Can Statcast variables explain the variation in weighted runs created plus?

Abstract

The release of Statcast data in 2015 was revolutionary for data analysis in the game of baseball. Many analysts have begun using this data regularly, but none have used it exclusively. Often older, less reliable statistics (on-base percentage) are still used in favor of the newer statistics (weighted runs created plus). In this paper, we attempt to explain the variation in weighted runs created plus (wRC+) using Statcast variables such as exit velocity and launch angle. We find that exit velocity along with other Statcast variables, can explain as much as 70% of the variation in wRC+. Launch angle can significantly explain the variation in wRC+ but did not provide enough to the model to warrant keeping.