For the last week and a half, I have looked at prospect scouting power grades and stats. Today, we move along to prospect scouting hit tool grades. While power grades are pretty clearly meant to forecast a prospect’s Major League ISO and/or HR/FB rates, it’s not entirely obvious to me what a Hit grade is meant to tell us.
Is it indicative of underlying skills relating to hitting ability, such as walk/strikeout rates, along with BABIP, or is it more of the ultimate result of those skills, such as batting average and/or on base percentage? From perusing through Kiley McDaniel’s old articles back in 2014 explaining the scouting grades, it seems like OBP is the intent, but I’m not 100% sure. Either way, let’s dive into the correlations between the present and future hit grades with the various underlying hitting talent skills and results.
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