Ryan Howard's AVG...

[Old_Style]

Do they also offer a "False" Home Run Landing Spots graph?

[GiantsFan14]

Do they also offer a "False" Home Run Landing Spots graph?

they use the flight of the ball to extrapolate where its true landing site would be without stands/and other stuff getting in the way...basically where the ball would have landed had it been hit in a wide open field with no obstructions...heres an excerpt of the way they describe it...

How Hit Tracker Works: Hit Tracker is a spreadsheet tool that takes as inputs atmospheric information and observation data, and gives as an output the true distance that the home run traveled, along with the initial speed of the hit off the bat and the precise angles at which the ball left the bat. It does this by creating as a starting point an initial “best-guess” three dimensional trajectory for the home run, and then modifying that trajectory, a little bit at a time, until the trajectory matches the observed data from the actual home run event.

also looking at some of howard's stats, he hits 21.3% line drives which means his BABIP should be roughly around .330, close to where it has been in the past...this year, however, it is sitting at a very low .269, so it seems pretty likely that howard is running into some bad luck this year (i'm not sure if the shift would have a huge effect on this?). Despite this, it's pretty easy to see that the main problem is just that howard does not make contact enough... right now hes sitting on a contact rate of about 66%, which is just ridiculously low. When you strike out as much as he does, its pretty much impossible to keep up a respectable average, even if his BABIP was closer to where it should be

[Snakes Gould]

like i said before, he hits the ball out at all parts of the field (2 years ago in his 58 hr season, he hit a TON of opposite field hits). thats not the problem. the problem is that he cant hit a single to left field.

[pokerplaya]

Shouldn't it be "Tru" HR landing spots?

[byfrcp]

like i said before, he hits the ball out at all parts of the field (2 years ago in his 58 hr season, he hit a TON of opposite field hits). thats not the problem. the problem is that he cant hit a single to left field.

Watching the shift, I don't understand why he can't just make contact and put the ball into left field. Pretty much any ground ball on the left side of the infield will be a hit. Every time they put the shift on just put the ball into left field. Eventually they won't use the shift all the time and he'll get more hits to right field.

[Snakes Gould]

like i said before, he hits the ball out at all parts of the field (2 years ago in his 58 hr season, he hit a TON of opposite field hits). thats not the problem. the problem is that he cant hit a single to left field.

Watching the shift, I don't understand why he can't just make contact and put the ball into left field. Pretty much any ground ball on the left side of the infield will be a hit. Every time they put the shift on just put the ball into left field. Eventually they won't use the shift all the time and he'll get more hits to right field.

you dont have to tell me. i think any major league hitter should be able to poke the ball the other way. its a fairly common thing, even in high school baseball.

[Old_Style]

you dont have to tell me. i think any major league hitter should be able to poke the ball the other way. its a fairly common thing, even in high school baseball.

I've had this conversation with my dad about Jim Thome many a time. It's something I'll never understand.