Because the launch of Statcast’s bat monitoring metrics, I’ve been on a journey to attempt to marry the old fashioned idea of studying swings with the brand new college perception that comes from swing knowledge. I peruse leaderboards, oftentimes seeking to the acute leaders and laggards, to know how my notion of a hitter’s swing aligns together with his metrics. Beginning on the extremes is fascinating as a result of generally a hitter’s swing is excessive in a dangerous manner, whereas at others, its outlier traits are a part of what makes it efficient. Typically, each are true!
For example, Eugenio Suárez has the steepest assault angle in baseball, leaving him susceptible on the prime of the zone, but additionally propelling his energy profile. Brice Turang has essentially the most inside-out assault path within the majors, which helps him make constant contact in opposition to any kind of pitcher, but additionally limits his capability to drag. Isaac Paredes makes contact farther out in entrance of the plate than anyone else, resulting in essentially the most aggressive pull swing within the sport. And I might preserve going! Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s bottom-of-the-league assault angle permits him to pair contact with a gap-to-gap method in contrast to another hitter. In the meantime, Freddie Freeman’s steep shoulders and hen wing arms permit him to get his bat on aircraft for optimum contact at any peak within the zone.
After which there’s Nick Kurtz. His complete swing profile is exclusive. For many hitters, it’s simple to see how their particular person attributes and swing parts result in their general output. With Kurtz, although, it takes rather more digging to know how his traits harmonize with each other to create the Rookie of the 12 months-winning efficiency we noticed this 12 months. So how does he do it? Let’s discover out.
Kurtz’s swing is geared towards the other discipline. He has one of many steepest swing tilts within the league at 39 levels, and he stands farther again within the field than virtually anybody in baseball, with a median depth within the field of 23.4 ft. Having each a steep swing and a deep level of contact may appear counterintuitive. To get to a optimistic assault angle and extremely optimistic swing tilt, you want distance and time for the barrel to begin sloping upwards. And certain sufficient, the primary transfer in Kurtz’s swing is to instantly separate his hips and shoulders, giving his barrel area to get on aircraft. The clip beneath comes from Baseball Savant’s Swing Path Leaderboard. There are dots on key joints that inform us how a participant’s physique is transferring. I’ve clipped a selected a part of the video that highlights the development of Kurtz’s assault angle:
As an apart, that is my favourite Savant function. Seeing how hitters arrange their our bodies to get on aircraft is an enormous piece of the puzzle in understanding how their swing paths result in their batted ball profiles, and this device makes that really easy to visualise.
The separation Kurtz creates is evident as day. He accomplishes this by shifting his middle of mass from the midpoint of his physique in the beginning of his swing to being over his again hip as he progresses by way of the remainder. Should you give attention to his two shoulder factors, you may see how they shift behind his two hip factors. This provides his barrel sufficient area behind the plate to get to a optimistic assault angle very deep relative to each the plate and his middle of mass:
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Kurtz can get beat by a fastball and nonetheless be able to launch it to the other discipline since his bat angle is sloping up so early on. The one different gamers I can consider who do that constantly are Juan Soto, Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Choose. Like Kurtz, all of them have elite bat velocity, however of that group, solely Soto has an analogous common intercept level. That’s the place the similarity ends, although, as a result of Soto’s bat is far flatter. Right here is how Kurtz’s swing seems from the begin to end:
In a league the place so many hitters give attention to launching to the pull aspect, Kurtz being an reverse discipline masher presents a very fascinating profile, and it’s precisely why I like perusing the acute ends of leaderboards. His deep contact level is sensible if you join the dots of his swing. That is the right spot to spotlight Ben Clemens’ work from earlier than Thanksgiving exploring the concept of each hitter having their very own distinctive optimum contact depth. After we normalize in opposition to a hitter’s personal distribution of contact factors, we will higher perceive the place they’re greatest, no matter the place they make contact relative to the remainder of the league. Kurtz has essentially the most success in the course of his contact level distribution. So although it looks like he might be late relative to the remainder of the league due to his reverse discipline contact, as a rule, he’s within the middle of his personal distribution. Or put extra merely, these are swings the place he’s on time relative to himself. Curiously, he has the least success when he’s early (a -.143 wOBA-xwOBA differential).
This helps clarify his standing in opposition to the remainder of the league in terms of success with deep contact. However keep in mind, this piece is about how all of the items of his swing join collectively. He blends his deep contact with a excessive swing tilt and an assault path that works at that depth within the zone. These three issues harmonize to a candy spot that units him other than different hitters who’ve slugging success to the other discipline. Filtering on batted balls to the other discipline with no less than a two-degree assault path (the extra optimistic, the extra towards the other discipline), Kurtz had extra residence runs than anyone else in 2025 in far fewer alternatives:
Reverse Area Homers
Supply: Baseball Savant
Right here I’ll be aware that, maybe a bit counterintuitively, a decrease quantity within the Contact Level column corresponds with a deeper level of contact. Mainly, the midpoint of a batter’s physique is 0, with the worth rising the nearer the balls will get to the pitcher. Apart from Ohtani, no one makes deeper contact relative to his physique than Kurtz. However in contrast to Ohtani, or another hitter on this desk, Kurtz is already extraordinarily steep by the point he will get to his deep level of contact. That proper there’s his unicorn trait. On common, he’s far steeper at this deep level within the zone, which we all know is pushed by his capability to separate his hips and shoulders so early in his swing course of.
This method of creating extraordinarily deep contact with a bat angled towards the other discipline is principally the reverse Isaac Paredes. And like Paredes, Kurtz has a big cut up between his wOBA and xwOBA (.419 versus .371), suggesting he may need benefited from some favorable luck. But when we zoom in on Kurtz’s reverse discipline fly balls like we’d with Paredes’ pulled fly balls, we see why it could be extra sustainable than you’d assume. Kurtz’s .862 wOBA on fly balls to the other discipline is the results of how effectively his swing aligns on this path, very similar to Paredes’ success on pulled flies. Since xwOBA doesn’t account for spray angle, and Kurtz is without doubt one of the greatest reverse fly ball hitters within the league, that wOBA/xwOBA hole lacks wanted context.
And with out the extra context of his swing, it’s arduous to conceptualize how Kurtz achieved this stage of success. From a mechanical perspective, just about the whole lot about him needs to be unorthodox to drag this off. My assumption was that he’s striding extraordinarily open to attain this, à la Cody Bellinger, however he isn’t!
Kurtz really strides closed earlier than rotating open, then lands in a extra impartial place reasonably than a particularly open one. The best way he tilts his torso, in order that his palms and barrel get far behind his physique, helps create that elite stage of separation:
The straight-on angle permits you to recognize how cellular Kurtz is in his higher physique. You’ll be able to see his left scapula pulling his elbow farther behind his physique, resulting in that opening for his barrel to start its strategy of coming into the hitting zone. Between that, his stride, and his shoulder tilt, he does greater than sufficient to place his physique able to function with excessive success in the back of the hitting zone. certainly one of these traits in isolation could make you query the way it works. However after connecting the dots, it is sensible. Traits which are all fairly excessive relative to his friends end in a batted ball profile that units him other than the remainder of the league.
Kurtz’s method and swing are fascinating to look at. For a strong chunk of the season, he was the best hitter within the sport. His swing is geared towards constantly punishing fastballs and right-handed pitching. At the same time as pitchers alter to him, he’s at all times going to have that in his again pocket. Time will inform how effectively he can maintain this efficiency, however I’m very excited to look at him attempt over a full season.