JotCast | Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat

Ben Clemens FanGraphs Chat - 5/13/24

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Guest

2:49

Read your article (great!) but it's unclear to me what the difference is between "squared up" and "barrels" on statcast?

Ben Clemens

2:49

So, those are definitely confusing terms

it's especially confusing because 'squared up' basically means 'hit the ball on the barrel of the bat'

but barrel is just a mathematical construct of swing speed and launch angle, it refers to balls that are hit hard and in the air. The implication of the name is that to do something like that, you probably had to get the barrel on the ball

2:50

Meanwhile, squared up measures if you hit it about as hard as you could, given how hard you swung

I am sympathetic to the 'barrel' name b/c I have to tell you, when Luis Arraez loops a liner over the second baseman I don't say 'wow he really crushed that one on the barrel'

even if he did technically barrel it up

2:51

I particularly like the 'blast' statistic, which is when you square the ball up and also swing hard

that's closer to what we fans usually mean when we think of 'getting all of it'

Farhandrew Zaidman

2:51

For everyone else playing with bat speed today: nothing is ever one thing. Yes, swinging hard generally means more damage, but just like you can throw 91 and be successful, you can have below average bat speed and be successful!

Ben Clemens

2:51

Tomorrow's FanGraphs today: I'm writing an article about the dead ends and pitfalls I've had looking at swing speed data

2:52

here's one takeaway from it: swing speed correlates better with xwOBA than wOBA

on contact, that is

and it doesnt' correlate with wRC+ at all

Tigers fan

2:52

Do Julio Rodriguez and Ronald Acuna Jr. turn it around this year? Baseball can be very frustrating to predict players performance from year to year.

Ben Clemens

2:52

I think they both will, but I'm more confident in Acuna

Blake

2:52

Does Jose Abreu being tied for 3rd among the Astros in swing speed surprise you? (at 72.6 mph tied with Yainer Diax, behind Pena and Alvarez)

Ben Clemens

2:52

Hm.... I mean, maybe a little? but when I watch Abreu swing, I've always been like 'wow that's a violent swing'

so I'm guessing that is what we're talking about here

Colton

2:53

Katie Woo said on the STL morning radio show that the players have all told her, on and off the record, that they fully support Oli and the rest of the coaching staffs processes and it's on them as players to execute. That's great that they seem to support him, but at some point that has to change, right? Over 200 bad games at this point and it's been the same process, they have to make some changes at some point right? At least start to question whether it's correct or not

Ben Clemens

2:53

Questioning process, and doing that questioning responsibly, is one of the hardest things to do

like, obviously they should be doing this

but it's easier said than done

Derek

2:53

At what point should the Orioles start playing Ryan O'Hearn against lefties? He was quite good last year, and this year has consistently been in 98th-100th percentile for xWOBA... Relatedly, how is literally Ryan O'Hearn now this good of a hitter??

Ben Clemens

2:54

It's amazing, right?

2:55

I don't have a great answer for you about letting him face more lefties without looking into it more. I'd say that his superpower is really good plate discipline plus above average thump, which is a great mix. I do wonder if the O's are worried that the plate discipline particularly is what would change against lefties, and that if you made him more of an average plate discipline guy the whole profile would play down

but you can't figure that out without trying

Oaktown Blues

2:56

Would there be any value in looking at "blasts" that were also in an ideal launch angle range? Or would that end up just being "barrels" by a different name?

Ben Clemens

2:56

yeah barrels by a different name, I think

one thing that I'm not fully sure about is whether hitters who are hitting the ball on the nose with hard swings, but at low angles, can change their swing plane

b/c if they can't, I don't really care if you square one up at -5 degrees

Kwah

2:56

Steven Kwan's newly revealed batting data is very satisfying. One of my favorite players, strictly based on the eyeball test the last couple years -- hustles, seems to make lots of contact and operates in a 1970s-80s kinda style -- and now the math nerds have confirmed to me that he is That Guy and it's good. I wish this metric existed for Willians Astudillo.

Ben Clemens

2:57

Yeah he's a guy I wish we had this data for

I wish we had swing speed for Bartolo's homer

I particularly wish A Rod was on the cameras

Bat Speed

2:57

Do you think the new bat speed metrics will provide any actionable information to players/teams? Like maybe the combo of a long Swing Length and slow Bat Speed (looking at you, Nolan Arenado) could be the impetus for a swing change to maximize results?

Ben Clemens

2:57

So, teams already had this data

so I'm gonna say no

Dan

2:58

How invested are you in the Hall of Fame? I feel like I started to lose interest around the time of the Harold Baines induction unfortunately

Ben Clemens

2:58

I'm decreasingly interested in gatekeeping it or arguing who should be in or out

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