Minneapolis – The Minnesota Twins’ all-players broadcast highlighted many behind-the-scenes features that go into a game for the players. One of the behind-the-scenes features highlighted was the Trajekt machine in the batting cage.
As Justin Morneau and Trevor Plouffe demonstrated in their segment, Trajekt can project a hologram of any pitcher in the league and have it throw any of their pitches. Plouffe showcased his skills against his former teammate and current Chicago Cubs reliever Caleb Thielbar, providing an example for the broadcast and giving the fans a good chuckle.
However, the retired Twins fan favorites were not the only ones to mess around with the Trajekt. During their rain delay that kicked off their last road trip in Detroit, relievers Danny Coulombe, Bailey Ober, and Cole Sands decided to kill some time during the delay checking out how they and some of their teammates looked via Trajekt.
“I mean, it’s pretty nuts,” said Sands. “I think one thing I noticed was the release point of the few guys that I saw. But yeah, there’s a lot of different factors that we don’t see as pitchers and makes it really, really tough to cover these release points and different pitches, too.”
Sands and Ober didn’t see themselves on the Trajekt machine, but Coulombe did. The other pitchers they decided to test out were Felix Bautista and teammate Pablo López. Given the trio has a collective four plate appearances in the majors combined, it undoubtedly was a newer experience for them to step into the cage and take things in without needing to take a swing.
“It just gives you a perspective on hard hitting is,” said Coulombe. “You know, they’re throwing pitches right down the middle, and you’re like, ‘There’s no way I can hit that.’ Obviously, these guys are the best hitters in the world; they’re the best at what they do, but it’s still an extremely difficult thing that just puts that in perspective for sure.”
Taking things from the hitters’ perspective did give Sands an entirely newfound respect for what his batterymates can do at the plate every night. It’s one thing to be taking things standing behind him in a spring training bullpen session. Stepping into the batter’s box in a batting cage with a machine throwing his fastball at game speed was something else.
“Pretty crazy to see the different like, Bautista is way up from a high release and like a very steep angle,” said Sands. “Pablo is kind of behind a right-handed hitter; it looked like. So it’s just a lot to cover, and yeah, these hitters are, they make it look very easy when doing that.”
Coulombe got to test out his own Trajekt projection in the cage. For him, it was like looking into a mirror, while the mirror throws back at him. But it also served as an effective way to see how his arm slot and release point on pitches affect hitters.
“My arm slot, essentially, the ball came right out of my head, and so it’s like, ‘Okay, that’s pretty unique,’” Coulombe said. “It explains a little bit about some of the swings I get, but yeah, I think it’s just really good to give you confidence that hitting is really difficult, and I think that sometimes we give hitters too much credit.”
Trajekt is also a testament to how much technology has evolved. It allows players to break down and practice against their opponents or view their own performance from a different perspective.
Even just a decade ago, the best way for players to get a remotely close experience was firing up video games like MLB The Show or MLB 2K. Now, they can get something beyond a video game experience at almost every ballpark in the league to get an edge for themselves against their opponents.
“MLB the Show can’t perfectly emulate your delivery,” said Coulombe, “Just being able to step in the box and see yourself on the screen and see your delivery was a pretty unique thing.”
“It’s nuts,” echoed Sands. “Like you said, MLB The Show, guys were trying to see pitches through that, and I still think that can maybe help a lot. Especially if you’re facing a guy and you want to see his repertoire and stuff like that.”
The Twins didn’t allow Coulombe and Sands to take some swings against the Trajekt machine. Still, they’re both open to trying their chances against hitting off themselves someday, just to have some idea of the challenges they give hitters.
“I think when you’re younger, the dream is to be able to hit off yourself and see, okay, what’s it like, but now we can actually make that a reality,” Coulombe said. “So it’s really cool.”
“Oh, absolutely. I’d love to try,” said Sands. “I don’t think it would go very well, but I think it would be fun to try.”
