Atlanta Braves’ hitters are rolling out the barrels

The statcast numbers are providing fans with a lot of interesting ways to look at hitting.  One of those ways might be a little surprising.

Yesterday, Staff writer Matthew Browning clued us in on the traditional stats showing that this Atlanta Braves offense is operating at an elite level.

Those are “results” numbers – the runs, RBI, homers, and even batting average.  But there’s another value signaling just how well that the Braves are squaring up balls and routinely driving them to produce those results.

Sometimes you’re going to be unlucky – particularly in this era of defensive positioning where the same numbers that show your tendencies also show the defenders exactly how to counter the things you’re doing at the plate.

However, if the ball is being hammered on a regular basis, you will see good results more often than not – and that’s what’s happening with the Braves.

The Old Oaken Barrel

In baseball terms, what is a “barrel”?  We kinda think that we’d have an idea of such things, but the folks crunching numbers in the MLB statcast department have a fairly rigorous definition that they are using.

The long for of their explanation can be read at this link, but here’s the Cliff Notes version:

• Exit velocity of 98 mph or better
• Minimum launch angle of 26-30 degrees
• the acceptable launch angle expands by 1-2 degrees for every increased mph of ball velocity
• For example:  at 100 mph, you’ve ‘barreled’ it with a launch angle between 24-33 degrees.

With that in mind, a look at today’s “Barrel Rate” is eye-opening.  This is the statcast chart identifying the rate at which players are generating barreled strokes, given as a percentage of barrels per plate appearance.

In checking the Top 50 players, here’s what we find today:

• 26 teams have players represented on this board
• 12 of them have two or more players in the Top 50
• 5 teams have 3 or more
• 3 teams have 4+ players on this chart
• Only the Atlanta Braves have 5 such hitters represented

Here they are:

• Freddie Freeman (11.5%, 10th overall in the majors)
• Austin Riley (9.7%, 26th)
• Ronald Acuna Jr.(9.3%, 32nd)
• Josh Donaldson (9.0%, 34th)
• Dansby Swanson (8.6%, 46th)

The Yankees (4) and Twins (4) are the other clubs with this many Top 50 Barrelers.  The Rays, Colorado, and Washington have 3 apiece.

Interestingly enough, Philadelphia – with all of their supposed firepower – has just 1 (tied with the Mets… Yeah, it’s Pete Alonso).

Now as it happens, this stat may or may not be the best one to measure this metric.  It is using plate appearances… which would tend to lower your percentage if you’re walk prone, for instance.

There is another sorting of this data that uses the percentage of Barrels compare to ‘batted ball events’ – which encompasses any time you’re putting wood on the ball.

The Braves still do well here:

• Freeman (15th, 16.5% Barrels per Batted ball Event)
• Riley (19th, 15.7% – i.e., when he touches the ball… ‘ball go far’)
• Donaldson (25th, 15.3%)
• Acuna Jr (35th, 14.5%)
• (Swanson dropped to 64th with 12.2%.  The threshold for the Top 50 was 13.1%)

The best in the majors at this latter category?  Joey Gallo at 28.4%.  Gary Sanchez was right behind him and his (16.2%) mark led the other group, with Gallo 3rd.

Still, if you want an indication of why this lineup is continuing to put runs on the board, it’s because most of this lineup is seeing the ball very well and – despite pitcher trickery – getting excellent wood on the ball with regularity.

There’s clearly some considerable talent making that happen, but I’ll also cite the work of Kevin Seitzer, Chipper Jones, and others for getting this team into “barrel shape”… and in this rare case, that phrase is a compliment.