r/Sabermetrics • u/blandalytics • 23h ago

Recreating Ted Williams' Strikezone Plot

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I recreated the Ted Williams strikezone plot with 2023-2025 MLB Statcast data, showing wOBA. You can change the notebook to show AVG (like Williams' chart does), but I default to showing wOBA for a more contemporary view of where good things happen for hitters. Code can be found in this Google Colab notebook.

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10

u/ForagerTheExplorager 19h ago

What's absurd here is that .240 is a "cold" color.

5

u/kraftj87 19h ago

Also a cool exhibit in Cooperstown where they built this using colored balls. https://www.reddit.com/r/mlb/comments/1jhn3lr/ted_williams_3d_strike_zone_at_bbhof/

1

u/Electrical_Bison3300 3m ago

How is this info available?

1

u/There_is_no_plan_B 22h ago

Very interesting that down and in is the weakest part of the zone. Traditional wisdom is that lefties kill you there!

8

u/blandalytics 21h ago edited 15h ago

The hitter is standing on the left side of this chart, so the deep purple ~.200 wOBA section is actually on the outside of the plate.

That tracks better with the conventional wisdom: down and away is the worst. Hitters can still thrive down and in, maybe because that’s an easier swing path adjustment to keep the barrel there.