Brad Keller looked the part of an opening-day starter for the Royals against the Chicago White Sox on Thursday at Kauffman Stadium. Tammy Ljungblad tljungblad@kcstar.com
Every time the Wizards of Analytics roll out a new metric, a certain segment of fans react as if we’ve discovered the Rosetta Stone of Baseball.
Those fans believe “launch angle” reveals the right way to hit a baseball, even though the Houston Astros — currently holding the best team batting average in baseball – are hitting .078 when they hit a fly ball that isn’t a home run, and it’s pretty clear hitters without consistent power should keep the ball out of the air and focus on line drives and grounders.