So Hit Tracker is certainly a great tool. I've posted about it in the past, I think last time was when I was showing Hermida's drop in power from 2007 to 2008 to 2009.
Well, something I didn't think about before, it also tracks pitchers.
For a quick recap...
Volstad led the majors in both Just Enough and Lucky home runs. His average "true" distance was 397 (NL average: 400.7), his average "standard" distance was 395.5 (NL average: 396.6), his average speed of bat was 103.2 (NL average: 103.6).
In other words, he was below average in actual pop off the ball, and the home runs he did give up barely made it over the fence.
Of the 29 home runs he gave up, 45% were of the "Just Enough" variety. League average is 27%. Only 31% were of the "Plenty" variety, with league average being 55%.
That's not to paint the picture as all sunshines and flowers though. He also gave up 7 No Doubt home runs, which tied 7th in the majors for most of those. They also took up 24% of his total home runs given up, compared to the league average of 18%. So he certainly gave up more than his share of hard hit home runs.
However, we look at the total picture, and majority of the home runs he gave up were hit weaker than average. He should certainly see a drop in amount of home runs given up next year. How much? Only time will tell (dun dun dun). And fact remains he's still putting up only ok but not great GB numbers and below average BB/K numbers.
Well, something I didn't think about before, it also tracks pitchers.
For a quick recap...
- "Just Enough" or "JE", which means the ball cleared the fence by less than 10 vertical feet, OR that it landed less than one fence height past the fence. These are the ones that barely made it over the fence...
- "No Doubt", or "ND", which means the ball cleared the fence by at least 20 vertical feet AND landed at least 50 feet past the fence. These are the really deep blasts...
- "Plenty", or "PL", which is everything else.
- "No Doubt", or "ND", which means the ball cleared the fence by at least 20 vertical feet AND landed at least 50 feet past the fence. These are the really deep blasts...
- "Plenty", or "PL", which is everything else.
In other words, he was below average in actual pop off the ball, and the home runs he did give up barely made it over the fence.
Of the 29 home runs he gave up, 45% were of the "Just Enough" variety. League average is 27%. Only 31% were of the "Plenty" variety, with league average being 55%.
That's not to paint the picture as all sunshines and flowers though. He also gave up 7 No Doubt home runs, which tied 7th in the majors for most of those. They also took up 24% of his total home runs given up, compared to the league average of 18%. So he certainly gave up more than his share of hard hit home runs.
However, we look at the total picture, and majority of the home runs he gave up were hit weaker than average. He should certainly see a drop in amount of home runs given up next year. How much? Only time will tell (dun dun dun). And fact remains he's still putting up only ok but not great GB numbers and below average BB/K numbers.
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