Avg LA / Avg LA

Batter

Average launch angle in degrees over batted balls carrying a measured angle, bunts excluded. Its denominator is not the exit-velocity denominator: a small number of batted balls each season carry an angle with no speed, or the reverse. Recorded rather than parity-enforced — it agrees with Savant on 86.8% of qualified batters and the cause of the rest is not yet known.

Agreement with Savant

Recorded, but not parity-enforced. This column is stored and shown; no agreement with Savant is claimed for it.

Pitcher

Average launch angle allowed, in degrees, over batted balls carrying a measured angle, bunts excluded. Its denominator is not the exit-velocity denominator: a small number of batted balls each season carry an angle with no speed, or the reverse. Recorded rather than parity-enforced — it agrees with Savant on 82.1% of qualified pitchers and the cause of the rest is not yet known.

Agreement with Savant

Recorded, but not parity-enforced. This column is stored and shown; no agreement with Savant is claimed for it.

Shown for: batter and pitcher.

Formula

sum(la_sum) / NULLIF(sum(la_bbe), 0) — mean launch angle over non-bunt batted balls carrying a measured angle. Its own denominator, la_bbe, not the exit-velocity one: a batted ball can carry an angle with no speed, or the reverse.

Inputs

pitches.launch_angle
plate_appearances.la_sum
plate_appearances.la_bbe

Era caveats

Bunts are excluded

Every exit-velocity figure excludes bunts, matching Savant's hfFlag=is..bunt search flag. That flag reproduces Savant's published exit velocity exactly; velocity cutoffs and the sac_bunt column do not. (runbook §16)

Three tracking systems across the seasons shown

Rows carry a tracking_era of trackman, hawkeye or hawkeye_bat (migration 001). The systems differ in what they measure and how precisely, so long spans cross a measurement boundary as well as a rule one.

Version history

2026-08-30 — Denominator chosen by a five-candidate sweep against published data: la_bbe, not ev_bbe, ahead on every run. Recorded but not parity-enforced — it agrees with Savant on 86.8% of qualified batters and 82.1% of pitchers, worse than hardhit_pct's bar, and the sweep ruled out a denominator error without finding the actual cause. (runbook §51)