The Ultimate Guide to Baselines and Benchmarking with Rapsodo

Data isn't optional when it comes to player development. It's essential.

Whether you're working with youth athletes, high school standouts, or college players & pros, understanding where an individual starts their journey is the foundation to progress.

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about baselines and how to successfully apply them to an athlete's training.

What a Baseline Really Is
Why Benchmarking is Critical to Player Growth
How to Build a Baseline for Hitters & Pitchers
Glossary of Must-Know Rapsodo Data
Age-Based Averages for Context
What To Do With Baselines
How to Turn Baselines into Personalized Plans

Let's dive in.

What's a Baseline and Why's It Matter?

A baseline is a snapshot of performance at a given moment, ideally often at the start of a season, training cycle, or return from injury. It answers the question:

"Where does this athlete's performance stand at the current moment?"

Without being able to answer this question, progress becomes subjective and ambiguous. Coaches are left to guess whether a swing or a pitch are better or different. Baselines turn that guesswork into clarity for everyone involved.

Benchmarking is how we compare that baseline to previous performances, age-group norms, or target outcomes. Development is not a one-size fits all approach. Benchmarks help define what “good” means for an individual athlete in their specific role.

Baselines ---> Where You Are
Benchmarks ---> Where You Want To Go

Combined together, baselines and benchmarks are the backbone of meaningful player development.

The Analytics Revolution in Baseball

Baseball has seen a dramatic shift from subjective scouting and box scores to a true science of performance analytics. Modern tools track not just outcomes, but also the underlying mechanics and physics driving those outcomes.

Rapsodo's industry-leading ball-flight technology lets coaches capture this data in practice and game-like environments to create objective records that inform coaching decisions rather than relying on a gut feeling.

Building a Baseline for Hitters

Step 1: Standardize Data Collection

To make baselines meaningful, data must be consistent and reliable:

Capture multiple rounds of hits with high intent
Use the same equipment & environment (ball type, bat, indoor/outdoor, etc.)
Ensure true effort in each rep for the hitter

This consistency reduces noise and helps isolate real ability from day-to-day variation.

Step 2: Choose the Right Metrics

Not all numbers are created equal. At minimum, a hitting baseline should include:

Exit Velocity
Launch Angle
Spin (Direction and Rate)

These metrics combined represent the Power Matrix, an essential equation for successful hitting. The Power Matrix reveals how contact is made, not just what happens after contact (hit outcome).

Step 3: Build a Swing Profile

A baseline isn't just one number. Rapsodo uses that data to create a swing profile once steps 1 and 2 are complete. A swing profile is a picture of an athlete's strengths and weaknesses. Knowing both averages and ranges help coaches understand and identify patters instead of isolated spikes and outliers.

For example:

A hitter with a high exit velocity but inconsistent launch angles needs a different emphasis than a player with an average exit velocity and ideal launch angle.
Tracking patters over time turns a snapshot into a story that drives meaningful adjustments.

Building a Baseline for Pitchers

Step 1: Establish Controlled Pitches

Just like hitting, pitching baselines work best when collect in consistent settings:

Know the pitch mix for each assessment
Keep rest periods and intent constant
Use the same mound and catcher setup

This makes comparisons valid from session to session.

Step 2: Core Pitching Metrics

Key data points for pitchers include:

Velocity (overall and by pitch type)
Spin Rate & Spin Efficiency
Movement Profiles (horizontal & vertical break)
Release Point & Extension
Command/Location Variability

This combination of metrics tells you not just how hard a pitcher throws, but how repeatable and effective their pitches are, which is essential for developing a pitch arsenal.

Data Dictionary: Metrics Every Coach & Athlete Should Know

As you start the baseline process, it's helpful to know what data points Rapsodo technology measures and what those terms mean.

Here is a list of terms you'll encounter when setting a baseline or benchmarking performance:

Hitting

Metric	Definition
Exit Velocity	Speed a given ball is hit as it leaves the bat, measured in MPH
Launch Angle	Vertical angle measured in degrees of the ball as it leaves the bat, measured in degrees
Distance	How far the ball landed after a hit, measured in feet
Exit Direction	Horizontal angle the ball is traveling after contact, measured in degrees
Total Spin	Spin rate of the ball after contact, measured in RPMs
Spin Direction	Axis on which the ball spins after contact, measured like the face of a clock
Inbound Pitch	Speed of the incoming pitch for a hitter

Pitching

Metric	Definition
Velocity	Release speed of the ball as it leaves a pitcher’s hand
Total Spin	Spin rate of the ball, measured by RPMs
True Spin Rate	Overall RPMs a baseball spins in the air, combining backspin, topspin, sidespin, and gryo spin, indicating the general speed of rotation and influencing pitch movement
Spin Direction	The direction the seams are traveling as the pitcher releases the ball, read as where the hour hand on a clock is pointing for the given time listed
Gyro Degree	How well a pitcher stays behind the ball at release, measured on a radial scale from 0-90 degrees
Spin Efficiency	True Spin divided by Total Spin, percentage of raw spin that directly impacts the spin-related movement of a pitch
Horizontal Break	Horizontal movement of a pitch, measured from the center of home plate
Vertical Break	Vertical movement of a pitch, measured at the height the ball crosses home plate
Horizontal & Vertical Seam-Shifted Wake Break	How much of the total break of a pitch that is due to the Seam-Shifted Wake Effect, which is directly tied to the seam orientation of a pitch
Seam Orientation	Position of the seams about the spin axis at the release of the pitch
Release Extension	How far from the rubber the pitch was released
Release Height	How far off the ground the pitch was released, measured in feet and inches
Release Side	How far from the center of the rubber the pitch was released

These definitions help coaches talk about performance in a shared language, cutting down guesswork and increasing effective training sessions.

Hitting + Pitching Averages by Age Guides

Knowing an athletes baseline is only half the battle. Understanding where an athlete should fall relative to their peers gives real meaning to a baseline.

Rapsodo has collected data from millions of hits and pitches to compile an Averages by Age Data Guide, offering a player development pathway for athletes at any level of the game.

These guides are designed to help coaches and athletes evaluate where they stand amongst their peers and what progression is reasonable at each stage of growth.

Why it Matters: Recognizing the expected range of a specific metric at various ages lets you know whether an athlete is a head of, on pace with, or behind typical development curves. That context is essential when interpreting baselines. A 15-year-old with the same exit velocity as an 18-year old could be a strong candidate for advanced training plans.

Download Hitting Averages by Age Data Guide
Download Pitching Averages by Age Data Guide

Putting Age Averages into Action

Here are some practical ways to integrate these benchmarks into you development process:

Set Realistic Goals - what does success look like?
Identify Areas of Weaknesses - which metrics need improvement?
Create a Plan - drills, strength work, and mechanical cues guided by data
Track Progress Over Time - adjust benchmarks as improvement occurs

These guides show how baseline data feeds directly into customized plans that evolved through a season.

What To Do With Baselines at Season's End

At the end of a season, here are a few action items to put a bow on your baseline process:

Compare Baselines Over Time - See what areas improved, what stayed the same, and what regressed. Most importantly, identify WHY these changes happened. Document the trends to avoid retaining guesswork.

Adjust Offseason Goals - Some players may need strength emphasis while others need mechanics or repeatability work. Identify these areas for improvement and incorporate these actions into an offseason plan.

Re-Establish New Baselines - Use offseason testing to set a NEW baseline that reflects gains and resets goals for the next cycle.

Integrate the offseason goals into an offseason plan for intentional work rather than random practice sessions.

Final Thoughts

Using baselines and benchmarks with Rapsodo data turns baseball from an art of intuition into a science of improvement. It doesn't remove coaching. It amplifies it.

By combining reliable data collection, clear definitions, age-appropriate context, and purposeful planning, your development programs become:

Objective vs Subjective
Repeatable vs Guesswork
Goal-Oriented vs Random

At Rapsodo, we believe all data should illuminate potential, not define limits. Baselines are your first step on that path. Ready to add Rapsodo technology to your program? Email sales@rapsodo.com or visit our website. For more resources and educational content make sure you subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow our social media platforms.