Ballplayers have more info on hand than ever. But can too much be a bad thing?

Let’s say you’re a big-league hitter and you have a game tonight. You’ll probably face the other team’s starting pitcher two or three times and then see one or two relievers in your later at-bats.

There are 12 possible hitting counts you might find yourself in, and if you want that information, you can find out what pitch you’re most likely to see from each pitcher in each of those counts.

But keep in mind that starting pitchers often change the way they pitch with each additional trip through the order. And most pitchers change the way they pitch with a runner in scoring position.

Pitchers might also change their delivery with a runner on base, and some of them have trouble throwing certain pitches for a strike out of a slide-step.

Now add in the fact that pitchers also change as the season goes along. Do you want to know what the pitcher has done in certain counts over his career, over this season or over his past few appearances?

If you’re starting to think that’s a lot of information to cram inside your head, remember: We haven’t even started on what your pitchers plan to throw to the other team’s hitters and where you need to be standing when they throw it.

Ballplayers have access to more information than ever ... and sometimes it’s too much information.

Think too much and you’ll be slow to react to what’s right in front of you. That’s why you sometimes see a hitter take strike three right down the middle of the plate; he was thinking it would be a different pitch and couldn’t pull the trigger when he got something unexpected.

So how do big-league teams prevent information overload?

Coaches as filter

Now let’s say you’re a big-league first base coach (sorry about the demotion).

You came in early, studied the numbers, read the scouting reports and know that the pitcher on the mound will throw a slider to a right-handed hitter over 80 percent of the time in a 1-1 count … unless the pitcher got into that 1-1 count by throwing two sliders.

The pitcher probably won’t want to throw three sliders in a row, so now the odds are the 1-1 pitch will be a fastball.

A runner on first base doesn’t need to know how you decided what pitch is coming next. He just needs you to lean over and tell him whether it’s a good time to run or a good time to stay put.

Coaches simplify the game for players by sifting through the available information and telling the players what they need to know, when they need to know it.

This is why you see players on the field glancing into the dugout; coaches are signaling defensive positioning, calling pickoffs and slide-steps or letting the hitter know what the next pitch is likely to be.

But if a player lets his coach do all the work for him, the player isn’t learning anything. Get traded to another team and play for a coach who isn’t as conscientious or accommodating and the player might have a hard time producing at the same level.

Rookies might need more help, but smart players who want to become veteran players keep their own notes and figure out what information works best for them.

Simplify the game

Mark Topping, the Royals’ video coordinator, provides players and coaches with whatever video they request. But Topping says it’s better for a player to watch video with a purpose. Players shouldn’t try to watch everything; they should figure out what matters to them and look for that.

Take Royals second baseman Whit Merrifield.

Merrifield wants to know what the pitcher tends to throw on his first pitch, what the pitcher tends to throw on his first pitch with a runner in scoring position, and what the pitcher throws when he has two strikes on a hitter.

First baseman Ryan O’Hearn just got to the big leagues, so he wants to see each type of pitch a pitcher throws. Then — like Merrifield — he wants to know what the pitcher throws on his first pitch and first pitch with a runner in scoring position. O’Hearn also wants to know what pitch a left-handed hitter is likely to see in a two-strike count.

Topping provides players video showing five examples of each type of pitch a pitcher throws. So a hitter might see video of five fastballs, five sliders, five curves and then five changeups.

In the old days, a pitcher might be warming up and hitters would be asking if anyone had faced this guy in the minors. If so, what did he throw? Now hitters never have to go to the plate uninformed. They’ve seen the pitcher’s arm angle, the movement on his pitches and what he tends to throw in certain situations — all via video.

So why doesn’t all this information allow hitters to dominate pitchers? Pitchers now have the same kind of information on the hitters. Pitchers know who tends to swing at the first pitch, what pitch they like to hit and where they like that pitch to be located.

Information you can use

With so much information available, smart players and coaches avoid clogging their brains with information that doesn’t help them during a game.

When the Royals play the Detroit Tigers, for instance, it’s not very helpful to know how Jose Iglesias ranks in “Runs from Positional Scarcity” or “Defensive Wins Above Replacement.”

But knowing Iglesias has a 70 arm is helpful.

Baseball tools are rated from 20 to 80, with 20 being the worst, 80 being the best and 50 being major-league average. That 70 rating lets the Royals know that sending a runner home is risky if Iglesias is handling the relay.

That’s good info to have during a game.

There might be more information available these days, but coaches and players need to sift through that flood of data and figure out what’s really useful to them on the field. For players and coaches alike, too much information can be a bad thing.

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This story was originally published August 30, 2018 at 2:54 PM.