The Bomb Squad: The Longest Home Runs in MLB During Week-11

An MLB ranking of the past week’s 25 longest home runs, topped by Ian Desmond’s 486-footer in Colorado, and by rockets from Eloy Jimenez and Jorge Soler.

This past week in MLB was a superb time to be Eloy Jimenez or Jorge Soler.

Jimenez, the Chicago White Sox outfielder, just concluded the best week of his rookie season. He went 9-for 22 with two doubles, four home runs, and nine RBIs.

Soler, the Kansas City Royals outfielder, did almost as well. He batted 8-for-20 with two doubles, two home runs, and six RBIs.

And the home runs those two guys hit weren’t run-of-the-mill taters. Their average carry was 453 feet, and four of them were among the 15 longest struck by anybody all week.

The average exit velocity of Jimenez’s nine hits this past week approached 105 mph. That’s not the high; that’s the average. And it includes a 68 mph bleeder that found a hole against the Yankees Saturday. The other eight? They left his bat at an average velocity of 110 mph.

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Only the 486-foot bomb Ian Desmond delivered against Chicago Cubs left-hander Mike Montgomery Monday night prevented Jimenez from claiming the top spot on this week’s list of the game’s longest home runs. But Jimenez can take solace in the fact that Desmond produced his moon shot in the thin air of Coors Field. Jimenez hit his in sea level environs, Kansas City and Chicago.

For the record, Desmond’s home run, which reached the Coors Field concourse in deep left-center, is the longest hit in the majors so far this season. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=euhUM6hwq0E

Soler didn’t hit as many bombs as Jimenez, but the two he did author were the hardest-hit homers of the week. On Sunday he smacked a 445-footer off Chicago’s Reynaldo Lopez that left his bat at 113.3 mph. The only harder-hit ball was Soler’s 462-footer Saturday off Jake Odorizzi, the week’s third longest. That one touched 114.4 mph.

It’s a good thing Ryan Carpenter didn’t run into either of those guys. The Tigers pitcher made two starts this week. On Sunday, the Minnesota Twins shelled him for 10 hits and eight runs in 3.2 innings in an eventual 12-2 defeat. One of those hits was Miguel Sano’s 436 foot home run. Carpenter returned to the mound on Friday and allowed eight runs on eight hits to Cleveland, among them Leonys Martin’s 435-foot homer.

The guys who went deep this week went extremely deep. The average carry of the 25 taters on this list was 450.76 feet, and five exceeded 460.

The list of longest blasts is based on the estimated distance of every home run hit during the week. In the event of ties, exit velocity is used as the tie-breaker.

Here’s the full list of the week’s 25 longest batted balls in MLB

Rank      Date      Hitter, team                       Pitcher, team                     Exit Vel.                Distance

1              6-10       Ian Desmond, Col            Mike Montgomery, Chc   110.8                     486

2              6-9          Eloy Jimenez, CWS          Glenn Sparkman, KC       111.5                     471

3              6-15       Jorge Soler, KC                  Jake Odorizzi, TB              114.4                     462

4              6-11       Eloy Jimenez, CWS          Patrick Corbin, Was         110.8                     462

5              6-12       Javier Baez, Chc               Philip Diehl, Col                 111.9                     460

6              6-15       Alex Verdugo, LA             Yu Darvish, Chc                 109.0                     459

7              6-14       Hunter Renfroe, SD        Mike Dunn, Col                 107.5                     459

8              6-15       Pete Alonso, NYM           Michael Wacha, Stl          111.8                     458

9              6-11       Tommy Pham, TB             Mike Fiers, Oak               108.0                     458

10           6-9          Jung Ho Kang, Pit             Chase Anderson, Mil      111.4                     457

11           6-9          Brandon Lowe, TB           Eduardo Rodriguez, Bos109.6                     455

12           6-9          Daniel Vogelbach, Oak   Cody Allen, LAA                109.0                     448

13           6-11       Brandon Dixon, Det        Jakob Junis, KC                  108.8                     447

14           6-14       Michael Chavis, Bos        Dan Straily, Bal                 108.0                     447

15           6-90       Jorge Soler, KC                  Reynaldo Lopez, CWS    113.3                     445

16           6-10       Ji Man Choi, TB                  Joakim Soria, Oak            109.7                     445

17           6-13       Rafael Devers, Bos          Adrian Sampson, Tex     109.5                     443

18           6-14       Christian Vazquez, Bos  Luis Ortiz, Bal                    106.5                     443

19           6-11       Travis Shaw, Mil                Brad Peacock, Hou         106.2                     440

20           6-15       Yordan Alvarez, Hou       Clayton Richard, Tor        109.6                     439

21           6-14       Josh Donaldson, Atl        Nick Pivetta, Phi               109.3                     439

22           6-11       Ryan O’Hearn, KC            Blaine Hardy, Det             107.4                     439

23           6-10       Ronald Acuna Jr., Atl       Alex McRae, Pit                 108.9                     436

24           6-9          Miguel Sano, Min             Ryan Carpenter, Det       108.3                     436

25           6-14       Leonys Martin, Cle          Ryan Carpenter, Det        108.3                     435