Library Update: Batted Balls Statistics for Hitters

While certain parts of sporting media have welcomed a wide variety of sabermetrics, it looks as if almost every corner of the baseball word is integrating a few choice metrics into their broadcasts. One of those, which is the focus of this week’s Library update, is batted ball data.

It’s growing increasingly common to see line drive rate, ground ball rate, or fly ball rate dropped into casual baseball conversations outside of the analytics community, which makes this new entry on batted ball statistics for hitters a useful tool for those just learning about these numbers. Follow the link to learn about the classifications, uses for the data, limitations, and handy reference points.

As always, please comment below if you have questions, find me on Twitter @NeilWeinberg44, or stop by our weekly FanGraphs Q&A chats, Wednesdays at 3pm.





Neil Weinberg is the Site Educator at FanGraphs and can be found writing enthusiastically about the Detroit Tigers at New English D. Follow and interact with him on Twitter @NeilWeinberg44.

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leeroy
9 years ago

Why does FG use balls in plays as the denominator for batted ball statistics? Wouldn’t using contact as the denominator be better so we count fly balls that end up as HR?

Lee Trocinskimember
9 years ago
Reply to  leeroy

They do count homers. There is some ambiguity in the phrase “ball in play,” but here it means all contact that ended the at-bat.