The 10 guys in the Majors who hit the most Line Drives

[mofome]

2008:

LD% per ball put in play:

Ryan Ludwick Cardinals 31.6 %
Ryan Church Mets 27.8 %
Miguel Tejada Astros 27.5 %
Milton Bradley Rangers 27.1 %
Matt Kemp Dodgers .27.0 %
Xavier Nady Pirates 26.9 %
Aaron Rowand Giants 26.7 %
Orlando Hudson Diamondbacks 26.0 %
Victor Martinez Indians 25.3 %
Jack Hannahan Athletics 25.2 %

2007: (min plate appearances: 500)

[andybord]

Good stuff....How about top 10 pitchers?

[mofome]

Good stuff....How about top 10 pitchers?

As far as LD% allowed?

[mofome]

LD% allowed top 10: (minimum 50 IP)

1. Gavin Floyd
2. Justin Verlander
3. Joe Saunders
4. Erik Bedard
5. Edinson Volquez
6. Ben Sheets
7. Daniel Cabrera
8. David Bush
9. Shaun Marcum
10. Aaron Cook

[andybord]

Cool...Is there a site you're getting this stuff from?

[mofome]

Cool...Is there a site you're getting this stuff from?

I have about 8-10 baseball sites i look at for different stuff.

[andybord]

Have you seen the "luck" rating thing for hitters and pitchers? It measures how many balls that are put in play result in players getting on base....

It's pretty interesting, especially when you look at the variance between the luck rating and the batting average...

[mofome]

Have you seen the "luck" rating thing for hitters and pitchers? It measures how many balls that are put in play result in players getting on base....

It's pretty interesting, especially when you look at the variance between the luck rating and the batting average...

BABIP? BA per ball put in play. Yes, but thats not completely luck oriented as some suggest. It does tell you something about whos getting luckier than others, but a higher LD% is usually going to mean a higher BABIP.

[andybord]

BABIP? BA per ball put in play. Yes, but thats not completely luck oriented as some suggest. It does tell you something about whos getting luckier than others, but a higher LD% is usually going to mean a higher BABIP.

Yep, BABIP...I was thinking of the line drive correlation too, which is why I asked....

Yeah, it's not really about luck...Guys who get fooled a lot and hit those towering major league popups are probably going to have a low BABIP.....Line drive hitters, like you said, have a higher BABIP.

[mofome]

Yep, BABIP...I was thinking of the line drive correlation too, which is why I asked....

Yeah, it's not really about luck...Guys who get fooled a lot and hit those towering major league popups are probably going to have a low BABIP.....Line drive hitters, like you said, have a higher BABIP.

well you can also look at hitters and what kinda of pitches they swing at. you can see who swings at more balls out of the zone than others and their contact % in these situations. For instance:


Jason giambi only swings 9.97% of the time at pitches out of the zone while Vlad is just over 45% in that category. Vlad is able to make contact with 66% of his swings at pitches that are not in the zone while a guy like ryan howard only makes contact on about 34% of those swings.

Juan pierre makes contact with a higher percentage of his swings than anyone in baseball. Mark reynolds is on the opposite end of that spectrum.

As you would assume, vlad sees less strikes than anyone in the league while Kevin Youkilis sees more balls in the zone than any other hitter in baseball.

Todd Helton has seen more pitches this season than any other batter.

[trotter9]

BABIP? BA per ball put in play. Yes, but thats not completely luck oriented as some suggest. It does tell you something about whos getting luckier than others, but a higher LD% is usually going to mean a higher BABIP.

if you want to play that game you have to consider the speed of the ld and the ability of the defese.

[mofome]

if you want to play that game you have to consider the speed of the ld and the ability of the defese.

"play that game"? Speed of the LD? the ball has to be hit hard enough to be considered a LD. Im not so sure you've thought this comment through. Not like some people hit 1 mph Lds that stay in the air until they hit the wall.





hard to reply to this statement to be honest.

[MrX]

A batter has much more control over his BABIP than a pitcher.

Put another way, the BABIP of a batter is much more predictive of future performance than a pitcher's BABIP.

Voros suggested a number of years ago that a pitcher actually had virtually no effect on what happened on balls that were put in play. This was the basis for his Defense Independent Pitching Stats. It's since been shown conclusively that, while it's a smaller influence than his defense and luck, a pitcher does influence BAPIP. Interesting article here: Solving DIPS.

A batter, however, because of his batspeed, swing angle, etc., significantly influences his success on balls hit into play.

[MrX]

I would be interested to see how predictive LD% is for pitchers and batters.

My guess is if you were to look at LD per balls hit into play, it would not be very predictive at all, especially for pitchers. I think if you're looking at LD per plate appearance it will be predictive, but that will more be a function of BIP/PA.

[mofome]

I would be interested to see how predictive LD% is for pitchers and batters.

My guess is if you were to look at LD per balls hit into play, it would not be very predictive at all, especially for pitchers. I think if you're looking at LD per plate appearance it will be predictive, but that will more be a function of BIP/PA.

LD%, k/9, BB/9 put together do a decent job.

[MrX]

LD%, k/9, BB/9 put together do a decent job.

I'll take a look later (I have a good database with hit/type info), but I really suspect that LD% is not very useful. I could easily be wrong on that one, though.

Mofo, are the LD% you're posting LD/PA or LD/batted balls?

[MrX]

I'll take a look later (I have a good database with hit/type info), but I really suspect that LD% is not very useful. I could easily be wrong on that one, though.

Mofo, are the LD% you're posting LD/PA or LD/batted balls?

Nevermind, after looking at them, they are obviously LD/batted ball.

Sorry.

[mofome]

I'll take a look later (I have a good database with hit/type info), but I really suspect that LD% is not very useful. I could easily be wrong on that one, though.

Mofo, are the LD% you're posting LD/PA or LD/batted balls?

LD BB

[MrX]

LD BB

Thanks, it was a dumb question on my part. Anyone with 30% LD/PA would be having a hell of a season.

[mofome]

Thanks, it was a dumb question on my part. Anyone with 30% LD/PA would be having a hell of a season.

also data with regard to o-swing, z-swing, swing%, and contact% as it relates to those categories can be very useful imo when looking into pitcher/batter matchups.