Statcast batspeed data is out

[Dominikk85]

Yes, that post is not very positive unfortunately. The sox are second last in average team batspeed in mlb only ahead of the blue jays.

 

The sox average batspeed is 70.3 mph,  league average is like 71.5, the leaders are the braves at 73.1.

 

Eloy leads in batspeed at 74.5, sheets, Dejong, Lee and Pham are a little above average. Benintendi is really bad and also vaughn unfortunately below average. Luis Robert was not qualified but his speed is absolutely elite at 77 mph. The positive is that the sox have the shortest swings in the game at 7.1 ft which generally is positively correlated with K rate but negatively with power.

 

Short swing is good if you are like the Os who are top 5 in swing shortness and batspeed but not if you swing slowly and try to slap the ball.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/bat-tracking

 

Of course batspeed is not everything, some slow swingers like Kwan and arraez with elite bat to ball are good and some fast swingers are bad because of plate discipline issues but especially vaughn is kinda worrisome, he is a young big first baseman and shouldn't be below average in batspeed.

[WhiteSox2023]

Grifol’s F.A.S.T. technique…

Fan Alot with Slow Turns

[JoeC]

Flush After Supposedly “Trying”

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

2 hours ago, Dominikk85 said:

Yes, that post is not very positive unfortunately. The sox are second last in average team batspeed in mlb only ahead of the blue jays.

 

The sox average batspeed is 70.3 mph,  league average is like 71.5, the leaders are the braves at 73.1.

 

Eloy leads in batspeed at 74.5, sheets, Dejong, Lee and Pham are a little above average. Benintendi is really bad and also vaughn unfortunately below average. Luis Robert was not qualified but his speed is absolutely elite at 77 mph. The positive is that the sox have the shortest swings in the game at 7.1 ft which generally is positively correlated with K rate but negatively with power.

 

Short swing is good if you are like the Os who are top 5 in swing shortness and batspeed but not if you swing slowly and try to slap the ball.

https://baseballsavant.mlb.com/leaderboard/bat-tracking

 

Of course batspeed is not everything, some slow swingers like Kwan and arraez with elite bat to ball are good and some fast swingers are bad because of plate discipline issues but especially vaughn is kinda worrisome, he is a young big first baseman and shouldn't be below average in batspeed.

While a cool data set with some new correlations that can be run, and some cool bat path info, I struggle to see how any of this tells a different story than exit velocity. I'm not sure bat speed is all that important in the grand scheme of things --- at least once you reach this level. There are people who suck at the top and people who are great near the bottom. Obviously it has importance but that was shown to us primarily with Exit Velo's.

Edited May 15 by Look at Ray Ray Run

[bmags]

1 hour ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

While a cool data set with some new correlations that can be run, and some cool bat path info, I struggle to see how any of this tells a different story than exit velocity. I'm not sure bat speed is all that important in the grand scheme of things --- at least once you reach this level. There are people who suck at the top and people who are great near the bottom. Obviously it has importance but that was shown to us primarily with Exit Velo's.

It would have identified a Tim Anderson, right? I’m assuming if available his bat speed would have been strong, but his exit velocity was often poor

[Look at Ray Ray Run]

23 minutes ago, bmags said:

It would have identified a Tim Anderson, right? I’m assuming if available his bat speed would have been strong, but his exit velocity was often poor

That ties out to pitch selection too in relation to bat speed. Meaning tim was great bat to ball, squared a lot up and had quick hands/short bat path but his plate discipline and pitch selection meant he didn't get the exit velo --- very similar to arraez (except arraez never misses) in that he caught a ton of contact on the sweet spot of the bat but his damage was limited by his swing choices.

 

[Dominikk85]

7 hours ago, Look at Ray Ray Run said:

While a cool data set with some new correlations that can be run, and some cool bat path info, I struggle to see how any of this tells a different story than exit velocity. I'm not sure bat speed is all that important in the grand scheme of things --- at least once you reach this level. There are people who suck at the top and people who are great near the bottom. Obviously it has importance but that was shown to us primarily with Exit Velo's.

I think the main value is that it gets significant in a smaller sample size because there isn't the element of squaring up the ball.

I think long term it will be mostly interesting to compare players to themselves and for example detect injuries quicker or detect physical decline for aging players.