Not a hard hit, but

 

A couple of months ago, I watched a baseball game on TV. A batter decided to swing and he hit the ball. The ball didn’t seem to be hit hard, however, the outfielder kept going back. The ball actually went deep. Gone. It was a home run.

After the game, I went to check the data on the statcast website. It showed that the exit velocity of that home run was below 90 mph. That makes me wonder whether there are many home runs that are hit with an exit velocity less than or equal to 90 mph. Hence, I checked on the statcast website. Statcast data has been available since 2015, so, let’s see how many home runs with the exit velocity less than or equal to 90 mph from 2015 to 2022. To be more precise, inside the park home runs are not included. In 2015, there were 9 home runs that were hit with the exit velocity below 90 mph. Justin Smoak had 18 home runs in 2015 and 2 home runs were hit with the exit velocity below 90 mph. The next season, there were 16 times that a home run was hit with an exit velocity less than or equal to 90 mph. In 2017, 11 home runs were hit with the exit velocity less than or equal to 90 mph. Alex Bregman had 19 home runs in 2017 and 2 of those home runs were hit with the exit velocity below 90 mph. In 2018, only 6 HRs were hit with the exit velocity below 90 mph. However, in 2019, there were 13 times that a home run was hit with the exit velocity below 90 mph. Moreover, in the shortened 2020 season, Jose Ramirez and Brett Phillips each crushed a home run with the exit velocity below 90 mph. Last season, 4 players each hit a home run with the exit velocity below 90 mph. This season, 3 players each blasted a home run with the exit velocity below 90 mph. Well, it’s very rare to see a home run with the exit velocity below 90 mph. Moreover, I’m also thinking about a question. What’s the lowest exit velocity home run? On June 21, 2022, Harold Ramirez hit a home run with an exit velocity of 85.4 mph, the lowest exit velocity of any over-the-wall dinger tracked by Statcast. Finally, are there any players who used to hit a home run with an exit velocity below 90 mph in the postseason? The answer is yes. Back in 2018, Tony Kemp hit a home run against Rick Porcello in the ALCS Game 4. The exit velocity of that homer was 89.7 mph. Crushing a home run is surely very exciting and fans definitely like to watch a player from their favorite team hit a homer. Normally, a player has to hit the ball hard to hit a home run. But, sometimes, it’s possible to see a home run with a lower exit velocity. However, it’s just not that common to see a home run with an exit velocity below 90 mph.