Fox Trax

The Fox Trax branding is annoying me. Let me count the ways.

1. Just spell Trax the correct way, misspelling it does not make the product unique. Stupid.
2. Joe Buck spins it like Fox is revolutionary for having this information available, only its been around for years now. Knock it off.
3. They randomly show the pitch stats and even the strike zone box. Don't tease me with it, show it to me on every play, or don't show it to me at all. I like the data, I get used to seeing the data, and it really annoys me when I can't see the data! (I will sometimes watch the Pads game and MLB Gamecast at the same time. It is hugely addicting to see the flight, speed and location of the pitch.)
4. Use the strike zone like TBS did; just stick it in the HUGE empty space behind the right handed batter. That is completely wasted space on the HD broadcast, put that space to use.
5. You don't have to talk to the graphic every time its on the screen. We viewers do not need to be told what it says, we can read.
6. If we can't see it for every pitch, at the very least we need to see it on every close pitch. Show the replay with the strikezone graphic EVERY time.
7. The speed at the plate is COMPLETELY useless! Its meaningless. If the ball gets to the plate, you've MISSED it already! What is it supposed to convey? The ball slows down as it approaches the plate. Duh, ya think? Are we supposed to think, oh, they don't throw that hard? That's ludicrous. This stat is not relative to anything. Maybe if we know that one pitcher had less velocity loss than others, that would be interesting information. But as of now, it tells you less than nothing. Why even show it?

I do like one piece of the Fox Trak: the time the batter has to make a decision. 4 tenths of a second, sometimes less. Even Cliff Lee's change up didn't make it to 5 tenths of a second. Just amazing. To steal that PGA slogan, these guys are good!