An Attempt to Estimate Aerodynamic Forces Using Pitching Data from Baseball Savant

A wide range of data related to Major League Baseball (MLB) games in the United States is publicly available through Baseball Savant. The present study focuses on the pitching data provided by Baseball Savant and attempts to estimate the aerodynamic characteristics of baseballs in flight. To achieve this, we propose a method for extracting time-series data required for trajectory analysis from the available pitching records. Using the reconstructed trajectories for various pitch types—including fastball, sweeper, and curveball—we obtain the temporal variations of drag, lift, and sideway force coefficients, as well as the evolution of the spin axis. This approach enables a quantitative evaluation of the aerodynamic behavior specific to each pitch type.