Statcast bat speed data

[AB in DC]

Splitting out:

The Athletic has an interesting writeup on the use of bat speed metrics and their possible connection to a rise in core injuries among hitters as they try to optimize.
https://theathletic.com/5477905/2024/05/13/mlb-new-bat-speed-numbers?source=user-shared-article

Lots of other interesting nuggets as well.

https://www.mlb.com/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-statcast-bat-tracking

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40120458/mlb-statcast-bat-tracking-data-giancarlo-stanton-luis-arraez

https://www.nbcsports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/bat-speed-leaderboard-what-is-it-and-why-do-we-care

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/1cqofd8/the_difference_between_giancarlo_stantons_bat/

 

[CarolinaBeerGuy]

Splitting out:



Lots of other interesting nuggets as well.

https://www.mlb.com/news/what-you-need-to-know-about-statcast-bat-tracking

https://www.espn.com/mlb/story/_/id/40120458/mlb-statcast-bat-tracking-data-giancarlo-stanton-luis-arraez

https://www.nbcsports.com/fantasy/baseball/news/bat-speed-leaderboard-what-is-it-and-why-do-we-care

https://www.reddit.com/r/baseball/comments/1cqofd8/the_difference_between_giancarlo_stantons_bat/

Stanton is is the runaway leader with a bat speed of 80.6 MPH. Out of 471 qualified hitters, Arraez is last in the league at 62.4 MPH. Mookie's bat speed of 69.4 is good enough for 344th place. He'd be 16th out of 20 players on the Sox, tied with Grissom. O'Neill is first on the Sox at 74.9 and Devers is 5th at 73.1. Makes me wonder if bat speed and success are related or if Mookie and Arraez are just incredible outliers.

 

[jon abbey]

Stanton is is the runaway leader with a bat speed of 80.6 MPH. Out of 471 qualified hitters, Arraez is last in the league at 62.4 MPH. Mookie's bat speed of 69.4 is good enough for 344th place. He'd be 16th out of 20 players on the Sox, tied with Grissom. O'Neill is first on the Sox at 74.9 and Devers is 5th at 73.1. Makes me wonder if bat speed and success are related or if Mookie and Arraez are just incredible outliers.

Some of it is path length, someone like Stanton has a lengthy swing which he never changes, he misses the ball a lot but when he hits it, it stays hit (410 career HRs in 5743 ABs).

Arraez is focused on contact, so his swing is shorter and that's part of why it's slower, and why he has no homers so far this year (24 career HRs in 2160 ABs).

Anyway, much like high velocity for a pitcher, you can certainly succeed without it, but it helps to have it.

View: https://twitter.com/SlangsOnSports/status/1789816361943814195/photo/1

 

[Max Power]

There's something of an inverse relation between the ability to square up a pitch.

Early Observations From Statcast’s New Bat Tracking Data | FanGraphs Baseball

Guys with lower bat speed will square up the pitch more often, so they can have better outcomes than the ones who swing harder and just miss.

 

[CaptainLaddie]

I'd love to have known what the bat speed was for Wily Mo Pena and Gary Sheffield.

 

[ookami7m]

I'd love to have known what the bat speed was for Wily Mo Pena and Gary Sheffield.

It may be the memories of days gone by but I have to imagine Wily Mo would be top 3 or 4 in bat speed but a very low % of squared up balls. Early Sheffield was the scariest hitter I ever saw with his insane bat speed and ability to square up all kinds of things.