2022-23 Season

FredJacket

FredJacket

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78pike said:
I find it interesting that the right fielders are catching more fly outs than left fielders. Does it mean there are more left handed hitters now? Or that batters are going the other way more than in the past? Or that pitching is stronger and batters are making contact late resulting in weak fly balls to the opposite field? My guess is that batters are being taught to make solid contact up the middle. You don't see as many dead pull hitters anymore as coaches prefer batting average over the home run hitters with low on base percentage.
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Guesses follow...

I suspect spray charts would still show more balls hit to left side. And CFs probably are shaded to left more often forcing the RF to have more territory to cover while LF has less. And another thing... I'm betting a higher % of balls in air to LF go over the fence (compared to RF).
 
78pike

78pike

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FredJacket said:
Guesses follow...

I suspect spray charts would still show more balls hit to left side. And CFs probably are shaded to left more often forcing the RF to have more territory to cover while LF has less. And another thing... I'm betting a higher % of balls in air to LF go over the fence (compared to RF).
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I think you are probably correct. It is certainly most likely the case in Russ Chandler. Still it would be interesting to see if the spray charts support your supposition. That would probably be a better indicator than home run balls since that is much more dependent on the field dimensions. I keep thinking about our own Stephen Reid as an example of how more and more hitters are being taught to use all fields and drive the ball according to pitch location. When Reid first got to Tech he was a pure pull hitter but has developed into a much more disciplined hitter who uses the entire field. He was so prone to strike out on the outside breaking ball because he was always trying to pull the ball. This past season we saw a big jump in batting average and cut way down on his strikeouts while not losing much of his power. Give credit to him but also to Ramsey who teaches pitch recognition and solid contact. Another guy that comes to mind is Tim Borden. I don't think he got the Timmy Barrels nickname until he got to Tech. I realize I am getting off topic here, but the transformation Borden made from his Louisville days to one season under Ramsey is nothing short of amazing. He and Chandler Simpson should be the poster boys for any guys hitting the transfer portal and why Tech should be a destination.
 

JacketOff

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FredJacket said:
Guesses follow...

I suspect spray charts would still show more balls hit to left side. And CFs probably are shaded to left more often forcing the RF to have more territory to cover while LF has less. And another thing... I'm betting a higher % of balls in air to LF go over the fence (compared to RF).
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Statistically it’s more likely for RH hitters to hit balls in the air to the right side of the field, and balls on the ground to the left side of the field. The opposite is true for LH hitters. Really the only times a hitter pulls the ball in the air is when they have 100% timed it and centered it up. That’s not a large portion of ABs or balls hit in the air.
That’s also why 6-3’s are more common than 4-3’s, and 5-3’s more common than 3U’s or 3-1’s.

There are more righty hitters than lefty hitters, so statistically it makes sense that there are more fly balls hit to RF and ground balls hit to the left side of the field than vice versa. If there were more lefty hitters the opposite would be true.

I hope I explained this well enough to make sense
 

JacketOff

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Here is Mike Trout’s spray chart for every ball he put in play this season. Yes, most of his home runs are to the pull side, but if you look at the outs there is a large concentration of fly ball outs in RF, and a large concentration of ground ball outs on the left side of the infield. Trout is a pure hitter who is not trying to pull every ball. I think his approach is to hit everything over the CF wall. Still, his mis-hits line up with traditional thinking. Which is: fly ball outs to the opposite field, ground ball outs to pull side.

This correlation is why when teams overshift and put 3 infielders on one side of the infield, often times they’ll shade their outfielders the opposite way. With the shift bans this won’t be as much of a factor, but when you understand the patterns of balls off the bat it’s a lot easier to create defensive positioning

7BD0EED2-B0F2-431A-921D-AC94BE10B1FE.png


You can look up any major league hitter’s spray chart here, and most of them will tell the same story.

Mike Trout - Spray Charts - Fielding | FanGraphs Baseball

Mike Trout fielding spray charts.
www.fangraphs.com www.fangraphs.com
 

JacketOff

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Here is Freddie Freeman’s chart. A left handed hitter known for power to all fields. He has a high concentration of fly balls to LF, and a high concentration of ground balls to the right side
D39EA802-3B61-429E-8D68-20892811C04E.png


Sorry for nerding out on this. But these types of analytical discussions are probably my favorite parts of baseball. I wish college baseball had more data like this available to the public. This sort of stuff is what GT should be at the forefront of
 
78pike

78pike

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JacketOff said:
Here is Freddie Freeman’s chart. A left handed hitter known for power to all fields. He has a high concentration of fly balls to LF, and a high concentration of ground balls to the right side
View attachment 13670

Sorry for nerding out on this. But these types of analytical discussions are probably my favorite parts of baseball. I wish college baseball had more data like this available to the public. This sort of stuff is what GT should be at the forefront of
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The charts proved your point rather well. And no sport is geared toward the nerd more than baseball. Evidenced by how much coaching is driven these days by statistics and analytics. You don't see spin rates in football or basketball! Look no further than the movie Moneyball. One of my all time favorites.
 
Buzzbomb

Buzzbomb

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That’s mild compared to my coach who froze me for three years at Pleasantdale Park in Dekalb County. We did leg lifts in the sun, before and after every practice.
Then we would run circles around the stone induced outer edges of the park. Yes, the captain of the team led them in all of that. If I passed the catcher who was usually holding up the rear, we had to start over. No his name was not O’Leary, it was Cook. He blew his arm out in the Yankee organization.
 
GTNavyNuke

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FredJacket said:
Food for all you anti-buntingers...
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Wow. I thought this was sarcasm till I read the comments. There is a time for small ball and a time for long ball. Fundamental baseball with good pitching wins championships.

This philosophy is from the Yankee HR or nothing school. Nothing the Yankees can't fix with another $100 M on payroll. Or $240M.
 
FredJacket

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GTNavyNuke said:
Wow. I thought this was sarcasm till I read the comments. There is a time for small ball and a time for long ball. Fundamental baseball with good pitching wins championships.

This philosophy is from the Yankee HR or nothing school. Nothing the Yankees can't fix with another $100 M on payroll. Or $240M.
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I haven't read the comments but I'm certain it is a parody acct. Dude is all in on the bit.
 
forensicbuzz

forensicbuzz

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TampaBuzz said:
That is so different from my U13 playing days. My coach required we successfully lay down a sacrifice bunt to 3rd base and to 1st base before we started swinging away. He would also work in drag bunts and butcher boy bunts into batting practice.
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Agree.

That's just bad coaching (and bad everything we know about today to withhold water). The guys is an idiot. I'd yank my kid off that team so fast that the guy wouldn't know what happened.
 
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