Here is a graphic showing the batters with the highest average exit velocity on home runs. A batter needed a minimum of 25 home runs to make the list. I was somewhat surprised to see Gary Sanchez at the top of the list. I know I have seen him blister some line drives but the home runs I’ve seen him hit would not lead me to believe he would top this list.
I figured Mike Trout would be on the list of highest average exit velocities. Likewise, I knew Pete Alonso would be on the list as I had him on my fantasy team this year and have seen some of his impressive moon shots. Also, he won the home run derby so he can put some hurt on the baseball.
I don’t know much about Ronald Acuna, Jr.’s exit velocities as I don’t get a chance to see many Braves games on TV. It’s not like the old days when TBS had every Braves game on their cable channel nationwide. (I had to look it up—TBS dropped nationwide Braves coverage after the 2007 season. Wow, I thought it was more like 5 or 6 years ago, not 12 years ago.)
Bryce Harper? I never would have guessed he would be on the list. Sure, he cranks some prodigious home runs now and again, I just didn’t think he’d be consistently in the highest exit velocities.
I list some guys below that I figured would be on the list for sure. I had to figure out why they weren’t on the list by looking up the number of home runs they had or other reasons why they didn’t make it. Remember, the criteria is highest average exit velocity on home runs and not merely highest exit velocity on a batted ball.
- Aaron Judge. While he didn’t make the top five he had to come close. After all, he’s second on the list for highest average exit velocity–all batted balls, but most of these hard hit balls did not result in a home run.
- Nelson Cruz. Since I’m in Minneapolis and Nelson Cruz was on the Twins this year, I saw a lot of his at bats. He clobbered some balls, in fact, was seventh on the list of highest average exit velocity and he hit 41 home runs, but must have just missed the cut.
- Giancarlo Stanton. Actually, I knew he was injured most of the year, so he couldn’t have had the minimum required 25 home runs. If he doesn’t get hurt I predict he will be on the list next year. He once hit a home run clean out of Dodger Stadium, which is amazing.
- Vladimir Guerrero Jr. This guy simply rockets balls off his bat. He missed the minimum number of home runs necessary to qualify for this list, but I expect him to be up there next year.
In fact, the top four hardest hit balls as far as highest exit velocity belongs to Giancarlo Stanton (#1 and #3) and Vladimir Guerrero (#2 and #4.)
I added a little more information to the graphic by showing the on deck warm-up weight used by each of the top batters in highest average exit velocity. Once again we see that the best power hitters in baseball use the Pow’r Wrap bat weight. Of course, it’s just a small part of their training, but IT IS a part of their training. They know that faster bat speed means higher exit velocities on batted balls and that leads to more home runs. It seems to be working for these guys. If you’re a serious ballplayer maybe you should make the Pow’r Wrap a part of your training routine.