AdvancedHitting · TrackingIntroduced 2024
Blast
A swing that is both fast and squared up. Statcast bat tracking keeps a separate count of them as its mark of a good swing.
Simple explanation
Swing hard and mishit it, and the ball won't go far. Square it up on a slow swing, and there isn't much behind it. A blast is a swing that gets both right. In 2024, roughly 10% of competitive swings and 27% of batted balls were blasts.
Detailed explanation
Squared-up rate (%) + bat speed (mph) ≥ 164
- Example
- 89% + 75 mph = 164 → blast
- Shortcut
- the two numbers average 82 or higher
A swing is squared up when its exit velocity reaches at least 80% of the most it could have been, given the bat speed and the pitch speed.
Bat speed is clocked six inches from the head of the bat. Player averages come only from competitive swings, such as each hitter's fastest 90%, and any swing at 75 mph or more also goes down as a fast swing.
Bat tracking showed up on Baseball Savant in May 2024, with records starting in the second half of 2023.