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
Justin Verlander- This year we haven’t seen the Verlander that we remember but he has some decent games mixed in during the season including some gems vs. KC. Verlander has done very good against KC this year and that lines up good today with KC’s -7.86 VMI today. The pitching conditions in Detroit are a little above average for pitching and with the KC bats coming off the excruciating heat this weekend it should take them a game or two to adjust.
Francisco Liriano- Liriano will face the A’s tonight in some pitcher friendly dome conditions (2nd best ADI). The Athletics come in to today with a -3.90 VMI which is below average but not terrible, but when you factor in the dome conditions it looks great for Liriano tonight. Tune in tonight for the 5:30 PM EST Premium members only stream to see if he gets a good umpire which will lock me in to him tonight.
Gerrit Cole- Best ball park for pitchers and also the best ADI for pitchers on todays slate at 68.24. Cole has finally started pitching well again and what better then to face a terrible SF team that’s been striking out more than earlier in the year.
Top Teams to use for hitting per ADI/VMI
Only a few options today
- ATL vs ARI- The best hitting conditions on the slate tonight come courtesy of Chase Field. Many times in this section I recommend using either team but I’m in favor of the Diamondbacks in this spot for one reason. If you turned into the podcast last night you would have heard or seen the discussion about Knuckleballs in ballparks with elevation, humidity, and temperature. Dickeys knuckleball will struggle and I like ARI to crush it tonight. If you want some Braves bats to be contrarian I think its ok as conditions are great at Chase tonight.
- MIA vs TEX- I was really expecting this game to have a better ADI but it still comes in decent at 58.06, but what I do like is the Rangers +7.65 VMI which is the best on the slate tonight. If the Texas bats are going to go off it will be tonight against a below average pitcher. I do like some Marlins bats in tonight in Texas but it won’t be a full stack.
