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Orioles lead the league in hitting into double plays the least


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18 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

See, I was all prepared with the response that teams that have a ton of people on base are more likely to hit into double plays because there are so many more opportunities. A corollary to the fact that bad teams often turn more double plays than good teams, again more opportunities.

But the O's are so good that they not only have a ton of runners on, they somehow avoid the GIDPs, too.

That would have led to an obligatory response that the O's don't have a ton of people on base! They're 20th in MLB in OBP.

And since they're 1st in slugging, a ton of those times on base don't set up double play situations. This team is 27th in MLB in singles. 28th in MLB in walks. 28th in MLB in GB%. There's your low GIDP recipe. 

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2 minutes ago, Spy Fox said:

That would have led to an obligatory response that the O's don't have a ton of people on base! They're 20th in MLB in OBP.

And since they're 1st in slugging, a ton of those times on base don't set up double play situations. This team is 27th in MLB in singles. 28th in MLB in walks. 28th in MLB in GB%. There's your low GIDP recipe. 

All good points. Although they are 24th in the Majors in strikeouts, and it's hard to ground into a double play if you don't put the ball in play. The O's do put it in play a lot, but managed to avoid the twin killings. 

The Yanks lead the league in OBP and are below-average in striking out, and have hit into 30 more double plays than the O's in just 48 games.

The Orioles are hitting into a double play just once every 2.58 games. The full-season record for fewest GIDP is the '21 Rays' 75, or once every 2.16 games. I'll hazard a guess that the O's are going to hit into more as the season progresses. Otherwise they'll break the record by 13 GIDP, essentially lapping the field.

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6 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Another observation supporting my prior conclusion: a large majority of teams who hit into very few double plays are not good offensive teams. Only six of the 20 hardest-to-double up teams since 1950 had an OPS+ over 100. If nobody's on base you can't be doubled up.

The Orioles are around league average in base hits and third worst in walks.  They are at or near the top in 2B, 3B and HR.  One reason why they don't hit into double plays may be that their runners are on 2nd/3rd instead of 1st.

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10 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

All good points. Although they are 24th in the Majors in strikeouts, and it's hard to ground into a double play if you don't put the ball in play. The O's do put it in play a lot, but managed to avoid the twin killings. 

The Yanks lead the league in OBP and are below-average in striking out, and have hit into 30 more double plays than the O's in just 48 games.

The Orioles are hitting into a double play just once every 2.58 games. The full-season record for fewest GIDP is the '21 Rays' 75, or once every 2.16 games. I'll hazard a guess that the O's are going to hit into more as the season progresses. Otherwise they'll break the record by 13 GIDP, essentially lapping the field.

Batter speed is probably less important than the contact and OBP stuff (since most MLB double plays are probably going to be double plays no matter who's running). But it certainly matters a bit, and would be another thing working in the O's favor. 

I looked and couldn't find a team-based sprint speed ranking. But I could find this: among each team's 9 most played players so far, the O's have seven above average sprint speeders and only two below average (Rutschman, Santander). Part of the Yankees GIDP machine is that they have seven below average sprint speeders and only two above average (Volpe, Cabrera). 

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3 hours ago, 25 Nuggets said:

6 Mountcastle

3 Cowser, Rutschman

2 Mateo

1 Hays, McCann, Westburg

0 everyone else

The league leader in GDP is Aaron Judge with 11

Thanks. This was the info I was really after.

 

And I feel embarrassed for not reading the list of teams correctly.  Oops! 

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18 hours ago, Spy Fox said:

That would have led to an obligatory response that the O's don't have a ton of people on base! They're 20th in MLB in OBP.

And since they're 1st in slugging, a ton of those times on base don't set up double play situations. This team is 27th in MLB in singles. 28th in MLB in walks. 28th in MLB in GB%. There's your low GIDP recipe. 

You are partially on to something.  The O’s have had the 4th fewest DP opportunities in the majors.  At the same time, the percentage of DP opportunities that have turned into actual DP’s is the lowest in MLB.   So, both those things contribute to the O’s having the lowest number of DP’s.  

Stats here.
 

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Another thing.   The Orioles are a predominantly LH hitting team.  Not only does the LH get a head start out of the box compared to a RH hitter but they are also going to hit more grounders to the right side than left side.  I’d bet there are more DP’s started by 3B than 1B, because A) the 3B is usually the better fielder and B) the 3B doesn’t have to get back to the bag for the return throw or depend on the pitcher getting there.   As far as SS and 2B I don’t have a great guess but I would still guess there is a higher rate of grounders turned into DP’s started by the SS vs the 2B.

It’s a theory and I’m sticking to it until proven wrong.

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13 minutes ago, RZNJ said:

Another thing.   The Orioles are a predominantly LH hitting team.  Not only does the LH get a head start out of the box compared to a RH hitter but they are also going to hit more grounders to the right side than left side.  I’d bet there are more DP’s started by 3B than 1B, because A) the 3B is usually the better fielder and B) the 3B doesn’t have to get back to the bag for the return throw or depend on the pitcher getting there.   As far as SS and 2B I don’t have a great guess but I would still guess there is a higher rate of grounders turned into DP’s started by the SS vs the 2B.

It’s a theory and I’m sticking to it until proven wrong.

Hitters tend to pull the ball more than go the other way, and about 2/3rds of MLB batters are right-handed. Which is why SS's tend to have more chances than 2B, and 3B get more balls hit to them than 1B. 

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Posted (edited)
8 minutes ago, DrungoHazewood said:

Hitters tend to pull the ball more than go the other way, and about 2/3rds of MLB batters are right-handed. Which is why SS's tend to have more chances than 2B, and 3B get more balls hit to them than 1B. 

Agreed.  I was asking about the rate, not the amount, of grounders to the 3B and SS as opposed to the 2B and 1B that are turned into DP’s.   Also, on most nights we have 6 hitters from the left side.  Not sure how that compares to everyone else.

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21 hours ago, Spy Fox said:

That would have led to an obligatory response that the O's don't have a ton of people on base! They're 20th in MLB in OBP.

And since they're 1st in slugging, a ton of those times on base don't set up double play situations. This team is 27th in MLB in singles. 28th in MLB in walks. 28th in MLB in GB%. There's your low GIDP recipe. 

There is a strong correlation to low slugging % and a high GIDP rate-with the NYY and Astros as outliers.  

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