That's right, we're not talking about hitting homers. We're talking about putting the ball in play.
While the long ball is the focus nowadays, there is emphasis for hitters on putting the ball into the field and generating hard-hit barrels in plate appearances. When a hitter can accomplish both, they will be highly coveted by player development specialists and will see more action in ball games.
We turn to the following data for our breakdown.
The BABIP
We know that home run hitting has surged mightily over the last four to five years, but so has the frequency of putting the ball in play. Spanning all the way back to the 1940 season, there has been steady growth in the league collecctively, as shown in Figure One below:
Before we dive into further analysis, Batting Average on Balls In Play (or BABIP) measures how often non-home run batted balls fall for hits. Notice that the league average from 1940 to 1970 did not go above 0.280 consistently. From 1970 to roughly 1994, the average did improve, but never crossed 0.300. From 1995 to the present day, a BABIP around 0.290 and 0.300 is commonplace.
With a greater shift towards player development and its associated technology, teams are teaching their players to generate more contact on pitches, as the probability of creating hits increases in doing so. This leads us into barrels and how they are becoming a highly coveted metric, particularly if power-hitting is the focus.
The Barrels
If an offensive player can create hard-hit barrels as a byproduct of putting the ball into the field, then they will be viewed as a productive hitter. For context, a barrel is defined as a ball that has an exit velocity of 98 mph and is struck with a launch angle between 26 and 30 degrees.
What we focus on in the regression below is to draw a correlation between the percentage of barrels per plate appearance and exit velocity. With a sample of 250 qualified players who have generated a minimum number of batted ball events (BBE's), the relationship between the two variables is strong:
With an r-squared of 0.5994, the correlation between barrels that are created at the plate can be explained through how hard the ball is struck, quantified in exit velocity. While the focus is getting the baseball out of the ballpark, it is also equally as valuable if a hitter can generate well-struck hits that land in the outfield.
The Blueprint
Here is our formal recommendation to help hitters become better offensive players: while homers are important, focus on making solid contact with the ball and putting it in play. The more barrels a batter can generate at the plate that land for extra bases, the more productive and consistent they will be.
Thank you so much for choosing The Launch Angle for some out-of-the-box baseball analysis! If you liked this post, click on this link for our previous article!
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