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.
Air Density Report w/ Cuse
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.
Todays Top Pitchers per VMI/ADI
Jameson Taillon- Tonight Tailon gets a prime matchup against the Giants who we know have struggled all year to hit. Like we mentioned yesterday this ballpark is a prime spot for pitchers and the ADI for this game is the highest on the slate at 69.11 so the ball should have some great movement tonight. Tailon carries a heavy price tag tonight on Draftkings so that’s my only concern with rostering him tonight on Draftkings.
Madison Bumgarner- Same as above, with the addition of the Pirates VMI of -15.60 but they were high last night also but still scored double digits. The big difference tonight will be that they will not be facing Matt Cain. Bumgarner has yet to pitch well since coming back so please keep that in mind tonight but the VMI/ADI lines up great for Bumgarner
Jordan Montgomery- Montgomery is in a prime spot tonight and I don’t think he will get a lot of attention. Cincinnati has a VMI of -6.80 and the ADI for this game is 66.56 so I really think when you factor in the struggles of the Reds lately that Montgomery will come through tonight. Montgomery’s home splits have been pretty decent so I definitely have some interest in Montgomery tonight.
Sonny Gray and Jacob Faria- Dome ballparks this time of year are always a good spot for pitchers because of the air conditions in the dome. Most domes will always rate in the top 5 of ADI’s during the summer so I like both these pitchers tonight. These two games have a ADI of over 65 so look at both these guys in all formats tonight. If you’re looking to punt some pitchers I wouldn’t mind rostering the pitchers they are going up against either.
Top Teams to use for hitting per ADI/VMI
Minimal options today:
- Mia vs Texas- this is the only game that has a below average ADI on the slate tonight so if I had to pick a game to interest me it would be this game. Even though the conditions are great the teams still need to perform and the Rangers or Marlins haven’t of late so we need to consider that tonight. Ownership will be low after the Rangers burned people last night so definitely consider that if you have interest in them tonight.
