Statisticians have always tried to determine the extent to which a hitter’s talent level contributed to run production. Statcast now serves as a magnifying glass, allowing baseball data scientists to combine exit velocity, launch angle, batted ball location, and additional variables to truly zoom in on a hitter’s true talent.
For example, xStats uses Statcast data to create expected statistics, including expected wOBA (xOBA), Statcast FIP (scFIP), Batted Ball FIP (bbFIP), and dozens of other predictive numbers. Never before have we been able to so thoroughly neutralize the randomness of baseball, although the sport will always be kept alive by the arbitrary blood pumping through its haphazard heart.