Pitchers batted ball observations

I ran some comparisons of year to year data for pitchers, and came across some interesting observations that I thought I would share.

First off, I ran year to year correlations on batted ball data, and found the following correlations:

.75 GB%

.75 FB%

.24 IFFB%

.22 LD%

Conclusions: Pitchers have a strong amount of control over their GB/FB rates, and a very low amount of control over their LD% and IFFB% rates.

Next I did correlations to LD%:

GB% -.31

Conclusion: Interestingly, there is a minor correlation between LD%, and Groundball percentage.  It would appear that ground ball pitchers induce fewer line drives, while flyball pitchers tend to induce more.  Inducing fewer line drives, helps lower ground ball pitcher's BABIP.

Next I did correlations to IFFB%:

FB%: .56

GB%: -.52

Conclusion: A higher percentage of a flyball pitcher's flyballs, go for infield flyballs (automatic outs).  Thus, fly ball pitchers tend to lower their BABIP by inducing more infield fly balls.

Lastly, I did correlations to HR/FB%:

GB%: .08

FB%: -.10

Conclusion: It would appear that ground ball pitchers will tend to post a slightly higher HR/FB rate, then a flyball pitcher will.  I'm guessing that this is related to the increased infield fly rate that flyball pitchers tend to post.  It is a pretty weak correlation, but an interesting one, nevertheless.