Batting Myths Debunked?
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by user Willf123
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I absolutely love the work by Sean Foreman at the Baseball-Reference.com website. One of the links he has is to batting splits data from 1957 to present. I thought I would just list a few of my observations from reading the data from 2007 AL thus far. Most will be obvious some might not be. The combined batting average for all players is .259 which is always what I thought the dividing line was when I was younger between a good player and a poor one. In today's context .259 stinks so there are more hits being given up. I haven't checked but I would guess that fielding has improved since the 60's due to better gloves, artificial turf, and possibly the smaller ballparks being a factor which leads me to believe that the smaller strike zone is causing more balls to be put into play and homeruns keeping those that are not out of play artificially boosting averages. Righties batting against lefties are slightly more successful than lefties against righties by 4 points. The difference in batting at home vs. away is only 6 points....I don't know if that can be considered a lot or not.
Catchers are hitting .248 combined, no surprise there, but so are left fielders and catchers have an OPS edge of .683 to .681. The 9th slot is typically seen as the place where the worst hitter bats, but the 8th slot is actually lower at .629. The four slot in the order has the highest OPS at .828.
If the count is 0-2 forget about getting a hit, batters hit only .171 in that case vs. .375 when up 3-0 and .386, 2-0. Batters hit .261 with runners in scoring position which seems to indicate that having runners on base has very little effect on averages unless bases are loaded in which batters hit .293. This may be due to the fact that the infield has more holes when it is drawn in, or batters might feel less pressure to drive in runners when there is a man at 3rd and they can work the count better. Batters hit .278 with no outs and .248 with two outs.
The ability to hit in the "clutch" may be overrated too as batters hit .257 with 2 outs and RISP, and .262 in tie or games within 1 run. But, hitters only bat .225 in the 9th inning. Is that due to pressure or having to bat against a closer? Batters hit at a .264 clip the 1st time they have seen a starter in a game and that goes up with familiarity as they hit .276 if they have seen a starter 3 or more times. By contrast they hit only .246 against relief pitchers. I think that one lends credibility to the more you've seen em' the easier the pitcher is to hit.
Batters hit .237 vs. power pitchers,.277 vs. finese pitchers, .253 vs. flyball pitchers, and .271 vs. groundball pitchers. This data seems to indicate that power pitchers who tend to be flyball pitchers are more successful and that inducing groundballs may be more a case of where the hitter hits it then the pitcher causing it.
Finally I'll post numbers based on conditions. Batters hit better at night than during the day .262 to .253, and better on grass than turf .261 to .253. With so many games being scheduled at night now and players being generally more tired during day games it seems to make sense. Artificial surfaces may be causing more balls to "hop" then stay down for infielders, but I would like to see data on this as this is contrary to what a lot of announcers say about hitters getting artificial turf hits.
What do u think?
