A couple of days ago, I watched a baseball game on TV. An All-Star was at bat, he saw a fastball and was ready to swing. Boom, the ball was hit hard and just kept flying. It was a home run, and the projected distance of that home run was over 450 ft. While watching this batter destroy the ball, I’m just wondering which batters have crushed many home runs that went really far.
To understand a little bit more, I went to check on the statcast website.
Well, a 450-ft home run isn’t that easy to see during the games. It’s better to lower the projected distance a bit. So, I decided to take a look at those home runs with a projected distance of 420 ft. or farther.
Ronald Acuna Jr. is surely a great player. Nonetheless, injuries limited his contribution to the Braves over the last 2 seasons. He only played 82 games for the Braves in 2021 and last season, he slashed .266/.351/.413 with 15 home runs and 50 RBI over 119 games. By far this season, Acuna Jr. hits .328/.399/.560 with 13 home runs and 40 RBI. 13 home runs are not enough for him to become the home run leader in the majors. However, among those 13 home runs, 10 of them went really deep with a projected distance of at least 420 feet. By far this season, the farthest home run that Acuna hit went 470 feet.
In addition, Acuna’s teammate Matt Olson now has 18 home runs, most among the Braves batters. Olson is another player who hits the baseball hard and far. At this moment, there are 9 times that Olson smashed a home run with a projected distance of at least 420 feet. The farthest home run that Olson hit this season went 464 feet. Also in the Braves lineup, Marcell Ozuna has 13 home runs thus far and 7 of those home runs went at least 420 feet.
At the same time, Shohei Ohtani now leads the AL with 20 home runs. There’s no doubt that Ohtani can hit moonshots. By far this season, there are 8 home runs, which were hit by Ohtani, that went at least 420 feet. And, to date, there are 3 times that he hit a home run that went over 450 feet.
Finally, how about the home run leader? Pete Alonso is the MLB home run leader now. He already blasted 22 homers thus far. There are 7 times that Alonso’s home run traveled at least 420 feet. Nevertheless, none of those home runs reached 450 feet. Moreover, Jorge Soler had a great month of May. Last month, he crushed 12 home runs, leading the NL. Soler only played 72 games for the Marlins in 2022 and had 13 home runs. By far this season, he already blasted 19 home runs over 64 games. This season, there are 7 times that Soler hit a home run with a projected distance of at least 420 feet. And, the farthest home run that Soler hit went 468 feet. Additionally, Ryan McMahon now has 10 homers and 7 of them traveled at least 420 feet.
Seeing home runs during the game is one of the exciting things in baseball. While seeing a player hit a moonshot, you can see the power of a player. This season, Ronald Acuna Jr. truly makes baseball interesting. Each time he crushes a home run, it’s interesting to see how far that baseball travels.
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