Torii Hunter seems to be struggling to understand this whole analytics thing.
The retired Minnesota Twins great (and now part-time analyst) gave a bizarre take on launch angles during the Twins-St. Louis Cardinals game on Tuesday.
Torii Hunter on the Twins' broadcast talking about "launch angle" will make your head hurt. https://t.co/eYOLV5jRkQ
— Aaron Gleeman (@AaronGleeman) May 8, 2018
what? pic.twitter.com/Kt2YEfQCij
— Parker Hageman (@ParkerHageman) May 8, 2018
“Like I said, the launch angle is good for some people, but I think everybody can’t hit with the launch angle,” said Hunter. “I heard [Toronto Blue Jays third baseman] Josh Donaldson say he launches the ball. If you look at his swing, it really has no launch. It actually goes through the ball, and then it launches actually through the ball. But you can’t go after it with the launch.”
To clarify, a launch angle is defined on the MLB website as a representative measurement of “the vertical angle at which the ball leaves a player’s bat after being struck.” So therefore, any batted ball (whether it is a grounder, a line drive, a fly ball, or a pop-up) has a launch angle. What a launch angle is not is a visual description of a player’s swing (or whatever Hunter is hinting it is).
The 42-year-old Hunter, who played in the league for 19 seasons and made five All-Star teams, now serves as a special assistant to baseball operations in the Minnesota front office in addition to his occasional broadcasting duties. Interestingly enough, this isn’t even Hunter’s strangest take in recent years.
