Watch Abe Almonte pass Aaron Judge for longest HR in Statcast era
Indians outfielder Abraham Almonte knocked Aaron Judge out of the top spot for home run distance, with a 505-foot blast against the Oakland A’s July 16.
Aaron Judge is not the owner of the longest home run in the stat cast era. The honor now belongs to Abraham Almonte, who hit this 505-foot blast against the Oakland A’s July 16.
The Tribe lost, 7-3, but Abe’s meaningless moonshot was a thing a beauty.
Almonte’s blast traveled 10-feet farther than anything recorded by the 6-foot-7, 280 pound superstar.
Take a look for yourself.
There's a new leader in HR distance in Statcast era, & it's ...#Indians Abraham Almonte (?!) with 505 ft blast.https://t.co/H0aK2otWU7
— Michael Liu (@liuchiahow) July 16, 2017
And here’s Judge’s blast.
Video of the Day: Aaron Judge hit this one 495 feet, the longest homer in baseball this season. pic.twitter.com/WE4Ayfgx2e
— Baseball America (@BaseballAmerica) June 12, 2017
The Tribe outfielder’s blast came off A’s reliever Simon Castro, who threw an 83.2 miler per hour piece of junk that Almonte absolutely took to pound town.
The ball exited whatever exactly that venue is in Oakland that they call a baseball stadium with an exit velocity of 109.3 miles per hour.
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For what it’s worth, that excit velocity didn’t even register on Statcast’s ranking of the top 50 hardest hit home run balls this season.
Judge’s exit velocities appear on the list 17 times! Of the 50 homers ranked, Judge is ranked with Yoenis Cespedes at the bottom of the list, with dingers that excited the park at 115.2 miles per hour.
Anywho, the homer marked Almonte’s first home run of the season in 100 at bats. He’s slashing .240 (.683 OPS) in 2017.
The A’s got the last laugh though, sweeping the Indians three games to none.
There’s not much more to say about Almonte’s blast, other than “Wow.”
I’m not sure about you, but Statcast has provided me with amusement this season, as beat reporters take to Twitter to post launch angles and exit velocities more than ever.
Every time I see one, I think to myself, “Get out of here, he hit the ball really, really hard and it left the ball park.”
Who would’ve thought? Your Little League coach was at the forefront of the Statcast era when he told you to swing hard!?
What exactly is Statcast and when did MLB start employing this technological advancement.
The answer is 2015, and MLB.com scribe Paul Casella best summed it up.
"Statcast, a state-of-the-art tracking technology, is capable of gathering and displaying previously immeasurable aspects of the game.Statcast collects the data using a series of high-resolution optical cameras along with radar equipment that has been installed in all 30 Major League ballparks. The technology precisely tracks the location and movements of the ball and every player on the field at any given time."
And that ladies and gentlemen, is the rest of the story.
Next: 5 back-end starters the Tribe should target in a trade
Nice shot, Abe.