Your Hard Hitting Royals

by Jeff Zimmerman on Jun 11, 2009 6:50 PM EDT

The people that brought us Pitch F/X, which gives all the ball curves and speeds on Gameday, have kept their cameras on a little longer and are now starting to measure the speed and direction of the ball coming off the bat. The data is only available for about the first month, but I had to see who are the hardest hitters on the Royals. I didn't run complete averages because it is tough to tell those are buts, hits, etc, but I just wanted to see who hit the hardest. So here are your 2009 hardest hitting Royals. Not much to say but, Billy the man.

Name	Top Speed Off Bat	Name	Average of Top 10 Hit Balls	Name	Average of Top 20 Hit Balls
John Buck	116.58	Billy Butler	105.43	Billy Butler	102.58
Billy Butler	112.3	John Buck	105.11	Mark Teahen	100.81
Jose Guillen	112.15	Mike Jacobs	104.82	Mike Jacobs	98.93
Mike Jacobs	107.97	Mark Teahen	103.56	Coco Crisp	98.8
Mark Teahen	107.37	Coco Crisp	101.38	David DeJesus	97.73
Coco Crisp	104.89	David DeJesus	100.8	Alberto Callaspo	95.06
David DeJesus	104.54	Jose Guillen	100.29	Mike Aviles	94.55
Alberto Callaspo	104.3	Mike Aviles	98.61	John Buck	94.49
Alex Gordon	103.99	Alberto Callaspo	97.57	Willie Bloomquist	88.55
Miguel Olivo	103.67	Willie Bloomquist	97.21	Jose Guillen	88.11
Mike Aviles	103.01	Miguel Olivo	95.94	Miguel Olivo	87.69
Willie Bloomquist	102.22
Mitch Maier	97.94
Tony Pena	93.2

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now if only we knew

that speed off the bat correlated to success…

BABIP, maybe?

by benfunke on Jun 11, 2009 7:00 PM EDT reply actions

Some people at Tom Tango's blog are looking into the data and getting OK results

They are mainly doing a comparison of Speed/Angle/Result

Jeff Zimmerman - Protecting the world from RBI's and Wins from my mom's guest house.

by Jeff Zimmerman on Jun 11, 2009 7:06 PM EDT up reply actions

Can't wait.

I’ve been eagerly anticipating Hit F/x forever.

by rockchalk on Jun 11, 2009 8:28 PM EDT up reply actions

I guess it's gonna come out to....

Something in quadrants like; MPH above or below this speed/at greater or lesser than this angle = a) b) or c)

It’s gonna be freaken sweet is all I know.

by MarioVanPeebles Republic of China on Jun 12, 2009 12:58 PM EDT up reply actions

sweet?

This would FINALLY and COMPLETELY take ALL the fun out of the game.

"Well, if we destroy Kansas the world may not hear about it for years." Blofeld

The General Theory of Royaltivity

by kabrink on Jun 14, 2009 5:56 PM EDT up reply actions

Teahen at #2 on top 20 surprises me.

He just seems like he rolls over so many balls, that his average would be drug way down.

If you were thinking, you wouldn't have thought that.

by Warden11 on Jun 11, 2009 11:39 PM EDT reply actions

but he rolls them over at such an incredible speed

by MarioVanPeebles Republic of China on Jun 12, 2009 12:59 PM EDT up reply actions

yeah

if this is just speed off bat — well, that’s important, but a 105 MPH ball straight into the ground is still straight into the ground… this is speed right off the bat, correct?

I'm not a sabermetrician, but I do play one at Driveline Mechanics.

by Matt Klaassen on Jun 12, 2009 1:44 PM EDT up reply actions