with a minimal amount of setup time; these reports can be filed in scouting reports to help assess injury risk and performance of an amateur pitcher.

Videos are compressed and stored in a database for later retrieval. The example above is a comparison between two pitchers synchronized to release point.

Entrepreneurship

Driveline Baseball

Driveline Baseball

Driveline Baseball is Seattle-based corporation that specializes in training the elite baseball athlete. We sublease space out of the North Seattle Batting Cages, where we train baseball athletes of all ages, ranging from 9 years old to 28 years old. We have worked with professional baseball prospects, college athletes, and dedicated amateur athletes.

Our niche that separates us from the rest of other training organizations is our utilization of multiple high-speed cameras to digitize a three-dimensional model of a baseball pitcher; from this model, we can provide the kinematics and kinetics of the pitching motion of the athlete and make suggestions on how to increase release velocity and mitigate the potential for future arm injuries. We are the only biomechanics lab that specializes in baseball pitching in the Pacific Northwest and the only privately-owned baseball-specific biomechanics lab in the United States.

Driveline Biomechanics Research

Driveline Biomechanics Research

The research-dedicated arm of Driveline Baseball, Driveline Biomechanics Research conducts biomechanical research projects primarily related to youth baseball pitching. Our major goal is to help reduce the number of injuries in youth pitchers by helping to identify kinematic and kinetic parameters that correlate with arm-related injuries and to provide modern training to help prepare the shoulder and arm to withstand the great stresses inherent in the overhead throwing motion.

Driveline Biomechanics Research is based out of Seattle, WA in the same facility as Driveline Baseball. Our non-profit license is pending.

Open Source Projects

Open Biomechanics Project

Open Biomechanics Project

The Open Biomechanics Project will detail how non-technical users can film subjects using standard video cameras and basic control objects (yardsticks, baseball bats) to calculate static two-dimensional (planar) kinematics of movement.

I estimate this project will reach the beta launch phase in June 2011.

Selected Articles

Strasburg, The Inverted W, and Pitching Mechanics (Driveline Baseball, September 2010): A discussion of Stephen Strasburg's pitching mechanics, what the Inverted W is, and a review of the relevant research on elbow valgus/shoulder stress as a result of specific mechanical traits of a pitcher's delivery.

Elbow Injuries and What Causes Them (Driveline Baseball, August 2010): A brief overview of pitching mechanics, elbow valgus, and how they relate to UCL tearing and rupture. Cursory review of the relevant research of peak humeral torques (Sabick et al) and the relationship between throwing mechanics and elbow valgus (Werner et al).

Pitching mechanics, the uncertainty of data, and fear (The Hardball Times, February 2011): Defining the problems of accurately collecting data regarding pitching mechanics and overcoming the fear of unorthodoxy.

Kinematic Analysis: Wrist to Elbow Relationship (Driveline Baseball, January 2010): An introductory article detailing the concepts of collecting basic planar kinematic data from high-speed cameras.