BISCUITS Q&A: Boles talks baseball technology as home opener looms

Kevin Boles has begun his third season as the manager of the Montgomery Biscuits, who will play their home opener this Tuesday (April 7) against the Columbus Clingstones at newly named DABOS Park (formerly Riverwalk Stadium). (File photo)

By GRAHAM DUNN

Ed. Note: On Tuesday, the Montgomery Biscuits will open the 2026 home portion of their season against the Columbus Clingstones at the newly named DABOS Park (Riverwalk Stadium). This will be the 23rd season of Biscuits baseball and the expectations are for the team to be, once again, in the thick of the playoff race.

While the rosters have changed each season, the game still comes down to the simple parts of throwing, catching, hitting and scoring runs. But getting to the point of doing that on a premium basis has brought about changes in preparation.

River Region Sports sat down with Biscuits manager Kevin Boles, who begins his third season as the manager, and discussed how much the game has changed off the field, particularly in technology and how it has increased the success rate of players (or, maybe decreased).

Q: Technology has become enormously important in professional baseball… where are you on all the changes?

Boles: Technology just seems like it's flying into all sports. It's just a way that we can quantify what we've seen for years. I hate to put it that simple, but they have the technology now that with what we've seen, it's great to have the numbers.

There's no doubt about it. Anybody that doesn't use the numbers, I think they're falling behind. They're falling short.

But you can't fall prisoner to them, either. So you gotta make sure that you understand that you're dealing with human beings, you're dealing with the human element. There's a lot of emotions involved in this.

And there's a lot of things that these numbers and these systems can't quantify. And so, we just try to do the best we can to complete the puzzle, but they are tools that we definitely need to use.

Q: Is there a certain part that maybe you're using more than you thought you would?

Boles: Definitely, the video has really come a long way. The slow motion capture video is… that's the biggest tool, just for me personally.

I've always been a guy that likes using the video to pick out different problems, because when you see it full time and it's sitting right in your face at full speed, sometimes you can't see everything. That's really been the biggest thing for me, that the motion capture is really terrific stuff. It’s been wonderful stuff.

Q: How much will you guys get together, as a team, hitters or pitchers or whatever, and sit in a conference room and watch video?

Boles: Oh, that video stuff is done every day. Video work is done pregame (of a) series. Before the first game, we go over the whole pitching staff, the opposing clubs, we go over their opposing hitters.

We meet with the starting pitcher every night, and the starting catcher, they'll come in here, and with Jimmy (Paduch, Biscuits pitching coach), and we'll end up meeting and going over the pitch plan as far as what we're looking to do for that particular night.

But before we take the field on any series, we've met with the guys. They've looked at the videos. The night before the next game, once our game is over, that night, we send out video and numbers on the next day's pitcher also for the opposing club.

Q: So they're constantly getting this stuff. But I'm just wondering, because this has modernized everything and brought it into one building, has it helped as opposed to maybe the way it used to be done in the old clubhouse?

Boles: It remains to be seen. (in the new clubhouse) we got to get everything dialed in and working. We got a room up (upstairs). It's got… looks like there's 10 TVs on the floor. Still working to get it set up… So we got to get things hung up on the wall, we got the Internet working, so that's good. But yeah, you can see, the first couple of days when we moved in here, you can see this place (will be great). It's anybody complains about this, go do something else, then.

Q: When you grew up playing ball and the places that you were you were playing , you didn’t have all of this…

Boles: I’m a little different now, right? A lot different. It's... If players realize what's happened in the last 10 years and where this is gone, and some of the facilities and where this thing needed to go, It's now starting to cover this league now. With Chattanooga (Reds) having a new facility, the upgrades of Pensacola (Twins) have done, especially to the visiting side…

Same with Biloxi (Brewers), all these places… You have to do these things, especially they've cut (out) training levels. So there's no excuse now.

It's not like you're running through seven levels (as before). They've cut a couple of these levels, and so, yeah, money needs to be spent. If you're talking about creating the best players in the world, You gotta spend money to do it.

And so anybody that tries to do it on the cheap, it's just not gonna work long term. I mean, you really need to make an investment in player development and scouting. Luckily, we're in an organization where they definitely get it done in that regard.

Q: Can you tell a difference in the ones that aren't doing that versus the ones that are?

Boles: Yeah, I don't know their books, you know, but you can see where little corners are cut throughout baseball. Maybe not as much anymore, though, because I think everybody has (made changes), they maybe have different technology.

Everybody has the same numbers. Everybody has the same scouting reports. It just may be put in different templates and different formats, but everybody's making an investment these days.

Q: As far as the new clubhouse, did you get any say on (necessities), or did Tampa (parent club) have all the say?

Boles: Yeah, I'm sure our people with Tampa Bay have met up with the front office here, and obviously, this is a city project also so this, it's been a long time coming. This was supposed to be done a while back. And there's still some things that need to be done, but (we’re) very happy. This is gonna be a special spot for us.

Q: I’ll get one more question in about the technology and I'll be done with that. But are you using it much in the dugout?

Boles: Oh, yeah? You got laptops and iPads and all that. We've got tablets in the dugouts. Yeah, it's so when a new pitcher comes in the info is there. It's streaming the game. I mean, we're using “Trackman,” it’s going. the whole time.

What bothers me… what I hate seeing, a batter faces a new pitcher, he's out on the mound showing you his arsenal.

(A new pitcher) is warming up. And you got six guys glued to the iPad, with their heads down, on the iPad. When the guy in real time is standing out there right now.

What is his best secondary pitch… he may not have it in warm-ups. Someone may pick up on that. But the guys that sit there with their head in the iPads all day, I think they're missing the boat too.

It's great to have this stuff, but again, you can't fall prisoner to it. Sometimes it's common sense.

Give me the pictures… velocity. Give me what type of shape this (pitch) has or a secondary pitch. Give me, maybe, some percentages and maybe a specialty count where, OK, 1-1 counts, he's 60 to 70% of throwing this pitch.

I'm fine with that. Once you start getting over-complicated, you gotta be able to hit the ball, too. And if you have too much information up there, you can you can lock yourself up real quick.

Q: I was about to say, there is such a thing as too much information.

Boles: Absolutely. And another thing too, like you'll see on our boards, we'll have reports done on computers and everything. The first thing we tell these guys, do not try to digest all this information. Pick a couple of things that you would think are important to you in your game, and each guy's different. and go with those numbers.

And again, it's not to say that they're not open to everything, but you can't retain all this stuff.

But everybody makes sure that they've got all the bases covered.

And it's overkill. If you're being honest about it, there's some numbers that you just will never use, never need. But we have them.

Visit the Biscuits website for ticket information… www.biscuitsbaseball.com