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You seem truly dense.
They have to be teaching that to middle and high school kids. It's an interesting teaching tool to have the "perfect" launch angle for a home run. But me personally I would rather have 8 line drive hitters. I don't want this year's Yankees as my team. I'm sure Judge and Stanton have perfect launch angles but when the angle is off, they usually hit a fly ball if they touch it at all. I'm actually kind of worried about baseball and it's ever growing reliance on the long ball. A lot of players are home run or strike out. Who wants to watch a team of Adam Dunns?
2014 stats league wide.
Ground Balls: BA = .239 wOBA = .220
Line Drives : BA = .685 wOBA = .684
Fly Balls : BA = .207 wOBA = .335
The wOBA for fly balls being so much higher than wOBA on ground balls is why teams are embracing fly balls. Of course line drives are and always will be preferred, but it is better to hit a hard fly ball than a hard ground ball.
They don't teach "perfect launch angle for home runs" because there isn't one. They teach that it is better to elevate the ball than hit low line drives and grounders. This is a fact observed from stats similar to what I put above. Stanton and Judge actually hit a ton of fly balls that end up as doubles or homers because they play in a small park and have a ton of power. You're right that guys who hit a lot of line drives are good though, if we could grab a few more Freeman/Yelich types that would be ideal.
It's debatable whether teaching players to loft the ball is best.
What isn't debatable, except to ''ha ha'' types is, launch angle isn't a result, he seems to think a .205 hitter with good launch angle is better than a .205 hitter with a flatter swing, it's brain dead logic.
You are 100% correct and man, is he a joy to watch or what? Great swing. Great player. So happy he's far exceeded my expectations in the League. I'm happy seeing him leading off. He really gets everything in the sweet spot. If you leave one high, or hang one, he's gonna make you pay. I haven't been this excited about a farm system player since Andruw
He got off to a slow start, but if he keeps it up another 6 weeks, he'll be a ROTY candidate.
Long term is what's exciting, He's not quite Andruw Jones in the field, A.J was the best ever in center, but he can be a far more complete hitter than Andruw was.
Spot on man. I think he will be a ROTY candidate. He's really in a groove now, but you're right, it's his future that's got me so excited. Andruw was the best center fielder for years. His bat never got to where I thought it would and his low avg was always aggravating. I always took Andruw as a "lazy" type player. Maybe just because he made CF look so effortless but his demeanor was always just.... slow lol. Great Brave though. How many gold gloves he have? Close to 10 I would think. I'll just have to check his stats.
I can think of a few factors. When he was hitting 7th, pitchers could afford to pitch around him with the 8th and 9th hitters behind him. Statistically, he may not have had more walks, but it seems like he was seeing more off speed and curve balls in that spot. At leadoff, it seems like pitchers want to get you out and will go with the higher percentage strike which is the fast
ball. And Acuna has said that he likes fast balls, as would every hitter in my estimation.
I see what you're saying but with a lot of those fly ball guys the k rate is awful. I would rather guys hit hard grounders than miss a curve in the dirt by 2 1/2 feet. Put in play and make the defense do their job. And I'm sure in the not too distant future there will be a "perfect" launch angle for each individual swing especially with all the technology and specialized coaching that these kids get from a young age
10 or 11 gold gloves I think. Andruw was the youngest national league player in history to hit his 200th hr if I'm not mistaken. If he'd kept the power after being traded he'd be in The HOF, even with the low average. I think he should be anyway.
He has 7 season's with defensive WAR ratings higher than Willie Mays best season.
@MODawg , I just checked some of the stats and saw that you're right. Thanks for teaching me something I didn't know before! Fly Ball % has a positive correlation with K%, while Ground Ball % has a negative correlation with K%. Basically, if you hit more fly balls you are more likely to strike out more and if you hit more ground balls you're more likely to strike out less.
That being said, there is also an equally positive correlation with weighted runs created (wrc+) with fly ball % and a negative one with ground ball %.
Looking at some guys numbers, the ones that are above average hitters and still hit a lot of ground balls have to make up for it with more line drives. So if you're a high percentage line drive hitter (Freeman/Yelich/Votto types) then you probably aren't going to be making launch angle adjustments in the first place. And as you said, if we could get more Freddie Freemans I'd ask where to sign me up.
OTOH you don’t need to read it. The # of responses suggest it has interest among the people.
Speak!
Those 3 Latin kids have made the Braves a ton of fun to watch. I think Camargo is my favorite, though. That kid has swag for real.
Trump prefers Norwegian players.
@WCDawg why on earth would anyone down vote what you shared here???? SMH
The poster goes by Stubborn thing, that might be a clue.
Definitely the work of DonaldDawg
Andruw was a 5x all-star and a 10x gold Glover. He is the best defensive center fielder to ever play the game and one of the best overall defenders to ever play the game. Couple that with 434 Home runs and he should 100% be in the HOF. If Ozzie Smith is in there with his putrid offensive production, Andruw should waltz into the Hall. On a side note, he put up 62.8 career WAR and 61.1 of that came in Atlanta. The last 4 years of his career are what’s holding him back. **** shame.
The kid(Acuna) is still looking good. It’s nice when occasionally a prized Braves prospect actually pans out, especially a non pitcher. Still won’t be able to tell for a bit I guess after Frenchy and Heyward started strong and then kinda fizzled out. Acuna has speed and a pretty swing though.