Major League Baseball released their latest massive update to the publicly available Statcast data, introducing bat-tracking data this week. For an intro to the concept, check out this primer from Mike Petriello of MLB.com.
I’ll be digging into these numbers a lot over the next few weeks, as I’ve been waiting for this update. Over the last few years I’ve upgraded my own understanding of hitting, after seeing that as a weak point of my scouting abilities. These numbers add to that knowledge base, while allowing me to convey my existing knowledge.
Before I dive into the Pirates numbers, I want to give my own look at some of the concepts.