If you are a pitcher, hard hit batted balls usually are not a good thing. I think we all know that intuitively. Let’s take a look at hard hit balls and their impact on some of the pitchers in the Astros’ rotation.
What brought this to my attention? As I reviewed pitcher leaderboards at Fangraphs, I noticed that Framber Valdez is allowing a lot of hard contact, although he is among the league leaders in ERA.
Among qualified starting pitchers, Framber Valdez allows the highest average exit velocity in the majors (91.8 mph). Interestingly, Hunter Brown allows the 10th highest average exit velocity (90.