Miami Marlins: Giancarlo Stanton, King of Exit Velocity
With his latest monster home run on Saturday night at the World Baseball Classic, Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton added to his growing resume of hitting baseballs hard… and far.
Giancarlo Stanton is a professional man.
On Saturday night, in the United States’ 6-3 win over the Dominican Republic, Stanton connected and produced one of the hardest hit home runs you will ever see.
Any true MLB fan knows that Stanton can hit baseballs hard. Anyone that watched his display at the 2016 Home Run Derby also knows this. But what some fans may not know is just how hard he hits the baseball.
Since the inception of Statcast in 2015, the MLB.com state of the art tracking system, Stanton has put up some godly numbers. The tracking system has many different metrics, from reaction time, to running speed, to the home run metrics that show just how good Stanton has been these past two seasons.
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Exit Velocity
Exit velocity measures how fast the ball is coming off the bat. In 2015, Stanton led the major leagues at an average exit velocity of 98.5 mph and had three of the top five hardest hit balls all season. In 2016, Stanton was third in average exit velocity at 95.9 mph (behind Aaron Judge and Nelson Cruz) and had five of the top nine hardest hit balls.
Exit velocity is measured on all contact made. Stanton’s average exit velocity shows you how hard he can hit any ball, but just how hard does he hit home runs? Saturday night’s home run was registered at 117.3 mph. According to Statcast, that is the fourth hardest home run recorded. Stanton also owns the first (119.2 mph) and second (118.5 mph) spot on the list. Carlos Gonzalez is third with 117.4 mph. In addition to hitting the ball hard, Stanton is hitting it out of the park.
HR Distance
Stanton been consistently hitting baseballs hard over the past two seasons, he has been hitting them far as well.
Stanton was the only man in 2016 to go over 500 feet. In the aforementioned 2016 Home Run Derby, Stanton had the 10 longest home runs and 18 of the top 19. He also had three of the top 11 longest home runs in 2015.
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When healthy – he has only played more than 123 games twice in his seven-year career – Stanton is one of the must-watch players in MLB. His combination of size and raw power instills fear into any opposing pitcher. And at 26 years young, Stanton isn’t looking to give up his crown any time soon.