Heyward's Homer Didn't Just Seem Titanic, It Was Truly a Monstrous Shot
by eavchuck on Apr 6, 2010 5:52 PM EDT
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Initial reports on the TV broadcast had it at 446 feet. Last night, articles on MLB.com and affiliated sites were calling it 414 feet.
Today, however, HitTracker has posted a correction and is now telling us that it flew a whopping 476 feet!
That's good for the best in the majors so far by more than 20 feet and 40 feet more than the third best. It would have been good for 4th best in the majors all year last year.
Even more impressive, Heyward's home run was hit at only 22.6 degrees, far less than the optimal angle for hitting for distance and outside of the typical range for homers given by HitTracker (between 25 and 45 degrees). If he'd given it a little more loft off the bat, that ball would have gone even farther.
Another metric for measuring home run power is the speed that the ball comes off the bat. Heyward's shot was a 120.9 mph screamer which would be good for the second fastest hit all last year and would be top five in any year since HitTracker has been keeping records in 2005.
At age 20. On his first big league swing.
This FanPost does not express the views or opinions of Talking Chop.
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Wowzers....
I think we have a keeper here, folks.
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti
I was just looking at this
Holy shit. His first big homer as a 20 year old and it was epic. Since 2006, that makes it the 9th hardest hit home run ball. And it’s just his first-we’re not nit-picking his best ever swing. We need to front page this.
the next braves legend!!
we have a playoff team for the next years to come we have two great young pitchers, i have to say it again, let’s trade for Crawford of the Rays what kind of numbers you guys think thay Heyward will put with a leadoff like that ?? i say MUNSTER numbers!
Holy crap!
I knew it was a monster, but 471!?!?! That’s only 2 ft. shy of the moon shot Howard hit last year off of Hudson.
And check out that speed off the bat—120.9 mph! Only 1 HR was hit with a faster speed in 2009 (by Wladimir Balentien of all people). That is crazy.
"Yeah, and I have an enchanted jock strap." -- Karl Karlson
At first it's hard to believe
But look where it landed. That bullpen wall is 390 feet away, and it falls right on top of the bullpen mound there, which is at least 60 feet 6 inches from the backstop behind it, which has those benches in front. So yeah, 476 is about right.
Yeah, when I saw 446 on the broadcast, I thought, “Wow, that’s even farther than I would have guessed. Cool!”
Then all the MLB articles were saying 414, and I thought, “Oh, okay. I guess that’s more likely just based on average distances for HRs.”
But to find 476, that’s almost unheard of. I mean, that’s a longer homer than many legendary home-runs actually were.
Rec'd
The interwebs is awesome. That website is bad ass. The engineer in me was freaking out at some of the calculations.
This Heyward kid is different. -Duk, Big League Stew
by McCann and McWill on Apr 7, 2010 2:58 PM EDT reply actions
It is wonderful, isn't it...
and I’m not even an engineer ( I was married to one for 20 years, though).
"It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in the spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone." A. Bartlett Giamatti
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