Looking into the Cubs batted ball numbers between 2017 and 2018 is interesting GB% 2017 - 45.5% (10th highest) 2018 - 46.0% (3rd highest) OK so they hit more ground balls but only 5 more grounders per 1000 batted balls, pretty close to the same LD% 2017 - 19.6% (22nd) 2018 - 21.4% (16th) Here they actually increased over 2018 fairly significantly but are still sitting middle of the league Hard Hit% 2017 - 31.2% (18th) 2018 - 31.7% (28th) They actually had a higher percentage of hard hit balls (though only by 0.5%) but despite that plummeted to the bottom of the league. This probably has something to do with the league wide focus on line drives, launch angle, exit velocity, etc. BABIP 2017 - .302 (15th) 2018 - .313 (2nd) What does this tell us? I don't know just thought they were interesting as I would have expected a large increase in GB% and drops in LD% and Hard Hit%. I guess this is where the Chili-led focus on putting it in play instead of focusing on hitting it hard with a good launch angle might show up. Also BABIP is interesting because some people credited Chili ball with the Cubs being at the top of the league in BA, and some of that might be true if they are hitting it harder but keeping it in the park.