Medical How would this research look to an ADCOM?

[Mr.Smile12]

I am very passionate about baseball, and would love to do some independent research regarding outcomes after UCL repairs on athletes.
There is an abundance of stats, metrics, etc. available online down to the details of spin rates, release points, velocities on every pitch thrown.
A lot of related work has been done trying to predict UCL injuries, but not much regarding outcomes post-surgery which I think is important. If I were to take this on and do my own research and hopefully publish it, is this viewed as a credible research experience? Do I need a mentor or PI?
I am a recent college graduate planning on a few gap years and research experience is certainly the “weakest” point in my application, and I’d love to conduct research that I am passionate about.

Where are you going to get this data? Yes you would need a mentor/PI.

Everything is available in raw data form online. Every pitch in Major League Baseball is recorded with “trackman”, a modified military technology that even can record RPM’s of the baseball. Repaired UCL’s for baseball pitchers are an extremely interesting thing to look at because often pitchers return better than their healthy self prior to injury. My research would examine the association between UCL repair and spin rates of the baseball. The data is all available in raw form and I will be able to compare the UCL group to the healthy control groups.
I appreciate the response and feedback. I suppose I will do more digging and number crunching, and reach out to some physicians/ scientists for support later in the process.

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[TheBoneDoctah]

Yes, you need a mentor/PI. It would be great research if you actually finished it. I worked with college pitchers doing something similar (used Rapsodo machine).

Awesome, thank you for the feedback. I was a college player myself up until COVID brought it all to an unfortunate end. I really hope to see it through, just need to find the proper support. I am looking forward to the work!