Something is sweeping through Major League Baseball this season that makes the batting-practice cage, the stands and the suites of team executives feel more like the halls of NASA. Everywhere you go at the ballpark, it seems, people are talking about exit velocity.
In their quest to uncover data that better measures players’ performances, the sport’s aficionados have decided that exit velocity — not a space shot but rather the speed of the ball as it leaves the bat — says a lot about a hitter.
“It’s really just physics,” said John Ricco, the Mets’ assistant general manager.