Batting Title

NinersSBChamps said:
So Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn weren’t productive hitters?
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No. They sucked. They were just lucky to have sustained an unstainable BABIP for twenty seasons. Oh and that Williams guy that hit .400 He should have changed his launch angle to hit more home runs. Didn’t he realize only home runs matter.
 
NinersSBChamps said:
Some lower numbers than years past. Justin Morneau his .314 or something in 2014.
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The lowest I can recall (and it was before most of you were born) was Carl Yastrzemski's .301 in 1968. Great hitter who radically changed his batting stance mid-career.

For the record, if you read Ted Williams' Science of Hitting, he briefly talks of launch angle although not in those exact words. He advocated having the bat path elevate slightly through the swing. The influential Charlie Lau school (well, it used to be influential) went the other direction. His The Art of Hitting .300 is also an interesting book.

If Ted Williams hadn't spent five prime years of his career in the military, it's not out of the realm of possibility that he would have broken Babe Ruth's career HR mark before Hank Aaron. He's probably the best hitter of all time.
 
JxnMissFan said:
No. They sucked. They were just lucky to have sustained an unstainable BABIP for twenty seasons. Oh and that Williams guy that hit .400 He should have changed his launch angle to hit more home runs. Didn’t he realize only home runs matter.
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Straw man, come together with your hand. Save me.
 
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JxnMissFan said:
No. They sucked. They were just lucky to have sustained an unstainable BABIP for twenty seasons. Oh and that Williams guy that hit .400 He should have changed his launch angle to hit more home runs. Didn’t he realize only home runs matter.
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Actually...

Gywnn's .341 career BABIP is perfectly in line with what we would expect from a guy who sprayed the ball all over and hit a lot of line drives. Couple a high BABIP with an all time great K rate of 4.2%, and a career BA of .338 is exactly what you would expect.

Boggs' .344 career BABIP is also perfectly reasonable from a guy who sprayed the ball around and hit a lot of line drives. He also had an elite K rate of 6.9%. His career BA of .328 lines up perfectly with what you'd expect from a guy who K'd more than Gwynn, but had a similar BABIP.

There is nothing mystical about what Gwynn and Boggs did. We understand it perfectly. Everything they did falls exactly in line with the analytical understanding of the game today.

The question becomes: how much more productive would these guys have been had they known to alter their launch angle a bit to generate more power at the expense of a few more Ks? We know now they would have likely benefited greatly, if only the stigma surrounding the K didn't exist.
 
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