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2019 MLB thread


spystud13

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Lol. I’ve always wondered the same thing.

Is the statcast batter left handed or right?

OK, this is goofy, but now — because of former major-league pitcher Brandon McCarthy — I cannot get this thing out of my head. Take a look at this image.

image5.png

This is a Statcast representation of one of Yordan Álvarez’s two home runs for the Astros on Monday night (you can find these images for every home run at MLB’s utterly essential Baseball Savant site). This is some kind of homer, by the way — 114-mph exit velocity is otherworldly, a 36-degree launch angle means it was hit very high, a 6.3 second hang time means it was some kind of majestic blast. Álvarez now has 24 home runs in his first 71 games as a major leaguer, which in any other year would seem utterly impossible. But in THIS year, it barely even registers because a whole bunch of first-year players are utterly crushing the ball.

  • Pete Alonso also bashed two homers on Monday, and now has a baseball-leading 47 homers.
  • The Reds’ Aristides Aquino, who did get one at-bat last season, has 15 home runs in his first 39 games. The Dodgers’ Will Smith has 13 homers in his first 42. Austin Riley hit 16 homers in his first 48.
  • Fernando Tatis Jr. had 22 homers in a half-season before getting hurt. Mike Yastrzemski has 19 home runs in a half-season, including three in one game.

And so on. Never before have so many raw, young players just come into the league and bashed home runs like this. Then again, as you know, all the league-wide home run records are falling and falling hard.

But let’s get back to the image.

Take a look at the illustration of the batter. 

image1.jpg

Now look a bit more closely and ask yourself this question:

Is the batter hitting right-handed or left-handed?

image1.jpg

At first glance, I suspect this is simple — you probably see a right-handed hitter (even though Álvarez himself is actually a left-handed hitter). But this image is sort of like that famous “Old Woman vs. Young Woman” optical illusion where it all depends on if you see the woman’s chin as her nose or her nose as her chin:

image6.jpg

In the batter’s case, it all depends on which leg you see as the back leg. If you see the right leg as the back leg, yes he does appear to be hitting right-handed like Mike Trout.

image11.jpgimage2.jpg

But if you can change your eye line so that you see the left leg back, you can see that the image ACTUALLY looks like Bryce Harper swinging lefty.

image11.jpgUSATSI_9495423-e1568133298922.jpg

I am not sure how hard the Statcast people worked on an image that would look like either a righty or a lefty batter, but now that Brandon brought it up, I can’t stop thinking about it. This thing is genius. It’s a lot like the shocking discovery so many of us had about the old Milwaukee Brewers logo, that it’s not just a glove but also an ‘M’ on top of a ‘B’ for Milwaukee Brewers.

image3.jpg

If you’re just seeing that Brewers’ thing for the first time … you’re welcome. It’s really cool.

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3 hours ago, UTexasFight said:

 

Lol. I’ve always wondered the same thing.

Is the statcast batter left handed or right?

 

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OK, this is goofy, but now — because of former major-league pitcher Brandon McCarthy — I cannot get this thing out of my head. Take a look at this image.

image5.png

This is a Statcast representation of one of Yordan Álvarez’s two home runs for the Astros on Monday night (you can find these images for every home run at MLB’s utterly essential Baseball Savant site). This is some kind of homer, by the way — 114-mph exit velocity is otherworldly, a 36-degree launch angle means it was hit very high, a 6.3 second hang time means it was some kind of majestic blast. Álvarez now has 24 home runs in his first 71 games as a major leaguer, which in any other year would seem utterly impossible. But in THIS year, it barely even registers because a whole bunch of first-year players are utterly crushing the ball.

  • Pete Alonso also bashed two homers on Monday, and now has a baseball-leading 47 homers.
  • The Reds’ Aristides Aquino, who did get one at-bat last season, has 15 home runs in his first 39 games. The Dodgers’ Will Smith has 13 homers in his first 42. Austin Riley hit 16 homers in his first 48.
  • Fernando Tatis Jr. had 22 homers in a half-season before getting hurt. Mike Yastrzemski has 19 home runs in a half-season, including three in one game.

And so on. Never before have so many raw, young players just come into the league and bashed home runs like this. Then again, as you know, all the league-wide home run records are falling and falling hard.

But let’s get back to the image.

Take a look at the illustration of the batter. 

image1.jpg

Now look a bit more closely and ask yourself this question:

Is the batter hitting right-handed or left-handed?

image1.jpg

At first glance, I suspect this is simple — you probably see a right-handed hitter (even though Álvarez himself is actually a left-handed hitter). But this image is sort of like that famous “Old Woman vs. Young Woman” optical illusion where it all depends on if you see the woman’s chin as her nose or her nose as her chin:

image6.jpg

In the batter’s case, it all depends on which leg you see as the back leg. If you see the right leg as the back leg, yes he does appear to be hitting right-handed like Mike Trout.

image11.jpgimage2.jpg

But if you can change your eye line so that you see the left leg back, you can see that the image ACTUALLY looks like Bryce Harper swinging lefty.

image11.jpgUSATSI_9495423-e1568133298922.jpg

I am not sure how hard the Statcast people worked on an image that would look like either a righty or a lefty batter, but now that Brandon brought it up, I can’t stop thinking about it. This thing is genius. It’s a lot like the shocking discovery so many of us had about the old Milwaukee Brewers logo, that it’s not just a glove but also an ‘M’ on top of a ‘B’ for Milwaukee Brewers.

image3.jpg

If you’re just seeing that Brewers’ thing for the first time … you’re welcome. It’s really cool.

 

Unless cross-handed grips have become a thing the Statcast dude is right handed. 

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15 hours ago, Scraps said:

Anyone here want to come at me with back to back most lopsided games attended?

I went to Stros beatdown of A's last night 15-0

I am at Oakland assraping of Htown tonight which is at 20-5 at the moment.

Bueller??

Was the Seattle series in Houston?  If so the run diff for your homestand must be approaching 💯 

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10 hours ago, Beau Vine said:

In some ways, this is better than the Arenado play.  And that way is because even though he's usually a catcher, he insisted on carrying his hat in his off hand the entire time:

 

I also like that he frightened a child at the end

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