ESPN will use more of K-Zone 3-D and provide even more graphics on Sunday Night Baseball

Perhaps no sport depends more heavily on statistics than baseball. So ESPN is trying to provide viewers with graphics that will provide them with the latest information at any given time on Sunday Night Baseball. With newbies Matt Vasgersian and Alex Rodriguez joining holdover Jessica Mendoza this season, ESPN wants to bring some more graphics to the broadcast.

It also means that K-Zone 3-D, which was unveiled during last year’s American League Wild Card Game, will be used extensively this season. The graphic will show if a pitch is a strike by using a 3-D rendering of the strike zone.

Here’s how it looked last year during the Minnesota Twins-New York Yankees game:

The feature was used three times during the Wild Card Game. ESPN says it hopes to use it 12 to 15 times each week.

K-Zone 3-D won’t be the only addition to Sunday Night Baseball. ESPN will add the win-loss records and the number of games behind or ahead a team is in its division. This will appear next to the scorebug, but won’t appear at all times. However, ESPN feels that if you’re tuning in at a random moment, you will want to know this information, so it hopes that you will find it at the right time when you land on one of its MLB telecasts.

ESPN is also developing what it’s calling “catch probability.” What is “catch probability”? It shows the distance and how quickly an outfielder has to run to make a catch. ESPN is hoping to have it ready this season.

So fans will be seeing plenty of more bells and whistles on Sunday Night Baseball. ESPN hopes that along with Vasgersian, A-Rod and Mendoza, its Sunday Night Baseball telecast will be an entertaining presentation.

[Sports Business Journal]