MLB Postseason 2019: ESPN Brings Back Statcast AI Edition, Front Row Cam for AL Wild Card Game Rays-As game will also be preceded by Statcast AI Edition of Baseball Tonight By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor
Wednesday, October 2, 2019 - 3:01 pm
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Baseball fans will get a double dose of MLB Postseason action tonight, as ESPN will present dual telecasts of the AL Wildcard Game. For the second consecutive year, ESPN will present traditional coverage of the game, while ESPN2 will carry the Wild Card Statcast AI Edition alternative viewing experience. In addition, for the first time at the Wild Card Game, ESPN will broadcast a one-hour Statcast AI edition of Baseball Tonight on ESPN2.
Throw in the full arsenal of Sunday Night Baseball production elements - Front Row Cam, K-Zone 3D and Hit Tracker animations, in-ground microphones, and plenty of high-speed cameras - and tonight's Rays-A's showdown is shaping up to conclude ESPN's 2019 MLB campaign with a bang.
In this kind of game, every pitch means everything and we're always excited to be a part of that, says Phil Orlins, Senior Coordinating Producer for ESPN's MLB coverage. For these Statcast shows, our goal is to present the game without any compromise whatsoever. It will have the best of our primary ESPN coverage [along with] a few of its own cameras and replays, but nothing will be missed and nothing will seem smaller. It will be the best of big-time baseball coverage; we will not sacrifice even 1% of how the game is seen. We are just providing a different perspective for the hardcore fan.
Statcast AI Edition Back for Another Go-Round at Wild Card Game
The trio of play-by-play voice Jason Benetti and analysts Eduardo Perez and Mike Petriello will be back in the booth for the Statcast AI production, as has been the case in ESPN's previous Statcast AI Editions at last year's NL Wild Card Game and the past two Home Run Derbys. The production, which will operate out of its own dedicated mobile unit, features analytics-based commentary driven by extensive use of on-Statcast AI graphics, data, and information.
The Statcast AI Edition booth will feature a unique new background for the AL Wild Card show on ESPN2.
[The Statcast AI Edition] will look at the game from a completely different prism in terms of what we talk about, what angles we show, and what graphics and statistics we use, says Orlins. We're going to take a closer look at the matchups, pitch selection, the evolution of the game, the way the strike zone is called, and so on. And we will certainly use Statcast virtual graphics, K-Zone 3D, and Hit Tracker animations much more aggressively than we do anywhere else. We'll have the time, not just to show an animation of a launch angle on a home run, but also to talk about what that means and why it ended up being a home run.
The Statcast production will have four unilateral cameras (plus a booth camera) at its disposal: high-home, high-third, tight-center, and low-first.
They will use those cameras to enhance [the telecast] with their own shots and cutaways and things like that, says Orlins. Two of them - the high home and high third - are tied into the Statcast live virtual graphics system, which will provide things like in-field defensive shift graphics, outfield arm strength graphics, and steal-predicator probability.
After debuting at the Home Run Derby in July, ESPN is also rolling out a Statcast AI edition of Baseball Tonight on ESPN2 featuring Benetti, Perez, and Petriello prior to the game (beginning at 7 p.m. ET).
It's a chance for us to sit for an hour and talk about the key trends in this game on a more granular level, says Orlins. We can have some different types of guests on and really do a deep dive.
The traditional version of Baseball Tonight - featuring Karl Ravech, Mark Teixeira, and Tim Kurkjian - will also be live on the field at the Oakland Coliseum beginning at 7 p.m. ET.
Front Row Cam Quickly Becomes Standard on Big Games
ESPN's 21-camera complement is headlined by the Sports Emmy-winning Front Row Cam, which has become a staple of its Sunday Night Baseball coverage since its debut in 2017. Orlins estimates that the Front Row Cam - which has allowed ESPN to revive the low-home camera position that had largely disappeared in recent years due to premium ballpark seating - has been used in about 90% of this year's SNB productions.
The bigger the game is, the bigger [the role for] Front Row Cam, says Orlins. In an [elimination] game like this, it's crucial to have the ability to look right into the pitcher's eyes. If it's a game in mid-May with two teams under .500 then [Front Row Cam] a nice luxury. But when you get to the Postseason, it's absolutely essential. It's also a great view of the pitch and the spin of a pitch. I wouldn't want to do a one-game playoff without a low-home angle, so it's definitely one of the most important cameras we have out there.
In terms of high-speed cameras, the Front Row Cam joins four Sony HDC-4300's running at various frame rates and a Sony HDC-4800 running at 8x slo-mo at low first. ESPN's cache of cameras also includes three robos (mid home, front row, and the booth cam), two RF handhelds (one of which is a MoVI gimbal), a TVU bonded-cellular system (to capture off-the-field elements), 12 hard cameras, and a high-home lock off. ESPN will also repurpose two cameras from the Baseball Tonight pregame show to capture dugout reactions.
On the audio side, ESPN has buried eight mics in the field - two in front of the pitcher's mound, two behind home plate, four surrounding home plate - plus mics on all three bases and the umpire mic.
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MLB Postseason 2019: ESPN Brings Back Statcast AI Edition, Front Row Cam for AL Wild Card Game Rays-As game will also be preceded by Statcast AI Edition of Baseball Tonight By Jason Dachman, Chief Editor 
