Four days after Hanley Ramirez provided the Indians' first run of 2019 with a solo home run against Minnesota on March 30, the right-handed hitter flicked his wrists and drove a pitch over the center-field wall at Progre sive Field for his second long ball of the season. At the
Rod Carew Jersey time, that round-tripper was just the second in team history to leave the yard with an exit velocity of at least 113 mph in the Statcast era.Both belonged to the veteran slugger.Seventeen days and zero homers later, Ramirez would be out of a job, the Indians would be on their way to their next attempt to catch lightning in a bottle -- remember Carlos Gonzalez? -- and the Twins would be on their way to capturing a division nearly everyone thought belonged to the Indians. Life comes at you fast.Sometimes the most impre sive plays or trends in a season come from places you don't foresee. Ramirez proved that with his first homer, which will now stand atop the Tribe's Statcast leaderboard until someone dethrones it. Other times, however, stars provide the interesting data, and the Indians had a healthy combination of expected and unexpected when it came to notable plays and trends in 2019.As 2020 approaches, let's take one last glimpse at the data that stood out in 2019.Fastest exit velocity on homer: Hanley Ramirez (113.8 mph)If you blinked, you mi sed the extent of Ramirez's lasting impact with the Indians, but his homer off Jake Odorizzi on March 30 will live on. Ramirez's 113.8 mph rocket to the upper deck offered signs of why the Indians took a chance on him in spring training -- he was still capable of hitting the ball as hard as anyone -- and that blast remains the hardest-hit homer by a Cleveland slugger in the Statcast era (since 2015). And while Ramirez's stay with the Indians ended after 16 games and a le s-than-stellar .625 OPS, this highlight is one worth watching over and over again -- just probably not while you're at work.Softest hit ball that went for homer: Oscar Mercado (91.6 mph)Sometimes it's not about how hard you hit the ball, it's the in which it's hit. Mercado demonstrated that on July 16, smacking an offering from Ryan Carpenter to the opposite field, just clearing the wall in right field. The 330-foot projected distance on Mercado's ... ... blast
Minnesota Twins Jersey was the shortest distance of any Indians homer in 2019. With a 91.6 mph exit velocity and 35.5 degree launch angle, similar balls result in a homer just 3.9 percent of the time, according to As we will later see, this was not the extent of Mercado's rookie magic.Most fortunate base hit: Oscar Mercado There are a few ways to evaluate the luck factor of a hit, but one of the quickest is examining the play's expected batting average, based on the exit velocity and launch angle of the contact. The lowest expected batting average of any ball that turned into a hit for an Indians batter belonged to Mercado on May 29. According to , with an exit velocity of 90 mph and a launch angle of 54 degrees, similarly struck balls result in . Of course, the ... uhhh ... miscommunication between Brock Holt and Mookie Betts of the Red Sox contributed to the single, which looks like a scorcher in the box score.Unluckiest out: Tyler NaquinOn the other side of the luck scale, there is poor Naquin, who smoked this ball off Aaron Sanchez on April 4. Unfortunately, the early-season weather had no plans of letting the drive leave the yard, falling short of the fence despite a 106.5 mph exit velocity and 25.1 degree launch angle. Similar contact results in a .964 expected batting average and leaves the park around 91 percent of the time, according to . Instead, this falls comfortably into the fielder's glove and Naquin must retreat to the dugout with nothing
Ervin Santana Jersey to show for the well-struck ball. Brutal.Unluckiest hit allowed: Dan OteroWe can perform the same sort of test for pitchers, and Otero drew the short straw by yielding this hit to Dylan Moore of Seattle on May 5. With an 88.2 mph exit velocity and 53.1 degree launch angle, similarly struck balls . Unfortunately, the sun was not on Otero's side this day, and Naquin, once again, was the victim of misfortunate of his own.Most fortunate out recorded: Adam PlutkoMiguel Cabrera launched a 107.2 mph drive off Plutko on Sept. 17, a ball that owned a .970 expected batting average and leads to as a homer around 91 percent of the time on similar contact. But Oscar Mercado was able to track down this deep drive with his back to the wall in center field. Amazingly, Plutko also picked up an out later in the game on a ball that owned a .910 expected batting average. Harold Castrowas rewarded for his 100 mph lineout with a big fat nothing, as Plutko's magic was seemingly on point that day.Highest batting average on pitches outside the zone: Yasiel Puig (.292)Generally, swinging at pitches outside the zone is bad. Those sorts of swings could certainly result in whiffs and worse counts. But hitters also don't experience the same sort of succe s as opposed to when they make contact on pitches within the zone. Puig
Joe Mauer Jersey cared not for those factors after joining the Indians at the deadline last year, going 14-for-48 on pitches outside the zone. Puig? Unconventional? Scroll to ContinueLongest projected distance: Bobby Bradley (457 feet)Sometimes, a hitter will blister a baseball seemingly into the next county, but when the projected distance is spit out by Statcast, it's le s than impre sive. That's because high-hit balls don't always translate into distance. But on some rare occasions, the eye candy of a long bomb is backed by the data.Bradley's first big-league homer was the embodiment of the internet meme, proving to be pleasing to
Byron Buxton Jersey the eye and also serving as the Tribe's longest projected homer distance in 2019. This blast off Tyler Duffey on July 13 was a brief reminder of why Bradley earned a promotion and could still factor into the Tribe's plans in years to come. His 113.5 mph exit velocity was also the second-hardest of any Indians homer this past year.Most balls struck at least 111 mphthat resulted in outs: FranmilReyes (3)Imagine making contact with a major-league pitch. Now imagine hitting that ball at 111 mph off the bat. Now imagine hitting the ball 111 mph and not getting a hit. Now imagine it within a two-month span. Woof. While Carlos Santana and Francisco Lindor each had a 111+ mph ball create an out this past year, that happened to Reyes on three separate occasions after arriving in Cleveland. Of course, when you hit the ball as hard as Reyes does frequently -- he was in the top 1 percent in exit velocity in 2019 -- y
