Hokie Club Kyle Sarazin enters his fifth season on the Virginia Tech baseball support staff, having joined the Hokies in July 2019 and earned promotion to director of player development, specializing in baseball technology and analytics, in May 2022. Sarazin, who graduated from Elon in 2019, was hired by head coach John Szefc for his strong baseball credentials in the field of analytics, applying such towards enhancing the recruiting and player development process.
Upon his arrival in Blacksburg, Sarazin took the reins as the Tech baseball program’s inaugural director of player development. At his start, he was tasked with advancing the team’s analytics effort as well as deriving coachable insights from a suite of baseball technologies.
Today, Sarazin focuses primarily on assisting Tech’s staff in generating individualized reports geared towards expediting the player development process.
Through his exploration of new technologies on the market, Sarazin aims to constantly keep the Hokies at the forefront of college baseball’s analytics realm. Additionally, he assists in assembling scouting reports and provides value to Tech’s recruiting approach.
Mirroring the technology operations commonly found at the professional level, Sarazin works with data from Trackman, Synergy, Blast Motion, Win Reality and other devices. He leads a team of student volunteers who assist in the program’s data collection and report generation, many of whom have gone on to accept full-time MLB positions.
Through Sarazin’s analyses, the Hokies have witnessed rapid statistical and competitive growth, highlighted by the program’s 2022 ACC Coastal Division and NCAA Blacksburg Regional championships.
With Sarazin on staff, Tech has expanded its utilization of the sport’s premier developmental technology, turning the Hokies into one of the nation’s elite programs in individual skill development. Spanning three seasons since his arrival in Blacksburg, the team has produced six All-Americans, eight total All-ACC selections (five First Team) and 11 MLB Draft picks – all but one of whom were undrafted from high school.
Since 2019, Sarazin has worked closely with associate head coach Ryan Fecteau to assist Tech’s pitching staff in the pitch design and pitch utilization process. In 2021, the Hokies set the program record for strikeouts (562) with the nation’s seventh best strikeouts per nine innings mark (11.07), preluding their dominant 2022 season on the hill during which they led the ACC in conference-only ERA (4.52).
On the offensive side of the ball, Sarazin constructs individual and team hitting reports using batting practice and scrimmage data from the fall and preseason that serve as the foundation of each hitter’s approach during the spring. While in season, he also adds data-driven angles to scouting reports that assist the offensive coaching staff with video study.
With Sarazin’s insights, Tech’s offense has broken out during recent years, as chronicled best by the program’s 2022 slugging numbers. During their run to the 2022 NCAA Blacksburg Super Regional, the Hammerin’ Hokies carved the country’s second best slugging percentage (.574) – trailing only No. 1 national seed Tennessee – while ranking among the top 15 Division I squads in six additional offensive categories, including home runs per game (2.14 – fourth), doubles per game (2.37 – ninth), scoring (8.7 runs per game – 10th) and batting average (.309 – 11th).
Sarazin graduated from Elon in 2019 with his bachelor’s degree in sport and event management with a minor in statistics. While there, he served as the director of analytics and video coordination with the baseball program, assisting in the Phoenix winning the 2019 CAA regular season championship courtesy of their 19-5 league record.
Previously, Sarazin held an internship with USA Baseball as its Trackman data and operations coordinator, having worked directly with the Under-18 coaching staff and the program’s director, Frank Jagoda. He also was part of the staff at the three-week MLB Prospect Development Pipeline League at IMG Academy in 2019.
A native of Massachusetts, Sarazin gained his start in analytics during internships he held with the Boston Bruins and the Pawtucket Red Sox. In March 2007, he was part of his school’s Baseball Statistics & Analytics club’s award-winning presentation at the Society of American Baseball Research Diamond Dollars competition – as judged by members of MLB team analytics departments – that compiled more than six million data points from 10 years’ worth of data, transforming them into a user-friendly, input-output system.
Upon his arrival in Blacksburg, Sarazin took the reins as the Tech baseball program’s inaugural director of player development. At his start, he was tasked with advancing the team’s analytics effort as well as deriving coachable insights from a suite of baseball technologies.
Today, Sarazin focuses primarily on assisting Tech’s staff in generating individualized reports geared towards expediting the player development process.
Through his exploration of new technologies on the market, Sarazin aims to constantly keep the Hokies at the forefront of college baseball’s analytics realm. Additionally, he assists in assembling scouting reports and provides value to Tech’s recruiting approach.
Mirroring the technology operations commonly found at the professional level, Sarazin works with data from Trackman, Synergy, Blast Motion, Win Reality and other devices. He leads a team of student volunteers who assist in the program’s data collection and report generation, many of whom have gone on to accept full-time MLB positions.
Through Sarazin’s analyses, the Hokies have witnessed rapid statistical and competitive growth, highlighted by the program’s 2022 ACC Coastal Division and NCAA Blacksburg Regional championships.
With Sarazin on staff, Tech has expanded its utilization of the sport’s premier developmental technology, turning the Hokies into one of the nation’s elite programs in individual skill development. Spanning three seasons since his arrival in Blacksburg, the team has produced six All-Americans, eight total All-ACC selections (five First Team) and 11 MLB Draft picks – all but one of whom were undrafted from high school.
Since 2019, Sarazin has worked closely with associate head coach Ryan Fecteau to assist Tech’s pitching staff in the pitch design and pitch utilization process. In 2021, the Hokies set the program record for strikeouts (562) with the nation’s seventh best strikeouts per nine innings mark (11.07), preluding their dominant 2022 season on the hill during which they led the ACC in conference-only ERA (4.52).
On the offensive side of the ball, Sarazin constructs individual and team hitting reports using batting practice and scrimmage data from the fall and preseason that serve as the foundation of each hitter’s approach during the spring. While in season, he also adds data-driven angles to scouting reports that assist the offensive coaching staff with video study.
With Sarazin’s insights, Tech’s offense has broken out during recent years, as chronicled best by the program’s 2022 slugging numbers. During their run to the 2022 NCAA Blacksburg Super Regional, the Hammerin’ Hokies carved the country’s second best slugging percentage (.574) – trailing only No. 1 national seed Tennessee – while ranking among the top 15 Division I squads in six additional offensive categories, including home runs per game (2.14 – fourth), doubles per game (2.37 – ninth), scoring (8.7 runs per game – 10th) and batting average (.309 – 11th).
Sarazin graduated from Elon in 2019 with his bachelor’s degree in sport and event management with a minor in statistics. While there, he served as the director of analytics and video coordination with the baseball program, assisting in the Phoenix winning the 2019 CAA regular season championship courtesy of their 19-5 league record.
Previously, Sarazin held an internship with USA Baseball as its Trackman data and operations coordinator, having worked directly with the Under-18 coaching staff and the program’s director, Frank Jagoda. He also was part of the staff at the three-week MLB Prospect Development Pipeline League at IMG Academy in 2019.
A native of Massachusetts, Sarazin gained his start in analytics during internships he held with the Boston Bruins and the Pawtucket Red Sox. In March 2007, he was part of his school’s Baseball Statistics & Analytics club’s award-winning presentation at the Society of American Baseball Research Diamond Dollars competition – as judged by members of MLB team analytics departments – that compiled more than six million data points from 10 years’ worth of data, transforming them into a user-friendly, input-output system.