Launch Angles, Crooked Sticks and Baseball Bats _ A Rant

[frankbmd]

Golf, like baseball, involves hitting a ball with a stick, or in golf's case a bag full of sticks. Like baseball, the pros and the equipment manufacturers want to optimize distance. To this end launch angles, club head speeds, spin rates and coefficients of restitution have been part of the golf world's lexicon in the past decade.

In golf, unlike baseball, the ball is stationary when struck. The clubs have a face which is fixed and designed to loft the ball to a variety of heights depending on the requirements of the shot, distance desired and clearance of hazards. Measuring launch angles and the result distance of the shot given a constant club head speed is generally reproducible information. Club design changes can use this information to obtain more desirable results for the golfer. Likewise balls can be measured and optimized by golf ball manufacturers. Golfers themselves can alter their swings to achieve better results as well. At least at the highest level of proficiency, it sort of makes sense to generate this data and use it to one's advantage.

In the last year or two similar technology has been introduced in baseball and the terms "launch angle" and "exit speed" are being bandied about by the younger crop of announcers. I would not argue that there is an optimal launch angle for the batter to hit the ball over the fence and like golf the ball is round.
The batter however is provided with a round bat (with no intrinsic launch angle built in). If the bat happens to hit the ball, a quarter or even an eighth of an inch could have a profound impact on launch angle. Compound this with the fact that ball struck is moving up to 100 mph and each pitch is in a different location.

Furthermore imagine that you are a vaunted home run hitter and that last season you also struck out 200 times. Think for minute. 600 times you failed to even generate a measurable launch angle, and you are still an all-star. Does Jordan Spieth, Bubba or Tiger completely miss the ball 600 times in a season?
Obviously not.

Then imagine you are in the batter's box facing Aroldis Chapman in the bottom of the ninth. You know that the next pitch will be a 102 mph fastball. You pray that it will not hit you. You have less than a second to assess if and where it might cross the plate. Coupled with this you must decide whether to swing or not. If you happen to be successful and make contact with the ball, how much time did you spend to optimize your launch angle. What is shorter than a nanosecond?

When all is said and done, if the ball clears the fence in fair territory, you have hit a home run. Your launch angle may have been close to optimal (or not) and your input as a batter to tweak your launch angle is virtually non-existent. The fact that you didn't strike out is an accomplishment.

I fully realize that hitting a baseball thrown by a major league pitcher is exceeding difficult. Hitting a ball off a tee or in a divot is considerably easier.
Crooked sticks (golf clubs) are designed to make it even easier. Making golf clubs, golf balls and golfers better is the end result of launch angle technology in golf.

In baseball we are swamped with statistics, good and bad, and an incredible about of data. If something does not help our understanding of the game, it should be discarded.

What does the future hold? Will there sometime in the future be a plaque in Cooperstown with an inscription commenting on a player's superior and consistent launch angle? I respectfully doubt it.

If this verbage remains in the baseball lexicon, I propose the following.

Change the All-Star game Home Run Derby into a Launch Angle Derby.
Require all participants to hit balls off Tees (as in Teeball and Golf).
Determine the winner not by the number of homeruns, but rather by a complicated computer generated launch angle efficiency.

End of rant.