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
Jeff Samardzija- Today Samardija will face a Pirates team that is still battling the effects of Coors Field. I will continue to target teams that leave Coors and come to play in SF. This difference in these two ball parks is dramatic and even on the back end of a 3 games series teams are still trying to get accustomed to it. The ADI is high for this game at 68.33 which is typical so if you want a nice DK2 today I like the Shark.
Gio Gonzalez- The ADI for this ball game is 64.47 but Milwaukee has a VMI of -1.94. I like to usually target teams with a VMI of -5 but with the combination of the ADI and VMI I like Gio in this game compared to most on the slate for pitching. I would guess Gio will be a popular Cash play today so take that into consideration today
Michael Fiers- Fiers is in a GREAT spot today looking at the ADI/VMI numbers. The Phillies have a VMI of -2.61 and the conditions today at the ballpark have a ADI of 65.89 so when you factor those in with the Phillies strikeout rate I love him today in this spot.
Top Teams to use for hitting per ADI/VMI
- Houston Astros- You might ask why Houston tonight, because the ADI is more on the high side at +65.89 and they have a VMI of -3.07. I really haven’t had a chance to explain and break it down for you in the first week of this article but to make it simple some pitchers do worse in these conditions. Pitchers that throw a lot of Sinkers and two-seam fastballs tend to do worse in Low VMI conditions because the movement of these pitches are not going up as much as a four-seam fastball hence not effecting the batters VMI as much. Look for the Astros to put up some runs today
- Chicago Cubs- Unfortunately the Cubs will be chalky tonight going up against Shields but for good reason. The ADI for this game is a little below average at 59.80 but its still good enough for me when you consider the Cubs VMI of +1.68. Shields throws a lot of cutters and from my research I did today it will not move much tonight and the Cubs VMI indicates that they should crush it tonight. Chalk or not give me some Cubs tonight.
- Colorado Rockies- This is a perfect spot for the Rockies to get back on track tonight. Martinez is a pitcher that throws a lot of two-seam fastballs so like we mentioned earlier Colorado having a VMI of -3.60 won’t matter much today, if anything it suits them better. Today should be a nice warm day in St. Louis with a ADI of 58.36 so I expect the ball to carry well.
