Statcast takeaways from Home Run Derby

July 11th, 2017

Monday will be remembered as the night introduced himself, loudly, to the T-Mobile Home Run Derby.
Judge put on a show at Marlins Park that exceeded even the lofty expectations placed on his broad shoulders. The Yankees' rookie overcame 22 first-round homers by the Marlins' , then cruised past the Dodgers' in the second round and the Twins' in the finals to claim the crown in style, mashing four homers of more than 500 feet along the way.
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Major League Baseball's first-half home run leader wasn't the only competitor who brought the lumber, however. Despite a first-round defeat, hometown favorite defended his 2016 title with several awe-inspiring blasts, and Bellinger, the Rockies' Charlie Blackmon and the Royals' Mike Moustakas all had their moments in front of the Miami crowd.
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With help from Statcast™, here is a look at some of the notable facts and figures from Monday's competition:
OVERALL
• The eight-player field combined to smack 195 home runs that traveled a total distance of 15.7 miles, or about 60 percent of a marathon.

• The average home run for the whole competition was hit 108.5 mph and was projected to travel 427.8 feet.

• There were 32 home runs hit at 115 mph or harder, compared with the 17 hit in games so far this season and the 40 hit since the start of 2015. A staggering 16 of those top-shelf lasers were hit by Judge, who also leads MLB with seven 115-plus mph homers this season. Joey Gallo of the Rangers sits in second place with three.
• Of the 195 homers, 85 were hit at 110 mph or harder, and all but six came off the bat at a minimum of 100 mph.

• There were 18 homers of at least 480 feet, more than the 16 that players have hit in games since Statcast™ was introduced in 2015. There were 47 big flies of at least 450 feet, and more than 80 percent of the dingers on the night reached the 400-foot mark.
Round-by-round Home Run Derby results
JUDGE
• Judge's two longest homers of the night, which traveled a projected 507 and 513 feet are the two longest home runs tracked by Statcast™ -- in the regular season, postseason or past Home Run Derbies. His third longest of Monday night at 504 feet tied Stanton's regular-season Statcast™ record, which came last year at Coors Field.

• Judge now owns the four-longest blasts tracked by Statcast™ in the Home Run Derby, and the only four Derby homers hit at least 500 feet. The previous record of 497 feet was set by Stanton last year in San Diego.
• Judge finished with an incredible ratio of 47 homers on the night to just 29 "outs," or the balls he put in play that didn't clear the outfield wall. He hit more homers than outs in each of the three rounds he competed in.

• Judge's 47 home runs traveled a total distance of 3.9 miles.
• In Round 1, Judge homered on 11 consecutive pitches en route to his total of 23. It marked the most in a row hit by a player in this year's Derby. Bour ranked second at seven in that same first-round matchup.

• If Judge was fatigued in the finals, he certainly didn't show it on one titanic blast that left his bat at 116 mph and traveled 469 feet the opposite way to right-center field. For perspective, the hardest-hit opposite-field home run hit by any player -- right- or left-handed -- during the 2017 season so far was a 112.7-mph blast hit by Gallo on June 30. That was also the longest opposite-field shot of the season at 454 feet -- 15 feet shorter than the one clubbed by Judge on Monday night.
• The "highest" home run of the night by launch angle belonged to -- who else -- Judge, who scraped the sky with a 43-degree moonshot on his second-to-last homer of the night. That set a record for the highest home run tracked by Statcast™ at Marlins Park, eclipsing a 42-degree round-tripper hit by the Nationals' on June 20.
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THE FIELD
• Though the reigning champ lasted just one round, Stanton provided plenty of thrills. His fourth home run in his Round 1 matchup against rocketed off his bat with a 121-mph exit velocity, giving the Marlins' slugger the hardest-hit home run of the contest. Stanton also accounted for the second-hardest homer of the night (120 mph) and the two longest by anyone other than Judge (496 and 492 feet).

• Of Stanton's 16 homers, 12 came off his bat at 115 mph or harder, and eight were projected to travel at least 480 feet. Those are astonishing numbers considering that in Statcast™ regular-season history, just 0.3 percent of homers have been hit that hard and just 0.1 percent have been hit that far.

• Stanton's 113.9-mph average exit velocity in his first-round performance ranks as the highest of this year's Derby. Judge was right behind him, however, with a 113.1-mph average in the finals vs. Sano.

• Six of the 10 lowest homers of the night came in the scintillating opening-round tilt between Stanton and Sanchez, with all six hit at launch angles of 18 degrees or lower. Stanton's 14-degree opening-round laser, scorched with a 119-mph exit velocity, was the lowest on the totem pole for the entire night. The Miami star went even lower in the 2016 Derby by hitting a 12-degree round-tripper on his way to the title.
• Sanchez's longest home run on record is a 450-foot blast from June 11. He bested that distance 11 times in his two-round performance, topping out at 485 feet.

• Sanchez, who leads the Majors in average home run distance this season at 427 feet, averaged 443 in the Derby. That trailed only Stanton (456), while topping Judge (435).

• Batting before a friendly crowd, Bour came the closest to slowing Judge, with 22 homers in Round 1. Bour did so with notably less flair, however, reaching a max distance of 464 and posting an average exit velocity of 107.1 mph and an average distance of 421.7 feet. Judge not only bested his home run total, he hit one 501 feet and averaged 111.9 mph and 431.6 feet.

• Sano had the second-most homers of any player (32), and four of them were longer than his longest on record (464 feet). His 491-foot blast in the second round was the seventh longest of the night and longest by anyone other than Judge or Stanton.