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Post by proudtoserve on Jan 31, 2016 12:00:39 GMT -5
Not sure I remember the precise Mookie meter, and I have seen so many magnificent Mookie ones.....maybe in a future post you can link me to the 2015 bat speed post (#3 in AL behind only Trout and Fielder) as I just cant find it, thought it was Marc Normandin's site(and well ahead of my #34).....just cant find it....
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Jan 31, 2016 22:05:16 GMT -5
The Mookiemeter was set up by Baseball America on their hot sheet page when he was on fire at Portland, it would tell how many times he reached base the day before. At one point his OB% was over .500.
I'm not familiar with the bat speed article.
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Post by mattpicard on Feb 1, 2016 0:07:29 GMT -5
Not sure I remember the precise Mookie meter, and I have seen so many magnificent Mookie ones.....maybe in a future post you can link me to the 2015 bat speed post (#3 in AL behind only Trout and Fielder) as I just cant find it, thought it was Marc Normandin's site(and well ahead of my #34).....just cant find it.... This was the recent article at Over the Monster about Betts, but it was Alex Speier's 108 Stitches Newsletter that had the tidbit I think you're referring to: You can read the entire thing here, until the next newsletter comes out.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Feb 1, 2016 0:10:13 GMT -5
Not sure I remember the precise Mookie meter, and I have seen so many magnificent Mookie ones.....maybe in a future post you can link me to the 2015 bat speed post (#3 in AL behind only Trout and Fielder) as I just cant find it, thought it was Marc Normandin's site(and well ahead of my #34).....just cant find it.... This was the recent article at Over the Monster about Betts, but it was Alex Speier's 108 Stitches Newsletter that had the tidbit I think you're referring to: You can read the entire thing here, until the next newsletter comes out. Bat speed and exit velocity are two different concepts. There are several exit velocity studies readily available but I only found data-less info when I searched using bat speed, nothing with actual measurements of major league players compared.
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Post by mattpicard on Feb 1, 2016 0:40:20 GMT -5
This was the recent article at Over the Monster about Betts, but it was Alex Speier's 108 Stitches Newsletter that had the tidbit I think you're referring to: You can read the entire thing here, until the next newsletter comes out. Bat speed and exit velocity are two different concepts. There are several exit velocity studies readily available but I only found data-less info when I searched using bat speed, nothing with actual measurements of major league players compared. Well-aware. That newsletter just seemed like the piece proudtoserve was asking about, since I've seen nothing else lately that rings similar.
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Post by philsbosoxfan on Feb 1, 2016 0:51:31 GMT -5
Bat speed and exit velocity are two different concepts. There are several exit velocity studies readily available but I only found data-less info when I searched using bat speed, nothing with actual measurements of major league players compared. Well-aware. That newsletter just seemed like the piece proudtoserve was asking about, since I've seen nothing else lately that rings similar. LOL, it got my curiosity so I looked around quite a bit but came up empty. I found an interesting tidbit about Mookie as a kid. He used to line up two balls on tees and tried to hit them both. The objective was keeping his bat plane even throughout the zone. He does swing and stay in the zone a long time, that's part of the reason. He also used to send swing mechanics videos to his uncle Terry Shumpert to evaluate things he was contemplating.
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Post by jimed14 on Feb 1, 2016 8:04:14 GMT -5
This was the recent article at Over the Monster about Betts, but it was Alex Speier's 108 Stitches Newsletter that had the tidbit I think you're referring to: You can read the entire thing here, until the next newsletter comes out. Bat speed and exit velocity are two different concepts. There are several exit velocity studies readily available but I only found data-less info when I searched using bat speed, nothing with actual measurements of major league players compared. Yeah, there's nothing that measures bat speed that I'm aware of. Exit velocity is pretty much how hard and often players hit line drives and home runs which is effected more by where they hit the ball off the bat than it is how fast they swung.
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Post by telson13 on Feb 1, 2016 13:08:58 GMT -5
Bat speed and exit velocity are two different concepts. There are several exit velocity studies readily available but I only found data-less info when I searched using bat speed, nothing with actual measurements of major league players compared. Yeah, there's nothing that measures bat speed that I'm aware of. Exit velocity is pretty much how hard and often players hit line drives and home runs which is effected more by where they hit the ball off the bat than it is how fast they swung. Exit velocity is a more telling statistic, too, since it depends on multiple variables and is an outcome, not a pure measurement. Bat speed is good, obviously, but if a guy isn't barreling the ball up and making contact in the middle of his swing path, it just makes for a lot of worm-burners or high pop-ups. To have both is a nice confluence of raw ability and hitting acumen. I think this is exactly why Benintendi is ticketed for MLB success. He has excellent bat speed, selectivity, and the ability to barrel it up. We'll probably get to see him do it in MLB come August.
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Post by thursty on Feb 1, 2016 17:00:57 GMT -5
I'm not sure how the characterization of Mookie as "pull-happy" got put into the minds of the several posters who keep repeating it. It's simply fatuous.
2015 league bb distribution: Pull/Center/Oppo 41/35/25
Mookie: 40/37/23
It's true that there was a severe regression from his (IMO better) 2014 215 PA: 35/36/30
And yes all of his HR have been left-of-center, but that doesn't make him pull happy; last year he was pretty much league average or less, in 2014 he was "oppo happy". For comparison, Xander was: 47/38/19 in 2014 That's pull happy.
And remember that Mookie pretty much announced his intention (in the notorious Alex Speier spring training interview), before the season.
The bigger question is what were the Red Sox doing allowing their 22-year-old leadoff hitter to change an approach that was the archetype for a leadoff hitter? Mookie Betts can hit the ball to any part of the field he wants, and it's incumbent on the Red Sox to emphasize the benefit of hitting to RF, assuming that's what they desire.
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Post by jimed14 on Feb 1, 2016 17:05:49 GMT -5
I'm not sure how the characterization of Mookie as "pull-happy" got put into the minds of the several posters who keep repeating it. It's simply fatuous. 2015 league bb distribution: Pull/Center/Oppo 41/35/25 Mookie: 40/37/23 It's true that there was a severe regression from his (IMO better) 2014 215 PA: 35/36/30 And yes all of his HR have been left-of-center, but that doesn't make him pull happy; last year he was pretty much league average or less, in 2014 he was "oppo happy". For comparison, Xander was: 47/38/19 in 2014 That's pull happy. And remember that Mookie pretty much announced his intention (in the notorious Alex Speier spring training interview), before the season. The bigger question is what were the Red Sox doing allowing their 22-year-old leadoff hitter to change an approach that was the archetype for a leadoff hitter? Mookie Betts can hit the ball to any part of the field he wants, and it's incumbent on the Red Sox to emphasize the benefit of hitting to RF, assuming that's what they desire. Did you check how he hits though? This is for his career: To Left: 253 wRC+ To Center: 107 wRC+ To Right: 2 wRC+ I'd say he's pretty pull happy. At least I am when he pulls the ball. Especially as a fly ball hitter when he's playing at home.
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Post by jmei on Feb 1, 2016 18:17:57 GMT -5
Right, the issue isn't that he's pull-happy (i.e., it's not that he doesn't hit enough balls to the opposite field), it's that he pretty much only does damage when he pulls the ball. This is illustrated by his spray chart (using just 2015 because it's less messy, though you get similar results if you include 2014). He doesn't get a lot of opposite-field hits because his balls hit in that direction are usually fly balls with a lot of hangtime, which are usually outs. There's a good chance that's just who he is. Other undersized hitters with good batspeed like Pedroia ( link) have similar batted ball profiles. Guys like that have the strong wrists to turn on the ball and pull it hard, but not the strength and/or swing plane to drive pitches the other way.
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