Batted ball trajectory
also: ground ball rate · fly ball rate · line drive rate
Whether a ball in play was a ground ball, a line drive, a fly ball or a pop-up.
Line drives become hits far more often than anything else; pop-ups almost never do; ground balls and fly balls trade singles for power. A hitter's mix of trajectories explains a lot of his batting average and slugging.
ESPN records a trajectory for every ball put in play, and get_spray_chart reports a hitter's or team's hit rate by trajectory.
The common mistake
Trajectory is a scorer's call, and the line between a line drive and a fly ball is fuzzy. Large samples smooth it out; single games do not.
Where to get it
Related
Batted ball trajectory from the API
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