This was alleged to be a easy one. To ease my means into 2024, I dipped into the bag of enjoyable concepts that I’d been saving for the offseason. As soon as we get previous the All-Star break, there’s a lot critical baseball being performed that I strive to not pitch too many frivolous tales. I don’t all the time succeed, however I strive. In consequence, when the season ends, the Notes app on my cellphone is filled with hastily-typed fragments:
- The noise Andrew Vazquez [sic] makes when he pitches
- The Palmeiro Award – goes to the least deserving GG winner annually
- Gamers tearing their pants after they slide. Andrew Benintendi 8/15/23
- The place do pop-ups come from?
- Pitchers who take advantage of enjoyable noises
The thought for this text was known as Weakest hit balls of the yr, and it appeared fairly easy. Check out the batted balls with the bottom exit velocity and have some enjoyable writing about nubbers, squibbers, and dribblers. Because it seems, that’s truly a barely difficult project.
First, there are many performs to weed out. Statcast typically struggles to trace balls hit immediately into the bottom. It have to be onerous to get a great studying on a ball that solely travels a foot or two earlier than hitting the bottom and altering course. Numerous these topped balls don’t have any Statcast knowledge in any way, however for some, Statcast information the pace and angle not of the ball off the bat, however of the ball bouncing off the filth.
These misclassifications often get cleaned up, however only for enjoyable, right here’s the ball that’s at the moment categorised because the weakest non-bunt of the 2023 season. It got here — very slowly — off the bat of Adley Rutschman on July 29. Fooled by an Ian Hamilton sinker, the Baltimore backstop tried to test his swing however ended up catching the ball ever so gently with the tip of his bat. He despatched it straight into the bottom behind house plate, and Statcast clocked the resultant bounce at 9.8 mph with a launch angle of 61 levels.
To be able to ensure that I didn’t miss any of the particular weakest-hit balls of 2023, I watched each single misclassified or unclassified ball that ended up being fielded by the catcher or pitcher. It seems that if you happen to watch sufficient balls get chopped immediately into the bottom, you begin to take a perverse pleasure in noticing the precise second when the batter realizes that the ball goes to finish up in honest territory. You’ll be able to see it clear as day, as if just a little thought bubble seems subsequent to their head that simply says, “RUN!!!”
Rutschman’s dribbler has an entire narrative arc: He’s swinging as a result of life is brief and typically you simply need to go for it. He’s attempting desperately to cease his swing as a result of it seems that life is definitely fairly sophisticated. He’s simply standing there staring on the ball and prepared it to not bounce ahead. He’s working to first as a result of apparently telekinesis is just not one of many 5 instruments. Simply after he reaches the bag, he’s throwing his head again in exasperation as a result of life is ache.
The opposite performs that have to be weeded out are bunts, however once more, there’s one thing deeply rewarding about watching the very weakest bunts of the season. Whereas it could not qualify a participant for the title of softest-hit ball of the yr, being the very best at deadening the baseball is a talent that deserves celebrating. In 2023, the common bunt got here off the bat at a surprisingly quick 34.1 mph.
Right here’s the slowest bunt of the yr, during which Washington’s Alex Name absorbs sufficient kinetic power to show an 82.6 mph slider from Kodai Senga into an 8.6 mph sacrifice. That’s impressively gradual, and Name would show it wasn’t a fluke by bunting a ball at 8.9 mph, the third-softest bunt of the season, only a few weeks later. When you’re a coach who’s ever instructed a younger participant that the correct solution to bunt is to catch the ball with the bat, this would possibly simply convey tears to your eyes.
Watching this clip makes you ponder whether Name actually may catch the ball together with his bat. Not solely does he match the pace of the pitch completely, he matches the trajectory of its break, popping it upward ever so barely. It’s a factor of magnificence. Nevertheless, it’s not a very nice bunt. Additionally it is a free out for the Mets and a foul thought. Runner Corey Dickerson won’t ever advance previous second base. Don’t bunt, children.
Now that we’ve weeded out the non-qualifiers, let’s take one last detour to contemplate how the weakest-hit balls come about. As you learn the subsequent few paragraphs, take note that is only a thought experiment, and it shouldn’t be mistaken for data about physics. Be happy to right my misconceptions within the feedback, however Dr. Alan Nathan, if you happen to occur to be studying this, please be mild.
We want to consider angles. We’re not simply in search of the softest-hit ball. The softest-hit ball of the 2023 season was in all probability a pitch that everybody believed to be a whiff. The barest nanometer of leather-based or stitching grazed the wooden of the bat so faintly that the collision made no sound and had no detectable influence on the pace or course of the pitch. Not even the batter or the catcher realized that it occurred in any respect. I think about it occurs on a regular basis.
Whereas which may be the softest you may presumably hit a ball, it gained’t produce the bottom exit velocity and it gained’t ship the ball into honest territory. We’re in search of the honest ball with the bottom exit velocity, which modifications the calculus. In idea, the weakest honest ball could be one during which the bat strikes backward on the excellent pace to soak up all the momentum of the ball, leaving it to fall straight downward. The exit velocity of such a pitch would basically simply be the pace at which gravity pulled the ball towards the bottom.
That’s how a bunt works, particularly if you happen to’re Alex Name. However we’re in search of swings, and the bat is shifting ahead throughout a swing. That being the case, we want two issues. First, we want a gradual bat. We’re on the hunt for an emergency hack, a test swing, or a batter who obtained utterly fooled. The end result must be a swing with no energy behind it.
Second, we want poor contact. Take into consideration when a batter hits the ball flush. The ball and bat have great kinetic power, and when the batter makes excellent contact, that power is transferred into the ball very effectively. Now take into consideration when a hitter will get jammed. As a substitute of going into the ball, a whole lot of that power travels down by means of the bat and into the palms. Perhaps it breaks the bat as properly. Inefficient contact permits us to strike a stability: the bat absorbs as a lot of the ball’s power as potential whereas transferring as little of its personal power into the ball as potential. To get the weakest batted ball potential, we want the bat to be touring at an especially inefficient angle and to make contact at an especially inefficient spot, just like the deal with or the tip. Put these two elements collectively, and we’re in search of ugly swings and peculiar contact.
In the end, that brings us to the precise, honest-to-goodness, weakest batted ball of 2023. It occurred only a few days into the season, on April 3. Readers of FanGraphs, I offer you Manuel Margot at 19.1 mph.
The entire substances are there. Margot is totally fooled by a 2-2 sweeper from Trevor Williams. To be able to each attain the ball and keep again lengthy sufficient to truly make contact, he has to desert his decrease half and throw his palms on the ball. This isn’t precisely the physique positioning {that a} hitting coach is in search of at contact, which suggests it’s nice for our functions. He’s not bringing any energy into the swing.
As for the weirdness, Margot is up to now in entrance that he catches the ball with the cupped finish of his bat. That each deadens the ball and imparts an insane quantity of spin. And that bizarre contact brings much more weirdness into the play. It’s an absolute delight. It’s mayhem. The ball hugs the primary baseline for 15 toes earlier than instantly veering in towards the mound. Williams, attempting and failing to calculate an intercept course for the ball’s drunken path, collapses. He finally ends up crawling to the ball after which — I don’t even know what the phrase is — the motion with which he sends the ball towards is a few unwieldy mixture of a shovel move and a want.
For all that, the ball very almost beats Margot to the bag. Nevertheless, that seems to not matter, as a result of the weirdness continues. Dominic Smith not solely fails to catch Williams’ prayer, he loses his glove within the course of. Margot takes off for second. Josh Lowe retains on working to 3rd (and finally ends up scoring the sport’s successful run on the very subsequent play). Everybody else does one thing with their palms. The primary base coach directs Margot towards second base. The second baseman factors on the baseball earlier than realizing that he’s the one who has to go and retrieve it. Smith turns his palms skyward, presumably to ask the one wise query on this scenario: What the hell is going on?
Because it seems, the weakest batted ball of the yr nearly didn’t occur in any respect. The bedlam occurred on the eighth pitch of Margot’s at-bat. Very a lot in opposition to the spirit of this complete endeavor, he tried to bunt the primary two pitches, however he fouled them each off very onerous. He then battled again to a 2-2 rely, fouling off three four-seamers up and shedding two sliders within the filth earlier than chasing the third to such mirthful impact. Had both of Margot’s makes an attempt succeeded, none of this bizarre contact and weirder baseball ever would have occurred. As all the time, the lesson is to cease bunting. Effectively, except you are able to do it actually softly.