What should your attack angle look like?

Attack Angle in the baseball swing is something that is new to baseball coaches and players. There have been many different devices that will easily and seamlessly track this metric in a players swing. First let’s get a definition. Attack Angle is the angle at which the baseball bat moves toward the baseball at contact.

Before recently I have only seen small amounts of data that glean any kind of information out of this metric. Recently though I ran across a ridiculous spreadsheet put together with metrics of MLB players Attack Angles, Barrel Speed, and Hand Speed. This data has changed what I think should be happening in the swing.

From the data you can see the average Attack Angle for hitters over the past few seasons.

Notice that the average Angle has increased over the past few seasons. Almost two degrees from 2015.

You will also notice the previous to be interesting. The majority of players in MLB have attack Angles between 11° and 18°.

Lastly let me include what I think is an important chart when looking at Slugging ,% and Attack Angle.

I continue to suspect that Launch Angle will continue to rise in the MLB because players are realizing that is where the Slugging Percentage is and where the money is being made. The above chart also highlights that this is there seems to be some correlation between Attack Angle and Slugging Percentage. Specially when looking 15–20°. This isn’t a huge finding but I think adding a small amount of value.

Last this chart looks at the correlation between Launch Angle and Attack Angle once again. Notice the direct correlation between the two.

When you start to dig into the data I do believe at this point with that information that I have gathered, and the information that is provided I think that the most effective range to be aiming for in your attack angle is between 15–20 degrees obviously this is an average, as with curveballs you should be aiming for slightly higher to match the plane, and fastballs will be slightly less.