Can We Quantify Hitting the Ball Hard?  March 19, 2012;
Glendale, AZ, USA; Cincinnati Reds first baseman Joey Votto (19)
against the Chicago White Sox at Glendale Ranch. Mandatory
Credit: Rick Scuteri-US PRESSWIRE  I've recently been thinking a
lot about BABiP, as usual, and some players inherent skill to
consistently outperform the major league average in that
category. While a lot has been said regarding why some players
with specific skill sets tend to consistently have higher BABiPs
than other, like fast players, there still is a lot of unknown
regarding players like Joey Votto who just seem to be hitting
the ball harder than anyone else. Which is exactly what I want
to focus on, players' abilities to hit the ball hard. The only
problem is, being able to hit a ball hard is a quality and in
order to gauge players' abilities we need to be able to quantify
them The issue with that being, we cannot perceive qualities
instead seeing their manifestations in certain contexts which
then enable us to quantify diff