A lot of people were talking about that back then. Joe Maddon was saying how the high fastball is the most devastating pitch in baseball with the launch angle a few years back
The fact remains the same. He's throwing constant breaking balls. I see more of the younger pitchers like Jordan Montgomery basically throw breaking balls more than their fastball.
Technically this would be called an "attack angle" but the idea is the same. It certainly helps to have a guy like Pedro on staff to help pitchers pick his brain on what a pitcher would do to counteract the attack angle revolution. One of my favorite pitching/hitting segments to date.
I havent watched a full game in 20 years...but ALL of these Pedro segments are interesting as hell. I dont think he needed to be told that spin was so important...he knew.
When Ken Griffey Jr. did it to the tune of 630 HR's they called it a beautiful swing. When two different players do it to win a combined 2 NL rookie of the year awards and 1 NL MVP they talk about how easy it will be to counter it.
There's another MLB Network video explaining why attacking the upper half of the zone is dangerous/difficult. If you don't get it high enough, it gets crushed for a home run, get it too high and the batter takes it for a ball.
Attack Angle=Angle of the swing (chopping, “level”, slightly uphill, uppercut ect). Launch Angle=Angle by which ball leaves bat. All batted balls have a launch angle, fly balls are positive, ground balls negative. An ideal batted ball has a positive launch angle. If you wanna hit homeruns, you gotta have a positive launch angle. Launch angle is simply a measure, it’s not a type of swing, so stop saying “launch angle swing”. It’s also not a fad, it’s been a concept for as long as the live ball era has been around, they just have a name for it now. If you want to hit line drives, you have to hit the ball in the air, that’s common sense. In order to do that your swing or “attack angle” has to be slightly positive or uphill. That doesn’t mean swing 30 degrees uphill, very few hitters do that, but if you honestly believe any of the best hitters swing down on the ball, you’re very wrong. As for attacking up in the zone, ANY hitter would have fits these days with high spin rate fastballs up, not just “launch angle” guys. I just hate the fact that players are getting a bad rep for waking up and realizing what changes they have to make to their swings to be more successful. Idc what any of you old heads say, you’ll agree with me line drives and homeruns are a better result than ground balls, and in order to do that you have to have a good attack angle, (what some people wanna call an uppercut but whatever) which in turn gives you that positive launch angle to get said line drive or homerun
TommyJohn_ z you are not even thinking about it you wouldn't know about launch angles till they mentioned it. You just watch the game and don't analyze.
In another video they taught you to hit a batter a bit over the hip in the torso. That seems to be a good strategy here, since you only give up one base on a walk and not a HR.
Idk, if it’s high inside just turn quicker I don’t mind them. Sliders away I usually let go. If I do battle them i got a pretty athletic swing I can usually fight til I adjust to the break but I don’t. I get ready for inside if he doubles up I let it go and if he got me he got me.
Hitting has changed from knob to the ball and using your hands through the zone to using your back elbow to the ball and keeping the elbow down the white line. This is what is causing launch angle now.
This may be why Bryant keeps getting hit, including in the bill of the helmet (scary) and up high: pitchers trying to hit that hole in his swing, and missing up.
all hitters r doing is getting their barrel on the same path as the ball and extending through instead of going down and through all it does is cause more line drives and fly balls when hitters get a meatball 0-0 and hit it 100mph+ back when Harold played they hit a hard ground ball/line drive for a base hit maybe double or triple now when hitters hit the ball 100pmh+ they r trying to hit the ball over the fence its that simple
@@hvgades15 K's are just outs? That makes my head explode. Strikeouts DO NOT move base runners (productive out). Strikeouts do not force the defense to handle the ball. You put the ball in play there is a chance an error can be made. You strike out you let the defense off the hook.
Robert Perry for the most part K’s are just outs. You can’t hit into a DP by striking out. It’s literally the mindset most teams have today because they realize striking out is the same as a fly out, ground out, or pop up. Neither of those things do anything.
@@hvgades15 NO IT"S NOT! You strike out with a runner on third and one out that run IS NOT SCORING. You hit a medium depth fly ball, the run comes in. A guy leads off with a double and the next two guys strike out that runner is staying put. A guy leads off with a double, the next guy grounds out to right side, he moves to third. He can score from there on a fly ball or a ground out if the infield is back. Putting the ball in play is better than striking out. Why is that so hard to understand? As for your argument about grounding into less double plays, you're right........sort of. In 2019 MLB teams stuck out an average of 1427 times per team and grounded into an average of 115 double plays per team. In 1975 MLB teams averaged 803 strikeouts per team and they grounded into 125 double plays per team. That means we increased strikeouts by 78% to get an 8% decrease in double plays. Give me the 10 extra double plays and the 624 less strikeouts.
Lets see all the guys under 6 feet 180lbs show that launch angle!!! Besides Jose Altuve and a very few select small guys can hit balls out. The rest are helping u get practice with fly balls!!!
What does it matter of they pitch top the top of the strike zone of the ump won't call it a strike? The upms are also incentivized not to call hight strikes on these highly marketed players.
EVERY batted ball has a launch angle! The swinging bunt has a launch angle. The grounder to shortstop has a launch angle. Line drives. Pop ups. Fly balls. Home runs...ALL have launch angles of different degrees. It boggles my mind that these guys are so infatuated with launch angle. If they are referring to, "upper cutting", they're getting that wrong as well. It only makes sense that a ball that is traveling from the pitcher on a slightly downward trajectory should be swung at on a slightly upward trajectory. This would increase the odds of the bat and ball colliding since they would be on the same path (if executed correctly by the hitter). This is exactly what made Ted Williams such a great (the greatest?) hitter and he wrote about it in his book, "The Science of Hitting" way back in 1971. Although swinging on a slightly upward path (on plane with the pitch) will increase the odds of solid contact it is by no means easy. Not even remotely close. Timing has got to be nearly perfect. Considering the repertoire of pitches thrown combined with the change of speeds and location is it any wonder that hitters will still swing and miss, hit too much of the top of the ball (grounder) or too much of the bottom of the ball (pop up)? Even so, some batted balls, "have eyes" while others are hit on the screws only to be caught for an out. It's part of what makes baseball such a great game and extremely difficult to play at the elite level. 3/10 is considered excellent! That it has taken so many years for hitters (and coaches) to catch on to what Mr. Williams said so many years ago is astounding. The folks at MLB Network need to get their facts and terminology straight.
RAWDOG1021 They're talking about how new hitting philosophy teaches swing that gives higher launch angles, which is true. These swings often have large holes, however, they are taught to counter the retarded current pitching philosophy of "keep the ball low" because pitching coaches can't fucking realize that keeping the ball low just makes it easier for the batter to hit and doesn't minimize homeruns or powerful hitting, it actually encourages it.
Ryan H swing doesn’t effect the launch angle, the point of contact does. Ex. Hitting the top of the ball causes lower launch angle and lower point of contact gives higher launch angles. Whether you swing up, level or down
XxXxXxXx Yeah but a specific type of swing such as an uppercut will give you a greater chance of contacting the ball at a certain point of contact that will give the desired launch angle.
hr1meg all bated balls have launch angles... every ball ever batted had a launch angle. Don mattingly had a launch angle. So did/does Ty Cobb, babe Ruth, ted Williams, Mickey mantle, tony Gwynn, Barry bonds, Ken Griffey, manny Ramirez, Chipper Jones, Alex Rodriguez, David Ortiz, Albert pujols, Miguel Cabrera, mike trout, Jose altuve, J.D Martinez, Kris Bryant, mookie betts, etc.
Harold this is nothing new Manny Ramirez did this when he was playing so did Ken Griffey Jr fred McGriff Jose Cansenco and others who were homerun hitters. MLB have told the unpires to call the high strike so the MLB have adopted the High School strike zone
Manny had a level swing, don't remember Canseco but Griffey definitely. For how great Griffey was he always struggle against great pitching something Ramirez did not
@@richdollars8337 what's your definition of level? The reason why what there saying is bullshit is because you have to look at the height of the player. Bellenger Gallo and Bryant are all over 6' 2" where Rameriz was around 6'0" . the taller you are the more you are above the strike zone the more down swing your going to have so you will have to work up more the shorter you are you are closer to the strike zone or in the strike zone there fore the less down swing you should have with the same up swing. Every ball you hit weather it's a ground ball or fly ball has launch angle so like l said before this is nothing new. Bonds hit with the same launch angle that these guys have and they called it Steroids so every year MLB has to come up with something hitting wise to talk about. Last year it was Hovering your front foot before it lands like Rhys Hoskins. Two years ago Harold was talking about hitting curve balls out in front. Three years ago Harold was talking about getting your foot down early and praising Will Middlebrooks. Four years ago it was the Toe Tap that was all the rage and a fix all. If anybody knows anything about baseball it's not the launch angle as the reason for hitting home runs it's the performance in the baseball with lower seams that give the ball better dynamics and more back or top spin and the guys at MLB Network know this otherwise there would be no such thing as the dead or live ball era. Always remember my friend....A baseball is soft and a Softball is hard. Peace
@@richdollars8337 not if the catcher is in a squat. No mater what size you are the strike zone is from the armpits to the knees. Pitchers using TILT is what changes the strike zone. Dustin Pedroia or Altuves strike zones are the same as Bryant and Harper because hitters are taught to get into there legs in the MLB so taller guys try to get shorter buy bending there knees.
H Reade It’s legit been a thing forever🤦🏾♂️. Ted Williams talked about it before they had the name “launch angle”. Every successful hitter swings uphill
Yeah, launch angle. Listen to the guy with well over 100 strike outs per season. No .300 season, let alone .350 and up. Maybe a fluke 40HR season, comparied to years of 40HR seasons. I will listen to what Barry Bonds and Albert Pujols have to say any day. Kris Bryant, Josh Donaldson, Joey Gallo, and others prove it works, then maybe your on to something.
If you hit 41 homeruns in a season, you should have at least 120 RBI, not 81, no true value there. 59 different players got more than 81 RBI in 2017, reguardless of how they did it, homeruns or not. 46 players scored more than 85 runs, but go ahead, keep talking about the career .203 hitter.
Nobody gives a shit about home rune count, it's about extra base hits and walks, which is the stat people are actually looking at. When Joey Gallo hit 41 home runs he also hit for extra bases and walked enough to offset his 209 average, making him more offensively valuable than some 300 hitters.
Yes and they're counted appropriately in wOBA. If you hit 50 home runs but nothing else all season you're not offensively valuable, but that isn't the case here.
I’m no professional baseball player, but these guys are throwing around the term “launch angle” like a rag doll. I understand that there is a hall of famer in this video but he clearly doesn’t understand what launch angle means. It pisses me off that these guys think they’re rocket scientists just because they use the term launch angle.
