More Stats: ABS Strike Zone, Arm Angles, Spin Rate

We’ve added a number of new metrics to the player pages and leaderboards related to the automated ball-strike challenge system, pitcher arm angles by pitch type, and spin rates by pitch type. These metrics first made their debut on MLB’s Baseball Savant, and we’re excited to bring them to you on FanGraphs.

And if you missed it, we added a number of Statcast Bat Tracking metrics last week.

Here are all the details:

• There is a new plate discipline section labeled “Statcast – ABS” on the leaderboards page. All the metrics in this section reflect how the ABS strike zone will be called and is the new default view for all plate discipline stats. Specifically, the zone is defined as:
  

  Like the plate, it is 17 inches wide. The top end of the zone is at 53.5% of the player’s height, while the bottom is at 27% of the player’s height. The depth of the zone is 8.5 inches from both the front and back of the plate to its center.

• Our previous strike zone definitions are still available under the “Statcast – Legacy” view.
• We’ve also added a more granular look at the strike zone, labeled “Statcast – Strike Zone Breakdown.” This includes the Heart (H-stats), Shadow (S-stats), Chase (C-stats), Waste (W-stats).

  

• There’s an even more granular view of the shadow zone, which splits it into pitches that are in the strike zone and in the shadow zone (SI-stats) and pitches that are in the shadow zone and outside the strike zone (SO-stats).
• Arm angle stats have been added by pitch type. Arm angle is defined as:
  

  a horizontal line extending from the location of the pitcher’s throwing shoulder and the location of ball at the time of the pitch.

• Spin rate stats have been added by pitch type. Spin rate is defined as:
  

  the spin on the baseball when the pitch is released. It is measured in revolutions per minute.