You'll notice in the bottom right of the graphic that it says "*exaggerated". Timing is important - the bat is not presented at a constant angle to the ball de

You'll notice in the bottom right of the graphic that it says "*exaggerated". Timing is important - the bat is not presented at a constant angle to the ball despite what the graphic implies! You could hit the ball 500 feet but on the wrong side of the foul pole, and you've accomplished nothing. Modern baseball analytics places a very high value on the the "Three true outcomes" [1]. Batters are "optimizing" for the exit angle of the ball leaving the bat - we're in a juiced ball era (perhaps even a juiced batter era) and home runs are valued very highly. You'll notice that strikeouts are also setting records. Nobody seems to care as much about ground balls or line drives and that seems to be what a "flatter" swing gives you. If we were playing with the same baseball as Ted Williams played with, you'd have a lot more fly ball outs. I'm pretty sure that his "slight upswing" was actually very slight compared to current players. [1] https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Three_True_Outcomes https://www.baseball-reference.com/bullpen/Three_True_Outcom...