New Stat: HRD “Home Run Damage”
By Earl Nash
“And that is OVER the Green Monster and into the parking lot across the street! Big Poppy goes opposite field and he crushed it!”
“And, that was a 2.97 HRD, Joe! And that tops the Red Sox high of 2.67 by Middlebrooks and takes over the #2 slot in MLB history, behind Prince Fielder’s 2.99 and shoves Ryan Braun into third place with his 2.95…”
Just as we have become accustomed to the MPH ratings, since the arrival of the radar gun for pitchers, we will soon hear HRD [Home Run Damage] scores with the advent of software that can measure just how much the batter “crushed it.”
The brilliant Chris St. John over at Steal of Home [http://stealofhome.wordpress.com/] has created the HRD [Home Run Damage] statistic and explains:
“Greg Rybarczyk created HitTrackerOnline.com, now ESPN Home Run Tracker, a great website that tracks every home run hit since 2006. It shows how far a home run actually went, replacing myth with objectivity. I had the idea over at The Platoon Advantage to use this objectivity to find the most awe-inspiring home runs in 2011, which is where the Damage statistic originated.
Basically, home run damage compares the speed and distance of a home run to the average for all home runs, using z-scores. Only 14% of all home runs have a Damage above 2. Fewer than 2% have a Damage above 4. The truly elite home runs (27 out of the over 29,000 hit) are above 6. The reverse is true for negative Damage. Home runs with negative damage are simply below average.” [http://stealofhome.wordpress.com/home-run-damage/]
Chris created eight sub-categories for the HRD. Here is today’s report:
Most Damaging: J.P. Arencibia, 2.46 – #78 in 2012, #2,668 overall
Least Damaging: Matt Joyce, -2.19
Fastest off the Bat: J.P. Arencibia, 109.4 mph, 2.46 Damage
Slowest off the Bat: Ryan Braun, 99.6 mph, -1.63 Damage
Highest Apex: Ryan Braun, 128 feet, -1.63 Damage
Lowest Apex: Chris Johnson, 49 feet, -0.16 Damage
Closest to straight center: Edwin Encarnacion, 97.8 degrees, 0.21 Damage
Walk-off: None
[http://stealofhome.wordpress.com/2012/05/10/home-run-damage-report-may-9th-2012/]
If you are looking for “The Next” Bill James, check this guy out!
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