Heres a look at the players who stand out the most to me so far. Hi Jeremy, very cool stuff here. Last year, Torkelson posted a 41.4% hard-hit rate and a 90.5 mph average exit velocity. Let's get the obvious out of the way: Dalbec hits the ball extremely hard. See stats like hard hit rate and hit location for minor league batters. His 2021 Statcast numbers are in line with what I am looking for out of previous winners: 93.2 average exit velocity, 116.4 Max EV, 14.1-degree launch angle, 15.9% barrel rate and a 54.2% hard hit rate. Lets take a look at the leaders making up the top 20 overall on the exit velocity list from both the American League and National League. Or would you rather see him sock some dingers? That might not sound like much to go on, but theres definitely some signal among the noise. Mandatory Credit: Brett Davis-USA TODAY Sports. Full Rays leaderboard, Red Sox: Franchy Cordero -- May 23, 2021 at PHIExit velocity: 118.6 mph (Watch it)Franchy has long been a Statcast anomaly, showing loud tools but battling injuries and struggling to fully establish himself in the Majors. player has saved over his peers. Speaking of leveling up, Jon Heyman reported on Friday that Mark Vientos had a better shot to make the Mets opening day roster than Brett Baty. If he can go back to pulling the ball a bit more or even just maintain last years batted ball profile and with a little bit more power (and in a smaller ballpark), he would go back to being a solid hitter. Zunino has an insanely high 24.2% barrel rate, which is bound to regress, but exciting nonetheless. Full Yankees leaderboard, Guardians: Franmil Reyes -- Aug. 16, 2020 at DETExit velocity: 114.1 mph (Watch it)Cleveland has had two prominent stars for the better part of the Statcast era in Francisco Lindor and Jos Ramrez, but their leaderboard is topped by the big righty in Reyes. Jake Cave thinks the broken back might have been a big deal. In 2021, Zunino got off to a hot start, resulting in his first All-Star selection. He is running a 66.7% hard-hit rate and a 96.2 mph exit velocity during spring training, and maybe just as importantly, he has one of the biggest sample sizes on the list, with 33 balls in play measured by Statcast. In 2022, his xwOBA outpaced his wOBA by 33 points, the 11th-highest difference among all qualified batters. Take last year for example. And the need to improve his overall profile. Youth. Zack Wheeler was one of the most dominant pitchers in the National League this season, finishing second in the NL Cy Young Award balloting. During the offseason, I talked about the value of 90th-percentile exit velocity in our analysis of hitters. For just $0.83/month, get an ad-free experience and access to RotoBaller's VIP Discord Chat Community, If you can't subscribe, please consider turning off your adblocker for RotoBaller.com, Download Our Free News & Alerts Mobile App, More Statcast & Fantasy Baseball Analysis, Jose Urquidy Leaves Game Early With Shoulder Injury, Matt Brash Earns First Career Save Sunday, Expected To Return Beginning Of Next Season, Doubtful Monday, Continues To Make Improvements, Aledmys Diaz Hopeful To Avoid Injured List, Austin Corbett Not Expected To Be Ready For Season, Could Open Season As No. Here are the hardest-hit homers by each of the 30 MLB clubs since Statcast began tracking exit velocity back at the start of the 2015 season, postseason included: Blue Jays: Vladimir Guerrero Jr. -- April 10, 2022 vs. TEXExit velocity: 117.9 mph (Watch it)Really, it could only be Vlad Jr. Guerrero actually smashed his own previous record of 117.4 mph when he hit this absolute laser off of Rangers pitcher Spencer Howard for his first home run of the 2022 season. However, when he does make contact, he hits it harder than a vast majority of MLB players. Download our updated fantasy baseball app for iPhone and Android with 24x7 player news, injury alerts, sleepers, prospects & more. However, after testing the waters in free agency, Zunino landed back with Tampa for 2021 and has been splitting time with Francisco Meja behind the plate. He finally converted some of his offensive upside into production last season, but 2021 could not have started worse. Martinez, Corbin Carroll, Jacob deGrom, Aaron Judge, Julio Rodriguez A Bolt is any run where the Sprint Speed (defined as Many people had been clamoring for the Giants to move Belt so that we could see the left-handed hitter breakout in a more favorable park. Do you just download all player EV data from Savant and then sort/calculate yourself? As of Sunday night, 1,650 batters have seen at last one pitch during spring training this year. I broke my back in 2021. He put up a .346 BABIP in low-A, then played in 27 games at high-A and put up a .400 BABIP. Download Our Free News & Alerts Mobile App Note: Hit Strength and Location Data is provided by Sports Info Solutions. Both players are 23, and its pretty clear that Baty has all the seasoning he needs to get a real shot. He could be working with some strength that he didnt have last year. But Our Princess Is in Another Castle, 2023 Positional Power Rankings: Designated Hitter, 2023 Positional Power Rankings: Bullpen (No. Much has been made about Dalbec's plate discipline improving as the year went on, but if you look at a rolling average of his strikeout rate during the 2021 season, you see that his numbers improved for a short bit of time, but he returned to a plus 30% strikeout rate fairly quickly. While this homer in the second ranks at the top of the Cubs list by nearly 2.5 mph, his second homer in the fourth wasnt a cheap one either, exploding off the bat at 109.6 mph. 19 prospect ), McClanahan ( No. Not sure whats going on with the fangraphs commenting community lately, but it appears some of us are incapable of framing feedback in a constructive or positive manner. He continued to hit just under 60% of balls in the air or on a line and, after a dip in pull rate in the first half of the season, regained his pull side power. I think Rowdy Tellez is going to be one of those players I continue to believe in until his career is over, with the breakout never coming. Well start the list at number 20, with a name you will see a lot in this ranking: Giancarlo Stanton of the New York Yankees. Your baseball bashing has become humdrum and unexciting. A strong 25.1% line drive rate promises for continued success in that regard, which would be a relief after last year's .226 batting average. Anything below 88mph is considered 0. Consistently hitting the ball hard is better. Despite his limited overall production, Cordero owns a few of the most impressive home runs in Statcast history, including this 474-foot blast. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. velocity and launch angle. For a pitcher it is the average of his softest 50% of batted balls allowed. A range-based metric of skill that shows how many outs a Full Braves leaderboard, Marlins: Giancarlo Stanton -- June 23, 2015 vs. STLExit velocity: 119.2 mph (Watch it)Stanton is not only one of four players on this list to appear twice, but he also holds the two hardest-hit homers tracked by Statcast on this list. You want to make sure that skill fits into a larger profile that you feel brings value to your team based on the cost you're spending in your draft. Cave dealt with a pretty serious injury in 2021. He has also posted a BB% of 9.5%, which is a significant increase over his last few seasons. PHOENIX -- Now that he has homered and stutter-stepped his way around third base, we can say it a bit more emphatically: Fernando Tatis Jr. is back. Alvarez finished the season hitting .277/.346/.531 with 33 home runs, 92 Runs, and 104 RBI. able to make a catch on an individual batted ball. Top Hitter Streamers - Fantasy Baseball Waiver Wire Pickups and Starts for Week 6. A lot of the same names appear on this list too. It represented his fourth home run in his previous five games. Obviously, Naquin will come back down to earth at some point, but it will be interesting to watch how much of this recent development is sustainable. The clubs top 10 is littered with both young talent and veteran sluggers. This tool allows you to see how many of a player's batted balls would have been home runs in the 30 parks around the Majors, based on the trajectory of the ball and the various wall heights and distances of the ballparks. Full Pirates leaderboard, Reds: Aristides Aquino -- Aug. 8, 2019 vs. CHCExit velocity: 118.3 mph (Watch it)Aquino surprised everyone in 2019, as the Reds rookie slammed 19 home runs in just 56 games that season, setting an NL rookie record for most homers in a month, with 14 coming in August. xERA is a simple 1:1 translation of xwOBA, converted to A Batted Ball Event represents any batted ball that All major league baseball data including pitch type, velocity, batted ball location, and play-by-play data . Santander joins Zunino as the other of the two players in the top 15 of 90th-percentile exit velocity that are not names you would expect to see. Santana is one player whose average exit velocity doesnt necessarily align with his 90th percentile. He sneakily has a good power tool. He continues to hit lasers, logging two batted balls over 120 MPH in 2021. Stanton does have some flaws in his game this season, such as hitting way too many balls into the ground and his scaredly low whiff rate, but it is nice to see him continuing to add to his rsum as a Statcast legend. 90th-percentile exit velocity performs similar to or better than many of our favorite Statcast metrics, such as hard-hit rate, barrel rate, and xwOBAcon, when it comes to predicting future success on contact. Full Nationals leaderboard, Phillies: Kyle Schwarber -- Oct. 18, 2022 at SDExit velocity: 119.7 mph (Watch it)Harper also held the Phillies' record, but he certainly wasn't sorry to see Schwarber obliterate it to help Philly take a Game 1 victory over the Padres in the NL Championship Series. More Fantasy Baseball Advice xwOBA is formulated using exit velocity, launch angle Im 30 but I feel just as strong, just as fast as Ive ever felt in my life. He's a pure slugger right now and one that could binge homers if he locks in but could also pile up 0-fers on a regular basis. You hit the ball hard. Full Tigers leaderboard, Twins: Nelson Cruz -- April 5, 2021 at DETExit velocity: 116.6 mph (Watch it)Cruz keeps aging like fine wine, slugging homers in every stop hes been at in his career so far. one base to another, like Home To First. This time, we will review the top players in average exit velocity, hard hit rate, and barrels. It was an injury thing. He didnt see great results during his brief big league debut last year, but he posted a 45.8% hard-hit rate and a 93.3 mph exit velocity across 24 batted balls and 41 PAs. To be fair to Franchy, Machado's blast would lead 29 teams in the big leagues, as it was the fourth-hardest-hit homer ever recorded in the Statcast era, trailing only Yankees sluggers Giancarlo Stanton, who owns the top two, and Aaron Judge. Join the Best Live Fantasy Chat Community! Oh and you meant to write Vogey mashes righties not lefties. However, after being plagued by knee injuries in his first two seasons, this was the first time we got to see what a full season of the slugger looks like, and it was pretty nice. Over parts of five seasons in Minnesota, he posted a 92 wRC+ in 1,015 PAs. Key Statcast: 99.8 mph strikeout (Baz), 101 mph velo (McClanahan) The Rays' stable of arms is only adding more fireballers. However, Bostons Franchy Cordero shows on this home run blast that even the finest pitchers can miss their mark from time to time. Baseball Savant. Its been an interesting ride for Mike Zuninoover this past offseason. His 52.5% HardHit% ranks in the top seven percentile and his .474 xwoBACON is similarly high. Expected Earned Run Avg (xERA) xERA is a simple 1:1 . "feet per second in a player's fastest one-second Realistically, it's hard to be upset about any aspect of Alvarez's hitter profile. Last year, Torkelson posted a 41.4% hard-hit rate and a 90.5 mph average exit velocity. While the Marlins have had plenty of big hitters come through Miami since Statcast was introduced in 2015, Stanton dominates the Marlins leaderboard and it's not close. He would seem to be as good an option as Ruf right now, and if the 23-year-old should ever close up any of the holes in his game chasing less, elevating the ball more all that loud contact should yield big results. Oneil Cruz, the prodigious Pirates shortstop with light tower power, hit a laser home run into the right-field stands in Milwaukee to enter the Pittsburgh record books. I see that so often in todays analysis. The statcast era people get so excited about that exit velo number. Its understandable that the team would give the 36-year-old Ruf a chance to prove that he can regain his old form before casting him aside for a rookie with essentially the exact same profile. I think that was a big deal because Id been feeling that for a while. The only weakness in his game is that he won't steal bases for you. While the knee injury kept him out the longest, it's clear the oblique injuries were impacting him during the first half of the season since he hit .253/.363/.512 in the first half with a much higher than average 32.3% strikeout rate and 12.6% SwStr%. The reason Ruf is hard to count on in fantasy is lack of consistent playing time. And, yes, just over 118 mph in exit velocity is where we start the list. produces a result. All UZR (ultimate zone rating) calculations are provided courtesy of Mitchel Lichtman. In fact, Stanton has 13 of the 20 hardest-hit balls on record for 2021. That's why the second thing we will look at is exit velocity on balls in the air, which will tell us not only who can hit the ball hard but who can carry over that authority when the ball is lifted into the air as well. Torkelson was terrible when he put the ball on the ground and great when he didnt. You can see in the chart above the leaders from the 2020 season. Statcast Home Run Tracker. Which Major League Baseball players put the ball into play with the highest exit velocity in 2021? Its always dangerous to put too much stock in spring training performances. To summarize, the 90th percentile is the most important part of a hitters exit velocity distribution and is a much more valuable piece of information than average exit velocity. He's been quiet as of late, not going deep yet in July. Yasmani Grandal, Mike Zunino, and Mitch Garver being on here is interesting for those looking for power from the catcher spot, and guys like Chad Pinder and Josh Donaldson are potentially surprising, but I already told you that those two have been popping in a few of my metric breakdowns this offseason and might be worth noting. Team Season Pitches Zone % Zone Swing % Zone Contact % Chase % Chase Contact % Edge % 1st Pitch Swing % Swing % Whiff % Meatball % Meatball Swing % 2021: 24,204 Full Red Sox leaderboard, Yankees: Giancarlo Stanton -- Aug. 9, 2018 vs. TEXExit velocity: 121.7 mph (Watch it)This one should come as no surprise. It's All-Star time, sadly. If youre trying to predict regular-season exit velocity, youd obviously rather have 200-plus PAs worth of information from last year (r=.71) than 15-plus BIP from this years spring training (r=.50). It would be surprising if he didnt get called up to take over at third base after a few weeks of working on his defense continuing to get tested in different game situations. First, let's just say that it's not as bad as you think it is. Last year, his average exit velocity was in the 78th percentile, but his xISO, which he underperformed by 35 points, was in the 51st. Ive corrected the righty/lefty mix-up. The ball went a projected 448 feet, giving the Braves an early 1-0 lead. So we give to you our PBR South Carolina Leaderboard. Hence, I decided to create my own google sheet to keep track of each seasons 90th percentile exit velocity leaderboards, which have been updated for the 2021 season as of Friday, April 30th. Spencer Torkelson Hitting the ball hard in the air is the best. However, the correlation between spring training and regular-season exit velocity is still plain to see, and if you regress it with the previous seasons exit velocity, the correlation gets stronger still (r=.76). And at just 22 years old, Soto has plenty of time to reach the top of the leaderboard as well. While exit velocity alone isn't always telling of power production, he's coupling it with a 41.6% SweetSpot%. Essentially, Cave hit a lot more fly balls to the big part of the ballpark, and he didnt have the strength to send them over the fence. Pitch Type: Four-Seam Fastball; Pitch Speed: -Spin Rate: -Batting HOU. Just to recap: Jake Cave feels great. MLB Advanced Media, LP. 2021 | 00:00:06. * Imminent Big Leaguers article. If you just went by spring training stats, you would have predicted Paul Goldschmidt for MVP (hey, pretty good!) For just $0.83/month, get an ad-free experience and access to RotoBaller's VIP Discord Chat Community, If you can't subscribe, please consider turning off your adblocker for RotoBaller.com, Download Our Free News & Alerts Mobile App, Jose Urquidy Leaves Game Early With Shoulder Injury, Matt Brash Earns First Career Save Sunday, Expected To Return Beginning Of Next Season, Doubtful Monday, Continues To Make Improvements, Aledmys Diaz Hopeful To Avoid Injured List, Austin Corbett Not Expected To Be Ready For Season, Could Open Season As No. Unlike many of the other players mentioned here, Naquin is a player we are not used to seeing anywhere near the top of this leaderboard. As with evaluations of any metric, these should be taken as PART of a larger discussion. The 23-year-old sensation crushed a 122.4 mph single the hardest-hit ball of the Statcast era just five days earlier. At this rate, Cruz might still be hitting 110 mph rockets at age 50. Luckily we have more Statcast data than ever, some of which stabilizes much faster than traditional performance stats. Bell is not what he showed last year, although he may not reach the heights of 2019 either. He is also striking out less often than we are used to, though he still struggles with whiffs and chasing pitches out of the zone. Rays: Mike Zunino -- May 14, 2021 vs. NYM. MLB Stats (@MLBStats) August 10, 2021 Stanton has the seven hardest-hit balls of the 2021 MLB season. Statcast defines a 'hard-hit ball' as one hit with an 19 (tie). by Retrosheet. All rights reserved. Stanton crushed the hardest homer tracked in the Statcast era and one of three with a tracked exit velo over 120 mph. Naquin has gotten off to a hot start in 2021, leading to him gaining more playing time in the outfield for the. Full Padres leaderboard, Rockies: Carlos Gonzlez -- April 4, 2016 at ARIExit velocity: 117.4 mph (Watch it)As one of the sweetest-swinging lefties the game has ever seen, CarGo has sent plenty of moonshots out of Coors Field as a member of the Rockies. Pierre Camus evaluates hitters who could be fantasy baseball adds or streamers according to advanced sabermetrics. 2023 2022 2021 2020 2019 . However, considering Longoria is slated to be the Giants' opening day third baseman, and the Giants have an organizational track record of getting peak performance out of veteran players, it's important not to write off Longoria's hot start. Jake Cave Full Rockies leaderboard, two hardest-hit homers tracked by Statcast. Full Phillies leaderboard, Brewers: Keon Broxton -- Aug. 19, 2016 at SEAExit velocity: 114.9 mph (Watch it)While you might expect Christian Yelich and Ryan Braun at the top of the Crews list, Broxton beat out both with his blast. Then I eventually got an MRI and broke an L5.. Although we have only played a months worth of baseball and results may be a bit whacky, this metric generally stabilizes quickly, so early-season data holds value. 1 - 2, 1 Out OFFICIAL . A few of the names that show up on the leaderboard are players that I've already discussed this offseason. He only has 40th-percentile contact rates, but that's normal for a power hitter, and he made clear gains there from his debut season. Don't have an account? He currently has a ground ball rate of over 50%, which is not ideal. Required fields are marked *. Author mentions the high K rate more than once in reference to Vientos. Full D-backs leaderboard, Dodgers: Corey Seager -- Sept. 30, 2021 vs. SDExit velocity: 115.3 mph (Watch it)Somehow, despite the seemingly endless dingers the homer-happy Dodgers have hit in the Statcast era, it took seven seasons for a Los Angeles player to notch the franchise's first tracked 115+ mph homer. Last year, his average exit velocity was 89.9 mph and his hard-hit rate was 40.7%, both solidly above average. All orgs will receive a full list. Another improvement that really jumps out was that Longoria cut his swing rate that pitches outside of the strike zone (O-Swing%) by 7% from 2020 to a career-low 22.5%. AJ Cassavell. That's part of the reason Belt hit 29 home runs in just 97 games last year and has 38 home runs across his last 148 games, essentially a single season's worth of games. Last year only one qualified batter had a higher strikeout rate. Exit velo is very important but a *major key* is actually hitting the ball first haha. You throw the ball hard. Full Twins leaderboard, White Sox: Jake Burger -- April 18, 2023 vs. PHIExit velocity: 118.2 mph (Watch it)Burger's home run with a 118.2 mph exit velocity continued his hot streak to begin the 2023 season. In fact, during his first-half breakout, Longoria's swing rate overall had dropped ro 41.8%, which is the lowest he's produced since 2013 in Tampa Bay. While max exit velocity is fun and shows just how hard a human can hit a baseball, I prefer to focus on average EV because it shows who's making loud contact regularly. However, in the second half, with the oblique injuries presumably behind him, Belt hit .297/.394/.690 with a much-improved 21.1% strikeout rate and 1o.1% SwStr. Luckily, PL has a database that I used to pull this data from, but yes I did have to calculate myself. Here are the numbers: 188 players have had at least 200 PAs in one season, then the next season had at least 15 spring training BIP measured by Statcast and then took 200 regular-season PAs. Play Ball Youth Baseball & Softball. We would appreciate your support by either turning off your adblocker or signing up for our ad-free subscription tier.Thanks for being a reader! Sweet Spot a batted-ball event with a launch angle between eight and 32 degrees. Statcast defines a 'hard-hit ball' as one hit with an exit velocity of 95 mph or higher. Guys like Shohei Ohtani, Fernando Tatis, Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, and Yordan Alvarez make sense. If you're intending to draft either one of these guys, you absolutely need to have a plan to augment the hit you'll take in batting average. Last year he had a 99th-percentile wOBA (.526), 93rd-percentile xwOBA (.373), and 95th-percentile xwOBA on contact, to go along with a .526 xSLG. This homer off Edwin Jackson made him the first Royal to ever hit 40 homers in a season. Sunday Notes: Bill Haselman Recalls the Brawl That Almost Broke Cal's Streak, Effectively Wild Episode 2000: We Thought of More Things We Like About Baseball, The Sleeper and the Bust Episode: 1169 Sunday FAAB ft. Michael Govier, Starting Pitchers Arent Leaning On Their Best Pitches, Analyzing Spring Trainings Exit Velocity Leaders, Thank You Mario! Play-by-play data prior to 2002 was obtained free of charge from and is copyrighted I'd like to direct your attention to the bottom of this list where Max Stassi and Josh Bell have joined the company of players like Rafael Devers, Nelson Cruz, and Ronald Acuna Jr.? Yet, Longoria raised his fly ball rate (FB%) to 40.1%, which is an 8% jump from 2020 and is the highest mark he's achieved since 2016. 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