Raleigh on his extension and Dipoto's deadline deals

[Sibelius Hindemith]

Why do homers hurt BABIP? Are you implying that the approach of those players at the plate results in more fly balls which are almost all converted into outs if they don't leave the field?

No because they aren't included in the numerator of the calculation. Double off the top of the wall are so they increase your BABIP.

Aren't home runs considered "not in play"? So why would they affect a stat for balls in play?

[Michael K.]

Why do homers hurt BABIP? Are you implying that the approach of those players at the plate results in more fly balls which are almost all converted into outs if they don't leave the field?

No because they aren't included in the numerator of the calculation. Double off the top of the wall are so they increase your BABIP.

Aren't home runs considered "not in play"? So why would they affect a stat for balls in play?

If a guy has 100 hits in 300 at bats? He is hitting .333, which is really damn good. If 25 of his hits are homeruns? Those are removed, as they are not balls in play. He's now 75 for 275, which is a big drop to .272. Yes, I realize he would have strike outs, and balls caught in foul territory to be removed as well, but that is why I think it's a stupid stat. Let's create a stat to see how good a hitter is, and then make it so a HR lowers his numbers!

I can't come up with any scenario that makes that make sense.

[ddraig]

How about total bases divided by number of at bats? 4 HR's, 1 T, 6 D's, and 12 S's in 100 AB's. 43 total bases divided by 100. 0.430. Or 45 HR's, 0 T's, 16 D's, 47 S's. That's 259 total bases. divide that by 437 and you get 0.593. In other words, Slugging Percentage.

[ddraig]

That places both Judge and Ohtani ahead of Cal.

[Sibelius Hindemith]

How about total bases divided by number of at bats? 4 HR's, 1 T, 6 D's, and 12 S's in 100 AB's. 43 total bases divided by 100. 0.430. Or 45 HR's, 0 T's, 16 D's, 47 S's. That's 259 total bases. divide that by 437 and you get 0.593. In other words, Slugging Percentage.

You lost me there, why are you comparing those two sets of stats?

[Sibelius Hindemith]

No because they aren't included in the numerator of the calculation. Double off the top of the wall are so they increase your BABIP.

Aren't home runs considered "not in play"? So why would they affect a stat for balls in play?

If a guy has 100 hits in 300 at bats? He is hitting .333, which is really damn good. If 25 of his hits are homeruns? Those are removed, as they are not balls in play. He's now 75 for 275, which is a big drop to .272. Yes, I realize he would have strike outs, and balls caught in foul territory to be removed as well, but that is why I think it's a stupid stat. Let's create a stat to see how good a hitter is, and then make it so a HR lowers his numbers!

I can't come up with any scenario that makes that make sense.

Okay, i get that. Sluggers will have a greater disparity between their batting avg and their BABIP. But hitting home runs doesn't make your BABIP lower, it makes your BA higher.

[Michael K.]

Okay, i get that. Sluggers will have a greater disparity between their batting avg and their BABIP. But hitting home runs doesn't make your BABIP lower, it makes your BA higher.

It is my impression, and I could be wrong, that since the ball goes over the fence, it's not considered "in play", so it's removed from the BABIP metric. So, again. If you are 1 for 2 with a HR and a ground out, you were actually 0 for 1 on balls in play. BA is .500 but BABIP is .000.

[Sibelius Hindemith]

On the topic of Cal Raleigh... did you know his BABIP is a full 160 points lower than Aaron Judge?

In fact, his BABIP is 150/158th among qualified hitters. Even weirder, Geno is 156/158...

Crazy how they are both having really good years without much luck sprinkled in there.

Yes, I'm aware that homers hurt BABIP... but many of the big homer hitters are near the league lead in BABIP.

Still curious what you meant by that...

Why do homers hurt BABIP? Are you implying that the approach of those players at the plate results in more fly balls which are almost all converted into outs if they don't leave the field?

[Sibelius Hindemith]

A question that brings up to me would be do sluggers generally hit more fly balls as a percentage of their contacts? If not, then i would expect their BABIP to be higher (relative to their BA) than non-sluggers because a lower percentage of their fly balls will result in outs. But obviously it's a lot more complicated than that. It's a combination of spray patterns, exit velocities and launch angle distributions undoubtedly requiring the use of advanced mathematics to show a relationship to BABIP. Maybe DB can find a relevant article...

[Pharmabro]

Why do homers hurt BABIP? Are you implying that the approach of those players at the plate results in more fly balls which are almost all converted into outs if they don't leave the field?

It is a hit, but not a ball in play. If instead of getting a HR if JRod hit it 10 feet lower down he would have had a wall banger double. But there is a point to be made that some of the HR’s would have been outs if the OF could have had a wall at 430’ instead of 405’ instead