Tim Hyers, The Red Sox, and Launch Angle

Snodgrass'Muff

oppresses WARmongers
SoSH Member
Mar 11, 2008
27,644
Roanoke, VA
I decided to take a look at which hitters might be most primed to benefit from adding a little loft to their swings using some statcast data. The results included Bogaerts, which was not surprising, but had three others that you might not have guessed (I know I didn't). Here's one of them:

Speaking of Mookie, he is one of the more surprising names on the list, and perhaps the most tantalizing. He is tied for 62nd in LD% in the xstats rankings, the highest of any Red Sox hitter, which correlates well with his ranking 9th on the list of most balls hit 95 MPH or higher. He’s only 142nd for most GB hit (between 0 and 10 degrees), which is important as the hardest contact comes from balls hit in this range. From Andrew Perpetua’s article linked above:

“Well, think of it this way: you hit the ball harder if the center of the bat is lined up with the center of the ball. That is obvious enough. Well, if the ball comes in with an angle of 0-10 degrees, then your bat will need to have an angle of 0-10 degrees to achieve maximum exit velocity. So, a launch angle around 0-10 degrees is roughly the default launch angle, give or take.”

At 142nd out of 180 batters, Mookie isn’t getting a ton of his hard-hit balls from events in that GB range. Many of them are LD (10-19 degrees). Given that, tweaking his swing plane to generate slightly more loft will increase his output in that sweet spot of balls hit at 95 MPH or higher and a launch angle of 19-35 degrees, which should lead to more doubles and home runs. Mookie’s profile seems to be perfect for Hyers’ touch.
Check out the whole piece here for the full list and a table with the data I pulled:

http://sonsofsamhorn.com/baseball/majorleaguebaseball/al-east/boston-red-sox/red-sox-join-launch-angle-revolution/

Edit: There's a screenshot of a google search for the focus keyword for this article I had in my clipboard for our slack channel while discussing this today that ended up attached to the post. I can't get into "more option" to try and remove it, so if a mod would please do so, I'd appreciate it.

I tried DD. I can't edit out the screenshot. - abs

Edit 2: Thanks abs. Guess people just have to look at how we are the top hit for a google search of "red sox launch angle." Hooray SEO!
 

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