Is Launch Angle Actually Important in Baseball?

[@DanBlewett]

Check out my free resources, books and products here 👉 media.danblewett.com/shop

[@DavidTuley]

Thank you for the video. Backspin vs. topspin is significant factor to address IMHO.

[@DanBlewett]

Beyond the scope of this video.

[@chriscarpenter317]

It's important to the extent that you don't want to be hitting everything on the ground. None of these players say, " hey I'm gonna hit this one 14.8 degrees" you try and work on a bat path that has a slight upper cut. You really shouldn't even notice it's much more than a level barrel through the zone. The way you achieve it is actually hitting the ball out in front of the plate. This allows you natural path to strike the ball just on its way up through the follow through. That being said, you want your barrel pretty much level from the back of home plate to the front. Thats what keeping your barrel through the zone is. These players who are trying to tailor their swings with a certain degree of upper cut in it on every swing, are going to hit the outside pitch and hit a lazy pop up on the opposite side most of the times. You need to have your barrel pretty level to do some damage on the outer half of the plate to keep from it. Yeah they'll get lucky on a few swings and drive the ball the other way, but they'll pop up to short or second more than hit any extra base hits. They also get all the way against the Plate and try and pull everything because of this. That's why I don't like this whole approach. I tell people to watch Ted Williams and Albert Pujols hit and try to swing like they teach. Their swings cover the whole plate and let's you hit with some power to all fields.

[@shizzdinero]

Boutta make a million from this video . Thanks for the great teaching 💎💯

[@tweetiddleydum]

So, studying launch angle results given up by a pitcher will suggest pitchers tendencies?

[@EdwardCurrent]

3:50 A ball at 5° will carry 10, 20, maybe 30 feet? Are we talking a bunt, or me throwing?

[@DanBlewett]

That was a mis-speak by me. It'll carry further than that, but depends on exit velocity and topspin. Lower angles will start to have a lot of more topspin.

[@tkosandiegotrustknowone619]

Great break down!!

[@patrickgoodman4576]

Seems like guys should be going for exit velo > launch angle first and foremost

[@erismo2138]

Don't suppose you'd feel like putting in a link or credit to the graphics, like at 5, 6, 8 and 9 minutes? Maybe it's in one of your books.

[@DanBlewett]

I think they came from here. Not in a book. baseballsavant.mlb.com/statcast_field

[@Showcardsusa]

Great video Dan

[@여기봐라]

Which swing is suitable for short people?

[@DanBlewett]

Short doesn’t matter. Only power. But generally short means less power so line drives are better.

[@여기봐라]

@@DanBlewett I am not comfortable because I am short, but I will always try! thank you!!!

[@bungalsfan87]

Watch guys you like and emulate them. Bregman is good for a short to it long through it swing for a smaller guy. Mookie stays really inside the ball, Pedroia had great balance and flat swing. Work from the ground up with a swing, legs are more important the smaller you are.

[@patrickgoodman4576]

Short is less leverage but came be made up in using bat speed/quickness and strength which is something all hitters should strive for anyways

[@DougNielsen]

Nick Madrigal and Steven Kwan both great examples of big league contact hitters.

[@DanBlewett]

thanks - I kinda flubbed on that one. Altuve was not a great example.

[@DougNielsen]

@@DanBlewett Not an easy one to find. MLB has moved away from players that hit for percentage anymore (IMO). It is HR or nothing it feels like. The legends like Tony Gwynn or Pete Rose that hit for contact and got on a lot (singles) are not favored in the bigs anymore but they do still exist. Love the topic and the explanation.

[@DanBlewett]

your opinion is a fact. Go to a college game, minor league game and an MLB game - the difference between the three is very, very obvious. MLB games are quiet, much less fun to watch - too few batted balls and baserunning.

[@shawnspeed3093]

@Coach Dan Blewett Altuve was a great example the only difference in him now he has job security so he can take more chances. Pedroia did the same thing job security take more chances playing outfront.

[@JohnSmith-ns4gt]

Kepler's swing in the thumbnail?

[@DanBlewett]

couldnt even tell ya - i dont remember

[@chrislewis5069]

I think you’re right. I thought it was Freddie freeman

[@jeremyblascoe8711]

IMO, Mike Trout and Juan Soto are the best hitters in baseball. Both have single digit average launch angles. Sotos is 5.4, Trout is 9.8. So here’s the million dollar question, if launch angle is so important why are two of the best hitters in baseball rocking single digits? Both have high batting avgs and both hit for a ton of power. So kids, when making the decision whether to add loft, ask yourself this, you wanna be like Javy Baez or Joey Gallo or Cody Bellinger who strike out at epic clips and are as up and down as the weather here in Illinois, or you wanna be a model of consistency like Trout and Soto? Barry Bonds also rocked a low avg launch angle. Yea u may hit a few tape measure blast adding loft but in the end you’ll never be consistent adding loft to your swing. If big leaguers struggle to pull it off so will you. Put the barrel on the ball and let the cards fall where they may. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a single. Todays game is awful to watch, plain awful.

[@richjh9]

Trout has a career launch of 18, this year is was 25.

[@aura809]

Mike Trout had the highest launch angle in 2022 out of all qualified hitters.

[@cwj9202]

Watching older Hall-of-Famers swing their bats, one notices that their hands finished alongside, but not above, the shoulder. Many of the current hitters pursue the elevate and celebrate approach where their hands finish above the shoulder, leading to increased strikeouts and lower on-base percentages. The likes of Mickey Mantle, Willie Mays, Joe DiMaggio, Hank Greenberg, Hank Aaron, and Ted Williams hit a few homeruns in their days with a line drive stroke in this manner: Suppose the fastball is arriving at the plate at a downward angle of 10°, and is met by a upward bat swing angle of 10° (the plane of the pitch matching the plane of the swing). Then the center mass of the pitched baseball only needs to make contact 1/4" to 3/8" above the bat's cross-sectional center line and in close proximity to the bat's center of percussion. i.e. the sweet spot, to generate a homerun launch angle of 20° to 25°, provided sufficient bat speed is generated.

[@DanBlewett]

im agnostic about the differences in strikeout rates then vs now. there's an awful lot of variables at play, its hard to pull out one and say that it was it.

[@cwj9202]

@@DanBlewett - One of the variables would be the postage size strike zone of today compared to the larger strike zones of yesteryear, but those aside, a bat attack angle of 30° to achieve a homerun on a 10° declining pitched ball calls for a higher degree of precision contact than a line drive stroke does.

[@DanBlewett]

most MLB players have attack angles of 8-15 degrees. I'm not sure where you're getting 30 - no one has an attack angle even close to that.

[@cwj9202]

@@DanBlewett - On a related issue, it would be interesting to see you interview your friend the aerodynamics professor on the subject of spin rate. The difference between a spin rate of 2400 rpm and 2800 rpm is @ 2 extra revolutions from the pitcher's hand to the strike zone, and I don't see how that would impact the Magnus Effect enough to cause a swing and a miss on a high fastball.

[@cwj9202]

@@DanBlewett - I have seen Bellinger of the Dodgers and a few others have an attack angle close to 30° or slightly less on pitches above the belt. I agree with you that most players execute swings in the 8-15° range.

[@gavin2391]

Nice video

[@DanBlewett]

Thanks

[@cameronmachado1774]

But Jeff Frye said all these stats are buIIshit with no relevance in today's game and "he's played the game." Is he just mad that he doesn't understand the math and physics of baseball and how to apply it to player development?

[@DanBlewett]

decide for yourself

[@cameronmachado1774]

@DanBlewett I agree with you. They matter for some and are a part of the game regardless of how we feel about it

[@pashahillyard8763]

*Shameless plug for Luis Arraez as the prototype below-average pop example

[@MrChuckwagon55]

Did you ever see the interview with Christian Yelich about when his career went from average to below average and then in one single cage session alone with Barry Bonds (when Bonds was the hitting coach with the Marlins for one year) changed his swing? You have to watch it, too long to type. Immediately after he started crushing the ball, getting far more hits, more home runs, basically became a totally different hitter. Won the MVP. The next year or year after. Stanton mentioned something similar too. He basically forced him to discipline himself and swing downwards to create maximum backspin. Also, there’s a great book called “The science of baseball” written by scientists, and they gave all this amazing scientific information. Like for a baseball to travel it’s maximum distance, it must be hit (or thrown at exactly a 35 degree angle). Check it out. If I had you as a coach in high school I’d probably be worth over $100 million dollars. Kids, my mentor was a MLB former player and a MLB former pitching coach. This guy is better. I wish I had a Time Machine and tell myself to lift weights (naturally) and get as strong as possible.

[@southali]

No. 45 degrees is the optimal angle for distance.

[@povertygarage705]

Do a Google video search of "3d baseball swing". You'll notice that the barrel path makes a disk around the player. The swing is both down and up depending on what part you focus on. The launch or the follow through. If a batter focuses on trying to hit the ball down, it's basically the same as moving the ball deeper into the disk of their swing. By doing this, Yelich was basically training himself to just let the ball get deeper into the zone and hitting the ball with the truer part of his bat path.