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Last season, ESPN stat guru Mark Simon popularized a statistic called hard hit rate, which is the % of a player's at bats that end in a hard hit ball. Hard hit balls are classified by video trackers as batted balls with exit velocities of 90+ mph with strong trajectory and contact on the sweet spot of the barrel. This is a different stat than the new FanGraphs hard%, which is a percentage of balls in play rather than a percentage of at bats. It's also classified by different video trackers.
We want to target hitters with a high hard hit% and pitchers with a low hard hit% because the harder a ball is hit, the more likely strong offensive production occurs. The batting average on hard hit balls is over .700. Approximately 100% of home runs, 80% of triples and 70% of doubles are hard hit, while only 30% of singles are hard hit. For hitters, generating hard contact is a way to make run scoring more likely.
The average MLB hitter hits the ball hard in about 15% of his at bats. These hitters have ended the highest percentage of their at bats with a hard hit ball in 2015 (min. 200 ABs):
1. Bryce Harper, 25%
2. Paul Goldschmidt, 24.7%
3. Giancarlo Stanton, 24.4%
4. Andrew McCutchen, 23.9%
5. Freddie Freeman, 23.2%
6. Mike Trout, 22.4%
7. Brian Dozier, 22.2%
8. Anthony Rizzo, 22.2%
9. Prince Fielder, 22.1%
10. JD Martinez, 21.3%
11. Nolan Arenado, 21%
12. Miguel Cabrera, 20.9%
13. Jose Bautista, 20.4%
14. Ryan Howard, 20.3%
15. Joc Pederson, 20.2%
16. Carlos Santana, 20.2%
17. Adrian Gonzalez, 20.1%
18. Brandon Moss, 20.1%
19. Todd Frazier, 19.7%
20. Jason Kipnis, 19.7%
21. Albert Pujols, 19.7%
22. Luis Valbuena, 19.7%
23. Mitch Moreland, 19.6%
24. George Springer, 19.6%
25. Brandon Belt, 19.5%
26. Lucas Duda, 19.2%
27. Brandon Crawford, 19.1%
28. Jay Bruce, 19%
29. Lorenzo Cain, 19%
30. Yoenis Cespedes, 19%
31. Josh Donaldson, 18.8%
32. Derek Norris, 18.6%
33. Buster Posey, 18.6%
34. Troy Tulowitzki, 18.4%
35. Brian McCann, 18.3%
36. Mookie Betts, 18%
37. Robinson Cano, 17.9%
38. Torii Hunter, 17.9%
39. Josh Reddick, 17.9%
40. Kyle Seager, 17.9%