Bat-tracking data has been the next big thing for which lovers of baseball data hungered for over a year, and on Sunday, Baseball Savant went live with new numbers that let us measure and compare players' bat speed, the solidity of their contact, and their directness to the ball. There's still nore coming, but let's take a look at three things we can learn by glancing at the new data through Twins-colored glasses.
Alex Kirilloff's Early-Season Surge, and Subsequent Struggles
Increasingly, the Twins' former top prospect's offensive performance is a topic of concern and conversation. Last week, Cody Pirkl broke down the way Kirilloff has fallen off after a very exciting hot start, and now, we can take a closer look at how that has happened.
Through April 15, Kirilloff's average swing speed was 72.9 miles per hour, and his average swing length (the distance traveled in three-dimensional space by the tip of the bat from the start of the swing to the contact point, whether contact is actually made or not) was 7.7 feet. In the second half of April, the latter number held steady, but the former one fell to 72.1 MPH. Since May 1, Kirilloff is down to 71.9 MPH in average swing speed, and his swing length has crept up to 7.8 feet.
In a vacuum, a shorter swing is better, but because shorter swings tend to be slower ones, we have to balance swing speed and swing length in evaluating a hitter's choices at the plate. Here, though, Kirilloff is losing swing speed without shortening up at all. If anything, the swing is getting a hair loopier, as well as slower. That's bad news, though it's too early in both the season and the public lifespan of this data to know how unusual it is or to assess whether it means Kirilloff is hurt again.
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