Chris Watkins

Bat Speed = Contact?

A question popped up in my mind recently: How does bat speed affect contact rate? We know that higher bat speed leads to better contact, but the question here is on making contact. Intuitively we’d think that more bat speeds leads to a little more time to make a swing decision and the ability toContinue reading “Bat Speed = Contact?”

Who is Jack Kochanowicz?

Jack Kochanowicz bursted onto the scene at the end of 2024 for the Angels posting a 3.99 ERA, 104 ERA+, 1.19 WHIP, and 3.8% BB%. He came up as a high groundball pitcher with the occasional strikeout. In 2025 he sports a 5.53 ERA, 74 ERA+, 1.59 WHIP, and 10.4% BB%, all well below whatContinue reading “Who is Jack Kochanowicz?”

Putting a bow on the impact of the shift

I wrote over a year ago about the possible impact of banning the shift (Impact of Banning the Shift) and I revisited it for the 2024 season in May (Revisiting the impact of the shift). Now that the 2024 season has ended, let’s look at all the data. Again, we will look at just pulled baseballs onContinue reading “Putting a bow on the impact of the shift”

Quality Pitch % (QP%) and QP%+

There are many metrics to evaluate how good a pitcher is. From tradition metrics like ERA and WHIP to Sabermetrics with FIP and WAR to Statcast era metrics like Whiff% and CSW%, there are so many out there. Recently, there is a trend to look at swing and miss ability of a pitcher as aContinue reading “Quality Pitch % (QP%) and QP%+”

(R)Shiny AAA Pitch Data

I first made an RShiny app in graduate school when I first discovered it in a course I was taking. Simple, yet powerful applications. Of course, I used baseball data for fun outside of my assignments. The goal was to look at pitch data and break it down by location. I wanted to bring thatContinue reading “(R)Shiny AAA Pitch Data”

What happened to HRendon?

Anthony Rendon was an All-Star, Silver Slugger and 3rd in MVP voting in 2019 with the Nationals. His injury issues with the Angels have been well documented, and he is on pace to play in the most games (over 58) with the Angels in 2024. What has interested me though is his lack of powerContinue reading “What happened to HRendon?”

Can we perfectly predict exit velocity?

New Hawkeye technology is allowing us to measure bat speed for hitters and the data has now become available through Baseball Savant. The idea of exit velocity is related to the change in velocity (i.e. Pitch speed to exit velocity), where it should be dependent on pitch speed, launch angle (how good the contact is),Continue reading “Can we perfectly predict exit velocity?”

Revisiting the impact of the shift

I wrote over a year ago about the possible impact of banning the shift (Impact of Banning the Shift) so I wanted to revisit it for the 2024 season so far. This gives the hitters and pitchers a season (2023) to adjust to the change. Again, we will look at just pulled baseballs on the groundContinue reading “Revisiting the impact of the shift”

Making the Case for RTB (Runners Total Bases) and RTB%

Many (if not all) those in Sabermetrics think the RBI is dead and that it should not be considered when evaluating a player. This is because RBI’s are dependent on players around you getting on base and in scoring position, thus not truly an individual statistic. The opponents of that thinking say there is somethingContinue reading “Making the Case for RTB (Runners Total Bases) and RTB%”

Isolated OBP

The other day I was thinking about the metric ISO (Isolated Power) which is SLG minus AVG and thought about what a metric of OBP minus AVG would tell us. Of course someone already thought of this, namely Michael Salfino of The Athletic here. It always seems like someone smarter thinks of the good ideasContinue reading “Isolated OBP”