Welcome to the hitting side of Trackman Traits! We have covered the pitching side of the numbers produced by Trackman, now we will take a bit of a dive into the hitting numbers and break down some of the best uncommitted bats from the Garden State. Beyond looking at the Trackman metrics, or result based metrics, we will be highlighting a few Blast Motion metrics to get a better look into how that player's swing is able to produce the results that is does. Today we will be looking at a 2022 INF out of Williamstown, Matthew McIntire.

Before we get started, we'll go over and define some of the terminology being used in the piece. 

Exit Velocity-  this one's pretty simple but this metric measures the speed of the ball off the bat, measured in miles per hour (MPH).

Distance- another simple one, this metric measures how far the ball traveled or would travel if it was not obstructed, measured in feet.

Launch Angle- measures the vertical angle of the ball as it leaves the bat. Positive numbers represent balls traveling upward off of the bat and negative numbers mean the ball is traveling downward off of the bat. 

Fly Ball %-  Percentage of fly balls hit during a given set of batted ball events. Trackman defines a fly ball as any batted ball with a launch angle between 25 degrees and 49.9 degrees. 

Line Drive%-  Percentage of line drives hit during a given set of batted ball events. Trackman defines a line drive as any batted ball with a launch angle between 10 degrees and 24.9 degrees.

Ground Ball %- Percentage of ground balls hit during a given set of batted ball events. Trackman defines a ground ball as any batted ball with a launch angle below 9.9 degrees. 

Hard Hit%-  Percentage of batted balls with an exit velocity of 90 MPH or higher. 

Bat Speed- The speed of the sweet spot of the bat at impact, measured in MPH. The sweet spot is measured 6 inches from the tip of the bat. - Blast Motion

Hand Speed-  The speed of the handle of the bat just before impact, measured in MPH. The handle us measured 6 inches from the knob of the bat. - Blast Motion

Rotational Acceleration- A measure of how quickly the hitter gets from launch position to being on plane. This is measured in G-Force (g).  - Blast Motion 

On Plane Efficiency %-   A measure of the percentage of your swing that was on the swing plane. -Blast Motion 

 

TRACKMAN DATA ANALYSIS

Exit Velocity-  It does not take a hitting expert to tell you that hitting the ball hard is a good quality to have as a hitter. So it should not be too much of a shock to say if you can hit the ball 100 MPH like Matthew McIntire, you're probably doing something right in the box. The triple digits in the  max exit velocity category will always catch my eye. The average exit velocity for McIntire also caught my eye, but because one would not expect an average exit velocity of 82.5 MPH for a guy who can hit the ball 100 MPH. When diving into why there is such a big difference, it was really just a few outliers that pulled down the rest of the set. If you took those two outliers out of the data set, his average exit velocity would be just above 91 MPH. 

Distance-  Not a shock here, but guys that hit the ball hard generally hit it pretty far, too. So it should come as no surprise that McIntire not only had the hardest hit ball of the 2021 Last Chance Open, he also had the furthest hit ball traveling 384 feet. His average distance of 236 feet was solid as well as he was third among all players in that category.

Batted Ball Percentages- Starting here as always, Hard Hit % is one of my favorite numbers to look at. At 50%, McIntire could be higher in this category, but it's not awful. Among the balls he did hit hard (above 90 MPH), his average exit velocity was 98.3 MPH. When he gets a ball, he really gets it. Looking at where he hit the ball, 40% of his swings resulted in fly balls, 40% of his swings resulted in line drives, and he sprinkled in 10% ground balls as well. 

  

BLAST CONNECTION

Taking a look into the Blast metrics, McIntire stands out because of some top-tier bat speed. His max bat speed of 85.1 MPH is on a short list of high school players who I've ever seen venture their way into the mid 80s in that category. The average bat speed is nothing to scoff at either, registering an average bat speed of 74.83 MPH, which was good for sixth among players at this event. One area he could improve in is his on-plane efficiency. He was at 50% in this category and ideally, we would see that number at or above 70%. If he was able to improve upon that, he might also see less of those outliers that pull the average exit velocity down and start consistently barreling the ball up more often. 

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