Welcome to the hitting side of Trackman Traits! We have covered the pitching side of the numbers produced by Trackman, now we will take a bit of a dive into the hitting numbers and break down some of the best uncommitted bats from the Garden State. Beyond looking at the Trackman metrics, or result based metrics, we will be highlighting a few Blast Motion metrics to get a better look into how that player's swing is able to produce the results that is does. Today we will be looking at a 2023 1B/3B from Don Bosco Prep, the Florida Gulf Coast commit, Allen Hernandez. Before we get started, we'll go over and define some of the terminology being used in the piece. 

Exit Velocity-  this one's pretty simple but this metric measures the speed of the ball off the bat, measured in miles per hour (MPH).

Distance- another simple one, this metric measures how far the ball traveled or would travel if it was not obstructed, measured in feet.

Launch Angle- measures the vertical angle of the ball as it leaves the bat. Positive numbers represent balls traveling upward off of the bat and negative numbers mean the ball is traveling downward off of the bat. 

Fly Ball %-  Percentage of fly balls hit during a given set of batted ball events. Trackman defines a fly ball as any batted ball with a launch angle between 25 degrees and 49.9 degrees. 

Line Drive%-  Percentage of line drives hit during a given set of batted ball events. Trackman defines a line drive as any batted ball with a launch angle between 10 degrees and 24.9 degrees.

Ground Ball %- Percentage of ground balls hit during a given set of batted ball events. Trackman defines a ground ball as any batted ball with a launch angle below 9.9 degrees. 

Hard Hit%-  Percentage of batted balls with an exit velocity of 90 MPH or higher. 

Bat Speed- The speed of the sweet spot of the bat at impact, measured in MPH. The sweet spot is measured 6 inches from the tip of the bat. - Blast Motion

Hand Speed-  The speed of the handle of the bat just before impact, measured in MPH. The handle us measured 6 inches from the knob of the bat. - Blast Motion

Rotational Acceleration- A measure of how quickly the hitter gets from launch position to being on plane. This is measured in G-Force (g).  - Blast Motion 

On Plane Efficiency %-   A measure of the percentage of your swing that was on the swing plane. -Blast Motion 

 

TRACKMAN DATA ANALYSIS

Exit Velocity- Taking a look at the sophomore corner infielder from Don Bosco, Allen Hernandez has put up some impressive Trackman numbers. Starting off with his max exit velocity, he topped out at 97.05 MPH. On average, Hernandez's exit velocity was 86.38 MPH, showing that not only can he have the ability to hit the ball hard, but he can do so consistently. From a young buck like Hernandez, to see anything over the 90-95 MPH range in max exit velocity is solid, meaning that when he barrels one up, that ball really jumps off his bat. And for the sophomore to consistently find hard contact to average out at about 86 MPH shows there is some barrel awareness there and solid hand eye coordination.

Batted Ball Percentages-  I always like to first look at Hard Hit % first here. The more consistently that one hits the ball hard, the better and Hernandez was near the top of the leaderboard at this event for Hard Hit %, coming in at 45.5%. Ideally, this number would be over 50%, meaning that he hit the ball over 90 MPH 50% of the time, but we're not too far off, and I think on a different day that number could be much higher. Looking at his batted ball profile, Hernandez hit mostly ground ball, evident by the 63.6% ground ball rate. He split the percentage of fly balls and line drives hit here evenly at 18.2% a piece. Hitting the ball hard is usually a good recipe for success, but hitting the ball on the ground without above average speed can hurt the numbers, so I would suggest trying to turn some of those balls on the ground into more line drives.

Distance-  Like stated above, Hernandez hit a bunch of ground balls in this BP round, so the average distance is understandably lower, coming in at 127 feet. However, when he hit the ball hard and hit it in the air, he was able to send it a good way, traveling a max distance of 341 feet. With more line drives and more fly balls, that average distance would be much higher, especially due to how hard Hernandez can hit the ball.

BLAST CONNECTION

When looking deeper into why Hernandez is able to hit the ball as hard as he does, I'll turn to the Blast Motion metrics to see if there are any numbers that stand out. Now, Hernandez does have a physically advanced 6-foot-2, 210 pound build, and the natural strength in the frame will take care of some of that juice in his bat. But to see exactly what Hernandez does that helps him hit the ball as hard as he does, let's look at the numbers. For starters, the bat speed stands out to me, as he is already swinging harder than your average high schooler, maxing out at nearly 78 MPH bat speeds. He averages at just above 74 MPH, staying above the high school average of around 68-72 MPH bat speeds. One more interesting note when looking through the Blast numbers is the on plane efficiency %. Ideally, a score of 70% or over in this category is what to strive for, and Hernandez was at 39%. This could be a key reason that Hernandez hit so many ground balls, and if he were to start training to keep his bat on plane throughout his swing better, those hard hit ground balls will turn into more hard hit line drives.

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