Statcast of the Day: Mets barrel up, walk off

On Thursday, the Statcast™ lab introduced barrels, a new metric that combines exit velocity and launch angle to identify the best contact.

The Mets then went out and provided two good examples.

Jose Reyes’ game-tying two-run homer in the ninth inning and Asdrubal Cabrera’s walk-off three-run shot in the 11th fit the bill, lifting New York to a dramatic 9-8 victory over Philadelphia at Citi Field and boosting the club’s Wild Card hopes.

The idea behind the barrel is that it takes a combination of high exit velocity and the right launch angle to produce a batted ball that is likely to do damage. To qualify as a barrel, a ball must be hit at a minimum of 98 mph. At that exit velocity, it must have a launch angle between 26-30 degrees, but as the velocity rises, the range of angles expands.

The metric is designed so that a barreled ball is one whose combination of exit velocity and launch angle carries an expected batting average of .500 or better and an expected slugging percentage of 1.500 or better, based on past results. But the overall average and slugging percentage on barreled balls are .800 and 3.000, respectively.

Not surprisingly, the Mets’ leader in this category is Yoenis Cespedes, who has collected 34 barrels this season, including one on a fourth-inning single on …

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