What Pelotero actually does for our players

Our program has one job: make every player better. But better is not a feeling. It is measurable, and it is trackable, if you have the right tools.

That is why we brought in Pelotero — a Player Intelligence platform that combines video, sensor data, game data and AI to build a development plan for each individual player.

Who built it

Pelotero was founded by Chris Colabello, a former Minnesota Twins and Toronto Blue Jays hitter, and Bobby Tewksbary, the hitting coach who worked with Colabello and with 2015 AL MVP Josh Donaldson.

They built it to close what they call the Performance Potential Gap — the distance between how a player performs today and what they are actually capable of.

It does not replace coaching. It handles the part of coaching that is impossible to do by hand for 84 players: watch every swing, find the pattern, and write a plan for each one.

Why it matters here

Small improvements decide games at this level. Better pitching, tougher competition, higher stakes every weekend. Generic training does not survive that, because every player is failing for a different reason.

Pelotero lets us understand how a specific player moves, and then hand them a route from where they are to where they want to be.

The four inputs

1. AI video analysis

Slow-motion swing video shot on a phone. The AI identifies swing positions and phases, finds mechanical inefficiencies, and tracks head and hip movement, swing direction, shoulder tilt, vertical hand movement and attack angle. It compares swings over time.

No motion capture rig required. We upload phone video and within seconds it has standardised the data into a profile.

2. HitTrax batted ball data

Our HitTrax feeds exit velocity, launch angle, projected distance, spray charts, hard-hit percentage and line drive rate straight into each profile.

This is where mechanics meet results. A player can score well on video and still be producing ground balls and pop-ups in the cage. Pelotero spots that disconnect and adjusts the plan.

3. Diamond Kinetics bat sensor

Bat speed at impact, time to contact, attack angle, rotation acceleration, peak hand speed, impact momentum and applied power.

Where the video score evaluates what the AI sees, the sensor confirms it with a number. The two together are more useful than either alone.

4. The player’s own game data

Using Plate Intelligence in the app, players log their own at-bats and evaluate pitch recognition, swing decisions, timing, contact quality and situation.

This is the input I care most about, and it is the one that requires something from the player.

• Self-awareness. They learn to evaluate an at-bat honestly, and to understand how they made an out rather than just that they did.
• Accountability. Hard to hide from numbers you entered yourself.
• Connection. They see how the work in the building shows up on Saturday.

As Pelotero co-founder Bobby Tewksbary puts it: “If a player wants to be an elite hitter, their highest priority should be to not make outs. The greatest hitters of all time were obsessed with avoiding outs.”

Colabello makes the other half of the point — the process of logging pitches is itself a teacher.

How the plan gets built

1. Clean and standardise all four inputs into one profile.
2. Run the AI to answer the real questions: can this player recognise pitch types, do they have zone awareness, are they on time, are they squaring it up, and which mechanical issue is limiting the output.
3. Generate a personalised plan, pulled from thousands of drills, aimed at that player’s actual problem.
4. Progress it. Day after day, month after month.

What it looks like in practice

Three illustrative cases, built from the kinds of patterns the platform surfaces:

The pop-up problem

Video shows excessive upper body rotation early in the swing and a weak swing plane score. The bat sensor confirms a steep attack angle. HitTrax shows an average launch angle of 35 degrees. The player’s own log is full of weak fly balls. Pelotero builds four weeks of swing plane work with front hip stability drills, and reassesses by video.

The late timing issue

Video shows delayed hip rotation and late bat entry, with body mechanics flagged. The sensor puts time to contact at 0.18 seconds against an age-appropriate 0.15. Exit velo is fine when contact happens, but consistency is not. The player logs being late on fastballs in big situations. The plan targets rotational sequence with a measurable goal of 0.15, plus pitch recognition work.

The pull-side-only hitter

Early shoulder tilt limits the opposite field, and swing direction scores low. Bat speed is good but direction is not. The spray chart is 80% pull side. The player logs struggling when pitched away. The plan is zone-specific work with a measurable spray chart target.

What this means for you

Players

• No guessing. The score tells you what is working mechanically and what is not.
• Your plan, not a generic one. Built from your data.
• Ownership. Logging your own at-bats makes you a participant rather than a recipient.
• Homework that works. We ask players to do something baseball five or six days a week. This tells you exactly what.

Parents

• Transparency. You see the whole profile — the score, the strengths, the gaps, the plan.
• An answer to the real question. Instead of wondering whether your kid is good enough, you get an objective benchmark and a route forward.
• Skills that outlast baseball. Self-evaluation, accountability and reading your own data.

Our staff

• Time back. Hours of manual video review become minutes, and that time goes into coaching.
• Consistency. Every player gets the assessment, not only the ones taking the most private lessons.
• Scale. With 84 players across seven teams, individualised development is not possible by hand. This makes it possible.

How it runs across a season

Offseason, November to March

An initial assessment sets the baseline score. Players work their plans in the building on HitTrax and the bat sensor. Monthly reassessment updates the score. At-home drills keep it moving between practices.

Preseason, March to April

Players start logging games through Plate Intelligence. The platform correlates what improved in the building with what is showing up in games, and the plans adjust accordingly.

Season, April to July

All four inputs running. Players log at-bats after games. Patterns surface — trouble with breaking balls, timing under pressure — and programs adjust mid-season rather than next winter.

The bottom line

This is not about replacing the human part of coaching. It is about giving our staff the information to do the individualised version of it, for every player, rather than the few who happen to get the most attention.

Every parent eventually asks the same two questions: how good is my kid, and how do we make them better. The honest answer used to be a coach’s impression. Now it starts with a video and a number, and the plan follows from there.