10 Comments

I don't have time to check this out, but it seems to me that BWJ is just not driving the ball all of a sudden. I believe he's only 3-20 and those hits have been flares, bloops or infielders. I don't know if it's just a slump, a blip or if something is truly amiss. I'm seeing a lot of grounders to third.

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I think he’s getting under the ball just a bit of late. Last night he was hitting grounders…maybe an over adjustment? It’s been a rough road trip for him for sure, but I’m not worried about him.

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Good stuff! Very interested to see what this tells us going forward. I would have guessed Vinnie had a much longer swing than he really does.

One other question I hope to have answered some day is if there is something other than bat speed in generating power. I'm thinking of grip strength. How much of that speed is imparted to the baseball? Are there guys who get the bat knocked out of their hands? Or is that not really a thing.

Brady... I just don't get it. Gotta take away his ability to shake off signs or call his own pitches or something.

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This data is super interesting for sure. For bat speed translating to exit velocity I think bat path and swing length are all important as well. Grip strength is an interesting aspect. Don’t know how they would go about measuring that, though.

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I don't think grip strength matters a bit. Generally the harder you try to grip, the worse the ability to swing fluidly and therefore quickly.

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Brady Singer needs help. I don't think he is smart enough to know you can't make it as a starter just throwing two pitches.

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With the guys they’ve brought in from outside the organization and the fact they all seem to hang together and trade notes, it’s confounding to me that Singer isn’t deploying a greater variety of pitches.

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Just based on physics.... seems like the mass of the bat is also a factor in how hard a ball is hit, in addition to swing speed and squaring the ball up. I.e a 36 oz bat at 76 mph is > than a 32 oz bat at 76 mph.

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To follow up on this, a heavier bat will transfer more momentum than a lighter one given the same velocity. P = MV. Now that you have statcast data, I guess you can find the ideal weight bat for each hitter.

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I think this data serves as a baseline for individual players. I’ll probably treat it like I treat heart rate on an exercise watch. Is it accurate? Probably not. But it lets me know when something is weird.

So to carry that to bat speed data, we can use it to see the impact of say an oblique injury. Or a change in bat weight. It’s certainly not predictive but it can add to the story which is useful.

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