Statcast Pod: Judge's epic blast enters Statcast HOF

May 3rd, 2017

The following is a transcript of a segment from this week's episode of the Statcast™ Podcast. To hear more from Statcast™ expert and columnist Mike Petriello and MLB.com director of content Matt Meyers, subscribe by clicking here.

Meyers: While we're talking about the Yankees, it's a good segue to our next play inducted into Statcast™ Hall of Fame.

Petriello: We did this last week with the home-to-home trot on his outside-the-park home run, and we're going to try to induct a cool new play each week. I imagine sometimes we are really going to have to put a lot of thought into this, and sometimes will come out and just destroy a baseball. In one of the weirdest games I have ever seen, Judge hit the hardest home run in the Statcast™ Era on April 28 vs. Orioles on a 97.1-mph fastball at 119.4 mph. Middle, middle to Aaron Judge is a no-no. It is just not going to end well for you. It breaks a record set by at 119.2 mph. Stanton now has three of the top five hardest-hit home runs in the Statcast™ Era, though. has the other. You can't put a lot more velocity on a ball hit this hard and get it out. At a certain point, you'll have diminishing returns. You can only hit it on the screws so hard and get enough elevation for it to go out. Are we going to see a 120-mph home run? I guess it is possible.

Meyers: That was a jaw-dropping shot to dead center field on a line. It was incredible. We said before that Stanton is like the Steph Curry of baseball because of the way he shoots threes and is in his own world, just like Stanton. And now a year later, we have someone challenging that exit-velocity crown. He has eight batted balls above 115 mph this year. No one else has more than two.

Petriello: In the Statcast™ Era over the last three seasons -- obviously Judge hasn't played -- 88 hitters have at least 10 batted balls over 110 mph. That's some serious exit velocity. It's so rare. Only 1.1 percent in all of baseball go 110 mph. I wanted to look at guys who did this and see who has the biggest percentage of that. Not surprisingly, Stanton has 20.6 percent over 110 mph. No. 2 is Aaron Judge at 18.4 percent, which is not a big gap. No. 3 was 10.3 percent, an enormous gap with Joey Gallo and . , and were also on the list. Aaron Judge is showing he's just not this enormous man who plays right field and looks like he could be Stanton. The evidence is there.

Meyers: His at-bats have become must-watch. It was only a matter of time before one of his at-bats wound up in the Statcast™ Hall of Fame in our second week of doing this.

Petriello: One more thing I found interesting about this home run. Since this is the hardest-hit home run in the Statcast™ Era, it obviously makes it the hardest-hit ball ever at Yankee Stadium, but he had previously held that record before Mark Trumbo held it for, like, 12 minutes before Judge took it back. Before the night, Judge had the hardest-hit home run at 115.5 mph on April 19, then Trumbo at 115.7 mph. The very next inning, here comes Judge. He's like, "No. This is my record. I'm going to own this record." I found it to be really fascinating to change hands like that. Welcome to the Statcast™ Hall of Fame, Aaron Judge.