MEASURING JASON HEYWARD’S JUMP ON A BALL. The video at the bottom of the blog post by Clint Boulton and Michel Hickins shows a great catch by Jason Heyward and then shows the data that is available about that catch. The pitch was at 95 miles an hour and the ball came off the bat at 88.3 miles an hour at an angle of 24.1 degrees. Heyward was standing 80.9 feet from where the ball would land. he got a jump (took off after the ball) .02 seconds after the ball was hit and averaged 18.5 miles an hour in running to it. The efficiency of his route was 97%, reflecting a 3% deviation from a perfectly direct route to the ball.
In other words, Heyward identified where the ball was going to land and started running full speed, straight to where it was going to land, in .02 seconds.