BABIP

[TruffleShuffle]

Is there anyplace that tracks BABIP on a regular basis and makes this available to the public? I was looking at Aubrey Huff's numbers and thinking he must have a pretty bad BABIP, which then led me to look for a place that lists the stat. Any help?

[Rob]

Hardball Times

 

Edit:

 

If you're looking for Huff, you'll need to turn off "qualified" and re-submit.

[TruffleShuffle]

Hardball Times

 

Edit:

 

If you're looking for Huff, you'll need to turn off "qualified" and re-submit.

 

Thanks! This has been added to my extensive list of baseball bookmarks. Huff's BABIP is .192, by the way.

 

So on the subject of BABIP, is it really all luck? For example, I think it has to be the case that weakling slap hitters like Neifi, Pierre, and Rey Rnez must have low BABIPs for their career. None of three strike out much at all, but especially in the case of Neifi and Rey, their career batting averages are not very good. If BABIP were all luck, shouldn't they have high batting averages since they put the ball in play in a large percentage of their ABs?

[TruffleShuffle]

Boy, I also notice looking through that stat page that the Cubs have 3 of the top 11 players in ground ball percentage, and that all three are the starting outfielders. That cannot be a good thing.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

Hardball Times

 

Edit:

 

If you're looking for Huff, you'll need to turn off "qualified" and re-submit.

 

Thanks! This has been added to my extensive list of baseball bookmarks. Huff's BABIP is .192, by the way.

 

So on the subject of BABIP, is it really all luck? For example, I think it has to be the case that weakling slap hitters like Neifi, Pierre, and Rey Rnez must have low BABIPs for their career. None of three strike out much at all, but especially in the case of Neifi and Rey, their career batting averages are not very good. If BABIP were all luck, shouldn't they have high batting averages since they put the ball in play in a large percentage of their ABs?

 

That's where the type of balls in play becomes a factor. Also at the hardball times, there's line drive percentage. A player's BABIP typically should be 100-110 points higher than their LD%. For example, take Austin Kearns. In '05 according to his LD% he should've had a BABIP upwards of .330, which was nearly 50 points higher than his actual BABIP. That's probably unlucky. This year, his LD% is about the same and his BABIP is more in line with that, leading to a big jump in production. Now these aren't universal truths, Neifi has shown consistently "unlucky" relations between LD% and BABIP, but that's because when he isn't hitting line drives his batted balls are so weak(and he doesn't hit for power) that he doesn't get many hits on groundballs or flyballs. Hopefully that makes sense, my train of thought kinda jumped around a bit.

[TruffleShuffle]

That's where the type of balls in play becomes a factor. Also at the hardball times, there's line drive percentage. A player's BABIP typically should be 100-110 points higher than their LD%. For example, take Austin Kearns. In '05 according to his LD% he should've had a BABIP upwards of .330, which was nearly 50 points higher than his actual BABIP. That's probably unlucky. This year, his LD% is about the same and his BABIP is more in line with that, leading to a big jump in production. Now these aren't universal truths, Neifi has shown consistently "unlucky" relations between LD% and BABIP, but that's because when he isn't hitting line drives his batted balls are so weak(and he doesn't hit for power) that he doesn't get many hits on groundballs or flyballs. Hopefully that makes sense, my train of thought kinda jumped around a bit.

 

Yeah, it does. I know of the LD% stat but never paid much notice to it. I thought Jason Lane was having really poor luck with his BA this year, but he has the worst LD% in baseball, so that helps explain it. Huff's LD% has also been declining the last two years. That site really is a gold mine of info... I'm going to have fun learning about a lot of that stuff.

[TruffleShuffle]

Oooh, I like GPA. Kind an OPS-like stat but places more emphasis on OBP than SLG. That might be my new favorite stat.

[sonicdethmonkey0]

how can pujols' BABIP be so low... only .229? is there any particular reason for someone having such a ridonkulous year to have such a low BABIP? what kind of year would he be having if his BABIP was 30 or 40 points higher? yikes.

[Transmogrified Tiger]

how can pujols' BABIP be so low... only .229? is there any particular reason for someone having such a ridonkulous year to have such a low BABIP? what kind of year would he be having if his BABIP was 30 or 40 points higher? yikes.

 

It's in line with his LD% though. Remarkably he doesn't hit a lot of line drives. He also doesn't strike out a ton either which means there are more balls in play in general.

[sonicdethmonkey0]

another interesting stat: todd walker has more runs created than todd helton.

[Andy]

another interesting stat: todd walker has more runs created than todd helton.

Walker is always really good especially for a 2B (granted he is playing 1B most of this year so far), and while his SLG is down this year, he's on pace to have his best full-season OBP since 1998 with Minnesota. A lot of teams are probably wishing they'd thrown Hendry a bone this off-season because he's been very good (in the field too, with only 2 errors at 1B).

[Drew Doughty]

how can pujols' BABIP be so low... only .229? is there any particular reason for someone having such a ridonkulous year to have such a low BABIP? what kind of year would he be having if his BABIP was 30 or 40 points higher? yikes.

 

he doesn't keep anything in play, he just hits home runs. And then, because he doesn't strike out that often, he makes most of his outs in play.

 

And like TT said, it's in line with his LD%