Seth Daniels, Rapsodo sales manager, says the Mizuno partnership gives credibility to the hitting monitor system and offers players across the country exposure to data. A differentiator for Rapsodo, he says, is the combination of a high level of accuracy in the data at an affordable rate. “This enables us to introduce this technology and tool across all levels of baseball,” he says.

And while the Rapsodo-Mizuno partnership represents the newest movement in Rapsodo, that doesn’t mark the start of Rapsodo’s baseball experience. Having started in the golf industry as a way to use computer vision and machine learning so PGA Tour golfers can optimize launch conditions, Rapsodo first moved into baseball as a pitching tool.

With the cooperation of Driveline Baseball, the first data-driven baseball training facility in the country, located near Seattle, Rapsodo made the transition from golf to baseball as a pitching monitor. Kyle Boddy, director of R&D and founder of Driveline, was on the forefront of Rapsodo product testing and verification. From there it moved into colleges.

“There is a little bit of a battle between the art and science of baseball and in my personal opinion you need to have a combination of both,” Vanderbilt pitching coach Scott Brown says on the benefits of Rapsodo. “If you want to continue to grow in the game you have to come over the science side a little bit.”

Tim Newcomb covers gear and business for Baseball America. Follow him on Twitter at @tdnewcomb.