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Socnorb11 wrote: ↑

April 5 23, 7:23 pm

If he could bat against the Cardinals' pitching staff every day, he'd have twice that many hard-hit balls.

If he could bat against the Cards' staff every day, his name would be Ronald Acuna III.

I haven't watched him, is there anything noteworthy in that everything is getting hit into the ground so far? It strikes me as weird that 11 of those 12 100 mph+ are ground balls and that he's only like 5th percentile for launch angle despite hitting the bejeezus out of the ball so often.

Transmogrified Tiger wrote: ↑

April 5 23, 10:52 pm

I haven't watched him, is there anything noteworthy in that everything is getting hit into the ground so far? It strikes me as weird that 11 of those 12 100 mph+ are ground balls and that he's only like 5th percentile for launch angle despite hitting the bejeezus out of the ball so often.

That's always been one of the talking points from scouts about him. As hard as he hits the ball, a lot of them are on the ground. If/when he starts lifting the ball more often, he's going to be a terror.

Magneto2.0 wrote: ↑

April 6 23, 4:55 am

Transmogrified Tiger wrote: ↑

April 5 23, 10:52 pm

I haven't watched him, is there anything noteworthy in that everything is getting hit into the ground so far? It strikes me as weird that 11 of those 12 100 mph+ are ground balls and that he's only like 5th percentile for launch angle despite hitting the bejeezus out of the ball so often.

That's always been one of the talking points from scouts about him. As hard as he hits the ball, a lot of them are on the ground. If/when he starts lifting the ball more often, he's going to be a terror.

Yes, even his HR was smoked on a line and didn’t seem to have much lift.

Magneto2.0 wrote: ↑

April 6 23, 4:55 am

Transmogrified Tiger wrote: ↑

April 5 23, 10:52 pm

I haven't watched him, is there anything noteworthy in that everything is getting hit into the ground so far? It strikes me as weird that 11 of those 12 100 mph+ are ground balls and that he's only like 5th percentile for launch angle despite hitting the bejeezus out of the ball so often.

That's always been one of the talking points from scouts about him. As hard as he hits the ball, a lot of them are on the ground. If/when he starts lifting the ball more often, he's going to be a terror.

This seems like a thing that the modern tech of the sport can help him with, and the Cardinals seem to encourage the use of that tech. Pitch judgment and physical strength are probably harder to coach, and he seems to have that.

All of Walker's negative launch angle contact come from 13 BBE.

Can we check back in 100-200 samples?

Michael Harris and Vlad Jr: also bad average LA (in a whole season in 2022). Not as meaningful as it seems, especially with so few samples.

Big Amoco Sign wrote: ↑

April 6 23, 9:58 am

All of Walker's negative launch angle contact come from 13 BBE.

Can we check back in 100-200 samples?

Michael Harris and Vlad Jr: also bad average LA (in a whole season in 2022). Not as meaningful as it seems, especially with so few samples.

I'm personally not making any grand conclusions, it just struck me as a weird thing to have 90+% of those 100+ BBE be ground balls when the average is a little less than half. He's 17th in hard hit rate and has a negative average launch angle, only 2 other players in the Top 50 are like that. One of them is Juan Soto, so clearly not disqualifying. Still strange!

Transmogrified Tiger wrote: ↑

April 6 23, 10:35 am

Big Amoco Sign wrote: ↑

April 6 23, 9:58 am

All of Walker's negative launch angle contact come from 13 BBE.

Can we check back in 100-200 samples?

Michael Harris and Vlad Jr: also bad average LA (in a whole season in 2022). Not as meaningful as it seems, especially with so few samples.

I'm personally not making any grand conclusions, it just struck me as a weird thing to have 90+% of those 100+ BBE be ground balls when the average is a little less than half. He's 17th in hard hit rate and has a negative average launch angle, only 2 other players in the Top 50 are like that. One of them is Juan Soto, so clearly not disqualifying. Still strange!

I am more concerned about his OF defense. Which is Soto-esque, in a slightly negative way. But we need many many many innings there too.

Need Walker to get his first big league walk now. And start compiling those too.

ZiPS has Walker ROS rounding out around 100 wRC+. I need that projector to be way way wrong.

Looking at the data (savant seems to be missing quite a bit at this point in the season) a lot of the damage has come off sinkers and sliders, and some balls that are classified as grounders are low liners, smoked like the ball that short-hopped and ate up Bichette and a double that hooked around the 3B in the air. I can only think of three balls with any real launch angle, a HR, double, and a bloop single.

I'm not concerned about the defense. He's incredibly fast with a really strong arm. Needs to get used to the corner at Busch and hit the cutoff man, that stuff will come. On that highlight play Donovan made in the first series he didn't read it at all and was nowhere close but that could be a one off.