HitTilt+ & Hitting Data Visualized 5/20

HitTilt+ Leaderboard & Hitting Data Visualized

We went over some offensive data (hopefully it wasn’t too crude — jokes aside) yesterday which dealt with the FCL and ACL. Today, we’ll go over data from Low-A all the way up to AAA. As usual, I’ll post the Tableau link to the HitTilt+ leaderboard and a link to a plot that compares Total Bases/At Bat and SwStr%. I know — I’ve completely sold out on TB/PA and I still think it has its place but TB/AB is where we’re going to look at right now.

Let’s see what the plot looks like when everyone (minimum 70 PA / Age 26 and younger) is included:

There are too many data points and names here to list all of them (Check out Jose Fermin, though). Before you go and add him, I’d temper expectations as his metrics aren’t all that eye-popping. He’s a 25-year-old at AAA and although he’s at the top of the list in HitTilt+, he’s not someone who I think should be a priority add at all. This is where nuance comes into play — HitTilt+ is just a resource combining multiple metrics and weighing them separately while also taking Age and Level into account. There are names to definitely dig deeper on, but these are by no means rankings reflective of their future fantasy value, just a result of their means of production (no, Engels or Marx aren’t a part of the process at all).

After clicking the link to the plot, you will have an interactive way of engaging with it. The easiest filter to use is “Highlight Name” in which you type in which player you want to see. The example I’ll give you is filtering by age. Here is example one.

Filter by Age:

Age 18:

There will be a slide option on which you can set age on the upper right-hand side and if you wanted to search for players aged 18 who fit the criteria you’d slide it right and set it at 18. When you want to see the entire plot in its entirety again, all you have to do is slide it all the way to the left and make sure “ALL” is selected under “AGE”.

Here is another example. Slide it further right from 18 because let’s say you want to see how the 22-year-olds are doing. All you do is slide it right until “22” is listed under “AGE” or click the “→” until you get to “22”. Here is what that would look like:

I’ll link the plot and the HitTilt+ Leaderboard towards the end of this post:

First, Let’s take a look at the top 60 in terms of Total Bases/At Bat in the minor leagues (Minimum 70 PA/ Age 26 & younger):

There are some interesting names to keep an eye out for here — some are already in the big leagues while others are targets and/or names to be monitored & to dig deeper into. The HitTilt+ Leaderboard will differ from this a bit and the entire leaderboard will feature 1,125 listed players. Use it as a resource to dig deeper into a name and/or names you find interesting. In the coming weeks, I’ll write up some non-obvious names who I think are solid targets.

Here are the links to the HitTilt+ Leaderboard and the Total Bases/At Bats plot: