In this article I will break down the top teams and players that are affected the most by VMI and ADI today. Many of you might ask what is VMI and ADI is so below I have written a brief description of what they mean and how they affect baseball games:
Visual Memory Index aka VMI in baseball is used to track how players perform under different air density’s. The easiest way to explain this is that depending on the weather temperature, humidity, or air density the batters swing will be affected. You might ask yourself how is that possible? Have you ever tried to swing a bat in the winter compared to a humid summer day? It’s not the same and VMI tracks each batters muscle memory to various weather conditions. A batter’s muscle memory takes time to adjust to certain weather conditions. When taking VMI into effect I avoid teams or players with a number less than -5 which simply can be explained as they haven’t been hitting pitches with the type of movement that they will face on that day. As far as what’s good for teams or players, I try and target +5 or greater because they will be used to pitches with high movement and their Visual memory will be good.
Air Density Index aka ADI is very simple to explain. It’s a scale that goes 0-100 and is affected by three things (Elevation, temperature, and Humidity). The Air Density is important in baseball because it will let you know how much movement the baseball will have in that ballpark on that day. The higher the ADI the more movement on the pitch. Typical 60 is the number people use to decide if the pitcher’s movement will be good or bad. The lower an ADI is from 60 the less movement the pitchers ball will have and the higher it is from 60 will show the increase in the pitcher’s ball movement to the batter’s eye.
Air Density Report w/ Cuse
Todays Top Pitchers per VMI/ADI
Jeff Samardzija ($9,100-DK/$9,800-FD)- The Shark stands out to me tonight as one of the best matchups on the slate. The ADI is 69.17 for this game so the ball movement from the Shark should be great. The Padres show up as the worst team ranked for VMI today at -15.95 and after leaving Coors they will have a tough time adjusting to Shark’s four seem fastball. When you factor in San Diego’s strikeout upside I love the Shark tonight.
Alex Cobb ($7,900-DK/$8,100-FD)- Cobb looks like a play that I know many people won’t be on tonight but I had interest in him before writing this. If you read my “Hot or Not” article you will see why I like Cobb tonight. The Rangers have the second worst team VMI tonight at -6.49 and the ADI for this game is very good at 66.66 so I can also see Darvish benefitting from the weather of this game. When you factor the strikeout upside of the Rangers I think Cobb will have a great night at a very low ownership.
Andrew Moore ($5,300-DK/$6,700-FD)- Moore is an interesting pitcher for tonight and with so many other options I probably won’t use him but the ADI/VMI for him look very good tonight. The Yankees have a mediocre -3.51 VMI tonight and they haven’t been hitting so I’m all for trusting the numbers on Moore tonight. The ADI for the game is 66.94 which is the 2nd best on the slate so with that in mind with pitching in Safeco I think Moore will do pretty good if he can avoid the big homerun.
Top Teams to use for hitting per ADI/VMI
Pirates vs Rockies- the Pirates have the highest team VMI on the slate at +16.12 at Coors Field but the ADI for this game is 43.46 so both teams should benefit from the weather conditions today at Coors but I prefer the Pirates.
White Sox vs Royals- If you watched the game in KC last night you would of seen that the weather in KC is very hot and humid right now. This game ranks second in ADI for the best hitting conditions at 54.95 so the ball should be flying in KC tonight again and with many options to choose from both these teams will go unnoticed. The White Sox have a team VMI of +6.90 whereas the Royals are listed at +1.21 but I still like the Royals more in this matchup tonight.
Indians- The Indians have a team VMI of +6.89 so they could hit Estrada very well tonight
Athletics- The Athletics have a team VMI of +6.13 tonight vs a terrible Matz
Marlins vs Reds- This game interests me a little due to the ADI coming in at 58.38 and both teams having a decent VMI
