How To Pull the Ball to the Reverse Subject

Steven Bisig-Ign Imapages

Yesterday, I wrote an introduction to Statcast’s newest spherical of bat monitoring metrics. MLB.com’s Mike Petriello wrote an actual primer, so I attempted to construct on that by analyzing how the completely different metrics work collectively utilizing a pair frequent pitch varieties. We’re nonetheless determining easy methods to use these new toys, however immediately I’d like to elucidate how my first dive into the bat monitoring metrics led me to 1 explicit participant who’s doing one thing bizarre, which led me to be taught one thing small about the best way swings work. In spite of everything, that’s why we’re right here exploring all these unusual new numbers within the first place.

In my first shot at taking part in with the metrics, I attempted to determine one thing easy. I pulled the general bat monitoring knowledge for all certified gamers, and I targeted on Assault Path, which tells you the horizontal angle of the bat for the time being of contact (or, within the case of a whiff, for the time being when the bat is closest to the ball). That appeared fairly easy to me. As with most bat monitoring metrics, it’s additionally a timing and placement metric. You typically want to fulfill inside pitches additional out in entrance of residence plate. Should you’re behind the pitch, your bat will likely be angled towards the other subject, and also you gained’t pull the ball. Should you’re out in entrance of the pitch, your bat will likely be angled towards the pull aspect, and also you’ll pull it. A participant’s common Assault Path ought to correlate fairly nicely with their pull fee, and the numbers just about bear that out. Assault Path and pull fee have a .60 correlation coefficient:

Many of the dots are clustered round that very clear trendline. Gamers who pull the ball extra are likely to have their bats angled towards the pull aspect simply as you’d anticipate. What me was that inexperienced dot means on the backside. It belongs to Leody Taveras. I suppose it’s Leody Taveras, if we actually imagine in our graphs, which we in all probability ought to at this explicit web site.

Taveras has a reasonably low Assault Path, 4 levels to the pull aspect, however he’s received the third-lowest pull fee of any participant on this chart. I couldn’t assist questioning how precisely he was doing that. Earlier than I dug into it too deeply, I used to be reminded that the truth that he’s a switch-hitter might need one thing to do with it. So I pulled the info once more, this time separating out all gamers by handedness. On the chart under, switch-hitters will seem twice:

The correlation isn’t fairly as sturdy, as a result of switch-hitters are actually damaged into two completely different gamers with two smaller samples (that’s how small-sample right-handed Patrick Bailey received means down on the backside). However there are two inexperienced dots now! They usually’re each Leody Taveras! From either side of the plate, Taveras appears like he ought to have a pull fee that’s a bit above common, and as a substitute has one of many very lowest pull charges within the recreation. At this level, I used to be formally curious, so I began poking round.

First, I particularly checked out Assault Path on balls hit to the other subject. Because the begin of bat monitoring halfway by the 2023 season, when Taveras hits the ball the opposite means, his common Assault Path is three levels towards the other subject. Solely 4 gamers in baseball have a median Assault Path that’s much less oriented towards the other subject. Oddly, they’re all sluggers. Salvador Perez, Jordan Alvarez, Aaron Decideand José Ramírez are all at two levels towards the other subject, and Austin Riley is tied with Taveras at three levels. Taveras is certainly not a slugger. He couldn’t be extra completely different from these 5 guys. So not solely is he doing one thing means completely different from most hitters when he goes the other means, however the one gamers out on that ledge with him have fully completely different swings than he does. There actually is one thing bizarre about him.

Subsequent, I attempted trying particularly for balls hit to the other subject although the bat was angled towards the pull aspect for the time being. Simply 21% of balls hit to the other subject have the bat angled towards the pull aspect in any respect. I ran a Baseball Savant search, setting the minimal Assault Path at seven levels towards the pull aspect. Since bat monitoring began, 5.5% of Taveras’s batted balls have fallen into this class. Among the many 375 gamers with not less than 200 BIP over that interval, that’s the Eleventh-highest fee. Elehuris Montero is the champion at a surprising 10.5%, however no participant who has put as many balls in play as Taveras has run as excessive a fee as he has.

At that time, I made a decision to take a look at particular person balls that fell into this class: balls that go to the other subject although the bat is angled towards the pull aspect at contact. How precisely does this occur? Attempt to image it in your thoughts. If the bat is angled towards the pull aspect, and it’s being swung in that path anyway, how does the ball find yourself getting in the other way? There are two predominant solutions. Right here’s the much less frequent means:

That’s Taveras means, means out in entrance of a curveball, hitting it off the very finish of his bat. He cued it up so completely that if the tip of his bat had been cupped, the ball might need simply gotten caught in there. In order that’s one strategy to do it. Actually, 21% of the balls we’re , hit to the other subject although the Assault Path is seven or extra levels to the pull aspect, are squibbers hit off the tip of the bat under 80 mph. That’s one strategy to do it.

The opposite means is way more frequent, and it appears like this:

Of those self same balls, hit to the other subject although the Assault Path is seven or extra levels to the pull aspect, 50% are labeled as popups, and 65% have a launch angle above 38 levels. Principally, if you hit a ball in that bizarre method, it’s nearly at all times going to be both a cue shot or a popup. Leody Taveras taught me that.

This has loads to do with Assault Angle. In case your bat had been completely parallel to the bottom, however angled towards the pull aspect, it will be just about unimaginable to hit the ball the opposite means. However if you pop the ball up, you’re not hitting it flush. You’re getting below it. And whatever the state of affairs, your bat is nearly by no means parallel to the bottom. In keeping with Statcast, the bat is angled downward on greater than 80% of swings. Should you simply have a look at popups, that quantity is up above 90%. About half of popups come on four-seamers and cutters, the place the batter has bother catching up and swings slightly below the pitch. The remainder come on softer stuff, and people pitches are often low within the zone. I want you to do some 3D visualization in your head right here, as a result of my diagram is just not excellent:

On the left is a superbly stage bat, parallel with the entrance of the plate. Now think about you’re angling your bat downward and also you get simply beneath the ball. In case your bat is angled towards the other subject or, as within the center instance, straight towards middle subject, you’ll doubtless simply foul the ball off behind you or into the other subject stands. When you angle it towards the pull aspect, nevertheless, it could keep truthful, bouncing up and towards the other subject. Please think about that the bat on the precise appears so funky as a result of it’s foreshortened, identified towards the primary baseman. Taveras can present us what that appears like in the actual world:

If his Assault Path had been zero, he would’ve fouled the ball up and into the stands down the third bottom line. He solely stored it truthful due to his Assault Path of 18 levels.

Look, I don’t have an enormous takeaway right here. I simply assume this fascinating. I believe it highlights the best way that the angle of the bat informs even probably the most mundane batted balls. Should you’d requested me yesterday whether or not it’s attainable to go the other means whereas your bat was angled towards the pull aspect, I’d’ve had to consider it, however my first response would’ve been to say no. The bat and ball transfer by house so rapidly that they are often laborious to trace, however the bat monitoring metrics assist clarify why precisely Taveras pops out so very, fairly often, and the way it’s even attainable to hit a ball like that within the first place.

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