Here are some data points taken from Baseball Heat Maps.

Jarrod Saltalamacchia leads baseball with an average batted ball distance of 234.2 feet. The only other player over 231 feet is David Ortiz. Here’s a look at the top-10.  

Rank

Name

Year

Batted Balls

Distance

1

Saltalamacchia Jarrod

2016

52

234.2

2

Ortiz David

2016

140

230.6

3

Carpenter Matt

2016

137

229.9

4

Young Chris

2016

56

229.7

5

Moss Brandon

2016

76

224.2

6

Davis Chris

2016

113

224.1

7

Story Trevor

2016

129

223.6

8

Howard Ryan

2016

91

222.0

9

Sano Miguel

2016

113

221.6

10

Wright David

2016

86

221.1

If we up the limit from 50 batted balls to 125, here is the new leaderboard.

Rank

Name

Year

Batted Balls

Distance

2

Ortiz David

2016

140

230.6

3

Carpenter Matt

2016

137

229.9

7

Story Trevor

2016

129

223.6

13

Belt Brandon

2016

150

216.0

14

Freeman Freddie

2016

132

215.8

15

Castellanos Nick

2016

140

215.5

17

Cespedes Yoenis

2016

134

213.1

18

Murphy Daniel

2016

174

213.1

19

Shaw Travis

2016

143

213.0

21

Werth Jayson

2016

126

212.7

Freeman is an interesting case. He’s on pace for 62 RBI, and that’s all folks seem to want to look at. How about we pay attention to the .518 SLG and the 29 homer, 38 double pace.

Murphy is having a hell of a season as he’s already hit a career best 17 homers.

Shaw and Werth aren’t elite, nope, but their average batted ball is going pretty far. 

Let’s move over to ESPN. Here is the list of players who had “Just Enough” to gain a home run. Here are all the men with seven homers that qualify.

Hitter

Just Enough HRs

Cano, Robinson

11

Betts, Mookie

11

Davis, Khris

11

Freeman, Freddie

9

Rizzo, Anthony

8

Russell, Addison

8

Beltre, Adrian

8

Castellanos, Nick

8

Davis, Chris

8

Duvall, Adam

7

Arenado, Nolan

7

Morales, Kendrys

7

Semien, Marcus

7

Dozier, Brian

7

Springer, George

7

Lamb, Jake

7

Kipnis, Jason

7

Cabrera, Asdrubal

7

 

Three men are in the double-digits, and that would seem to speak to guys who are likely to see their homer pace slow a bit in the second half, no?

Here’s the even more concerning table of homers. The following list of homers includes “lucky” blasts.

Hitter

Lucky HRs

Betts, Mookie

4

Trout, Mike

4

Nunez, Eduardo

3

Odor, Rougned

3

Rizzo, Anthony

3

Castellanos, Nick

2

Martinez, Victor

2

Granderson, Curtis

2

Ramos, Wilson

2

McCutchen, Andrew

2

Eaton, Adam

2

Pujols, Albert

2

Cabrera, Asdrubal

2

Seager, Kyle

2

Grandal, Yasmani

2

Saunders, Michael

2

Davis, Chris

2

Johnson, Kelly

2

Hardy, J.J.

2

Davis, Khris

2

Zimmerman, Ryan

2

Rua, Ryan

2

Rendon, Anthony

2

Bour, Justin

2

Gonzalez, Adrian

2

The number of four doesn’t sound like much, but think of it this way. Betts has hit 18 home runs this season. That puts him on pace for 34 homers this season. If we remove his four “lucky” homers he would have a total of 14 homers hit. That would mean he is on pace for about 26 homers this season. That’s a pretty substantial difference, is it not?

The loss is even more significant if you’re Eduardo Nunez. Losing three homers takes him from 12 to nine homers. That loss would take his pace to well under 20 instead of well over it.

Here are the batters with the longest average distance per home run hit (minimum 10 homers).

Hitter

Home Runs

Avg. True Dist.

Mazara, Nomar

11

425.1

Gonzalez, Carlos

19

423.7

Stanton, Giancarlo

20

421.8

Moreland, Mitch

11

420.8

Cruz, Nelson

23

417.1

Park, Byung Ho

12

417.0

Story, Trevor

21

416.9

Miller, Brad

14

415.9

Rasmus, Colby

11

414.6

Carter, Chris

22

414.5

Rodriguez, Sean

10

414.4

Pederson, Joc

13

414.2

Upton Jr., Melvin

16

413.4

Cron, C.J.

11

412.5

Encarnacion, Edwin

23

412.4

Schoop, Jonathan

14

411.7

Grandal, Yasmani

12

411.5

Posey, Buster

11

411.5

Donaldson, Josh

23

411.0

Valencia, Danny

12

410.9

Trout, Mike

18

410.8

Grichuk, Randal

10

410.7

Mazara has been slumping, but when he hits a big fly, boy does he hit it.

Moreland is probably a shock to everyone. Crushing it he does when hit.

Park is in the minors. So much for hitting long fly balls.

Rasmus never hits the ball, but like Carter, both men hit the ball really far when they square it up.

Valencia hits his ball a tenth of a foot further than Trout. That’s something.

There are 18 men in baseball who have hit 20 homers this season. Here is that list.

Hitter

Home Runs

Avg. True Dist.

Trumbo, Mark

28

409.4

Bryant, Kris

25

405.9

Frazier, Todd

25

390.8

Cruz, Nelson

23

417.1

Encarnacion, Edwin

23

412.4

Donaldson, Josh

23

411.0

Duvall, Adam

23

399.1

Arenado, Nolan

23

397.3

Carter, Chris

22

414.5

Ortiz, David

22

403.6

Davis, Chris

22

402.7

Story, Trevor

21

416.9

Rizzo, Anthony

21

401.2

Cespedes, Yoenis

21

400.1

Cano, Robinson

21

395.9

Stanton, Giancarlo

20

421.8

Lamb, Jake

20

404.7

Santana, Carlos

20

402.9

According to that list, four men have failed to average 400 feet per homer: Frazier, Duvall, Arenado and Cano. Let’s look at the four.

Frazier has hit 25 homers. Only three of them have been to the right of center field. Seventeen of the homers have been hit from left center to the left field foul pole. The distance doesn’t seem likely to hinder his production.

Duvall has hit 23 homers. Six of his homers have been to the opposite field with only 12 being to the left center to the left field foul pole. His pace could slow if he doesn’t hit the ball more to the pull field or hit the ball further.

Arenado has 23 homers with only one to the right of center field. Nineteen of his homers have been pulled.

Cano has 21 homers with only three going to the opposite field. Oddly, when he pulls the ball he doesn’t hit it very far. Check out the chart.

 

Ray Flowers can be heard Monday through Friday, 7 PM EDT and Friday on SiriusXM Fantasy Sports Radio (Sirius 210, XM 87). You can also hear Ray Sunday nights at 7 PM on the channel talking fantasy sports. Follow Ray’s work at Fantasy Alarm and on Twitter (@baseballguys).