by jaydub on 6/6/17, 5:42 PM with 91 comments
by Lukeas14 on 6/6/17, 6:30 PM
This should be more prominent and is likely the root cause of guys swinging for homeruns more often. Every hitter will eventually fall into a pattern where they're hitting certain pitches to only a certain part of the field. With the increase in data it's much easier for teams to recognize these patterns and position their fielders to compensate. So if you made your living hitting line drive basehits to shallow left field, halfway through the season every team will pick up on that and place an extra infielder right in your sweet spot. The same hits that got you through college and into the major leagues are now outs. This has been such a huge change that MLB thought about outlawing defensive shifts (I personally enjoy seeing the constant back and forth of strategy between offensive and defense which has always been a part of the major leagues). The obvious solution like the article mentions comes down to "the one ball that can’t be caught is the one that lands in the seats".
This is also highly dependent on the type of hitter. If you're Yankee's 6'7" right fielder Aaron Judge then swinging for the fences with a higher launch angle makes perfect sense. However, if you're Dee Gordon, one of the fastest players in the league who weighs about 175lbs, keeping the ball low is probably still going to result in higher batting and slugging percentages. Guys like Bryce Harper who can hit for power and average do seem to be leaning more towards power, which used to only happen later in their career (ex. Barry Bonds). In my observation, it seems like players such as Dee Gordon are slowly becoming obsolete as teams are prefering the long ball to playing "small ball". You certainly don't see as many teams with a true, stereotypical "leadoff guy" these days and many teams seem stacked with guys who would have been labelled "cleanup hitters" 10 years ago.
by kodablah on 6/6/17, 6:20 PM
For those specifically curious about baseball and statistics, both http://www.fangraphs.com/ and http://www.beyondtheboxscore.com/ are great sites.
by habosa on 6/6/17, 7:38 PM
It always amazes me how balanced the game of baseball is compared to other sports. It's been around for more than a century and people have become so much stronger and faster on both sides of the ball. Still, offense and defense remain so perfectly matched. The bases remain 90 feet apart and the pitcher still throws from 60 feet away. A home run is still 400 feet.
Consider basketball which has had to dramatically rebalance the rules over time. Restrictions on time in the paint, the 3 point line, perimeter defense, etc. Or how hockey changed all the rules after the lockout. Or how football has totally re worked pass defense and special teams.
Baseball is just baseball.
by mtalantikite on 6/6/17, 6:14 PM
by huangc10 on 6/6/17, 5:58 PM
It's only natural that in little league coaches tell players to hit ground balls because kids have trouble fielding (it requires extreme precision, speed, and dexterity).
It's also quite obvious that you have to hit the ball high and hard to get a triple or home-run. Good to know data backs this up.
by nickysielicki on 6/6/17, 8:56 PM
Fun time to be a baseball fan.
http://m.mlb.com/news/article/234270104/7-players-hit-grand-...
by brianzelip on 6/6/17, 6:54 PM
by aidenn0 on 6/6/17, 11:30 PM
https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-fly-ball-revolution...
by howeyc on 6/6/17, 6:28 PM
by mannykannot on 6/6/17, 8:19 PM
by melling on 6/6/17, 7:20 PM
https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-ryan-zimmerman-became-a-slu...
by bryanbuckley on 6/6/17, 6:42 PM
Clearly wouldn't have been a good choice for Ichiro..
by bitwize on 6/6/17, 11:40 PM
by idibidiartists on 6/6/17, 8:40 PM
by oso2k on 6/6/17, 10:33 PM
by ckirksey on 6/6/17, 6:42 PM