In late March, I watched some highlights on the MLB website. In a highlight, it showed that a team had crushed a lot of home runs in spring training games. That team didn’t have a great season in 2023. In the 2024 spring training, it seemed that the team was ready for the new season, in particular, the batters looked well prepared.
While watching that highlight, I began to think about a question. For those teams that smashed lots of home runs during the spring training games, do they keep crushing baseballs during the regular season?
To understand a little bit more, I chose to check on the MLB website.
Two teams from the NL Central each crushed 49 home runs in spring training games. The Cubs blasted 49 home runs in 34 games and the Pirates smashed 49 home runs over 30 games. And interestingly, those 2 teams each had a batting average of .248 in the spring. In the Pirates, Oneil Cruz had 7 home runs in the spring training games and Seiya Suzuki belted 6 homers for the Cubs.
In the Orioles lineup, Kyle Stowers had 7 home runs in the spring training games. At the same time, Colton Cowser smashed 6 home runs and Anthony Santander crushed 5 homers. In total, the Orioles had 47 home runs in the 2024 spring training games.
Meanwhile, the Mariners smashed 46 home runs in the spring. Mitch Haniger was back to the Mariners from a trade between the Mariners and the Giants in January. It looks that Haniger likes to hit in the Mariners uniform, in the spring training games, he blasted 5 home runs and his OPS was over 1.000.
Finally, the Tigers had 45 home runs in the spring training games and the Reds smashed 44 home runs. In the Tigers, Andy Ibanez led the team with 5 home runs and Christian Encarnacion-Strand led the Reds with 5 home runs in spring training games. Additionally, 3 other teams each had 40+ home runs this spring.
In the 2023 season, the Pirates only blasted 159 home runs, which ranked 28th among 30 MLB teams. Nonetheless, during the spring training, it seemed that the Pirates were a different team because they did crush baseballs. Furthermore, the Brewers and the Tigers each smashed 165 home runs last season. They didn’t hit many home runs in 2023, however, in the 2024 spring training, those 2 teams each blasted 40+ home runs.
In the spring training, it was quite interesting to see that the Pirates belt so many home runs and by far in the regular season, the team has 17 home runs, which rank 25th among 30 MLB teams. At the same time, the Cubs now have 23 home runs, which ties the 10th among 30 MLB teams. Nonetheless, we have to look at the Orioles. By far this season, the Orioles have 31 home runs, most among 30 MLB teams. The Orioles won the AL East title last season and this year, we can keep watching their performance. In particular, will the Orioles batters keep crushing baseballs?
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