Fangraphs just launched a new feature called FanGraphs Lab<\/a>. They\u2019re basically putting up some data visualization tools that people can play with and then asking for feedback on those tools, along with ideas for other things people might want. I thought I would go play with them and see what you can do so you can maybe come up with your own tool ideas.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n First off is the PitchingBot Visualizer. You can take any pitcher and toggle through different pitches, counts, batter handedness, and dates to see location and outcome. Next to that, you can isolate different PitchingBot characteristics for that subset of pitches to see their command, stuff, or overall ranking. Here is Cole Ragans\u2019 command last year for all pitch type\/count combinations:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n A danger miss is an in-the-zone pitch with low command and stuff scores, so it\u2019s trying to measure meatballs. You can see Ragans is well below league average there. Waste misses, however, he is average in; a waste miss is a low-rated pitch outside the zone. Finally, we have \u201csquandered,\u201d which are pitches with good command and stuff ratings but outside the zone. All of these play into the overall command score there, a 50 on the 20\u201380 scale. Playing around with this, you can compare a player\u2019s tendencies with different pitches in different counts or see if pitchers with high home run rates have correspondingly high danger miss percentages, and so on. For instance, Nestor Cortes had a high HR\/9 last year, but not because he was throwing meatballs. Anthony Molina\u2019s high HR\/9, however, was in part due to a much higher-than-league-average 7.6% danger miss rate. In particular, his fastball and slider had rates above 8%. Go think of your own things to play with here and put them in the comments.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Next up are pitching heat maps, where you can look at pitcher or hitter heat maps and control all the types of things you would expect to see how they perform in different situations. It can be grid-based or contoured. For instance, here is a Bobby Witt ISO\/BIP heat map against different handedness:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Toggling back and forth between the contoured view and the grid gives a more complete picture, I think. Righties want to avoid pitching him inside or in the middle. Against lefties, the two red spots are pretty clear, but the top one is a bit narrow in the grid view, while the lower one is just a large space that he tends to hammer on the inner half and even a bit below the zone. Take these maps and compare them to swing rate maps and you have an interesting way to think about plate discipline. How often are they swinging in those hot zones versus cold ones? Nice tool with a lot of options for things to do and think about.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n On to the Squared-Up Explorer. This is the first tool I\u2019ve seen even remotely like this. It shows how often a batter squares the ball up at different launch angles.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/platform.royalsreview.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/140\/2026\/02\/BWitt-ISO-map.png?quality=90&strip=all&crop=0%2C0%2C100%2C100&w=2400\"\/)
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