If chicks still dig the long ball, then I’m going to go out on a limb and guess they adore Kris Bryant.
The Chicago Cubs wunderkind hit the scene two weeks into the season and has been turning heads ever since. The biggest head turner came on September 6 when he absolutely crushed a Rubby De La Rosa offering deep into stratosphere on Chicago’s northside.
1. Kris Bryant, 495 feet
After belting 55 home runs in what amounts to about a season-and-a-half in the minor leagues, Kris Bryant continued raising eyebrows when he hit the new Wrigley Field scoreboard with a 495-foot blast. Here’s the thing, this home run wasn’t even the first one to hit the newly minted scoreboard…it’s just the only one of the two the young slugger hit that went nearly 500 feet.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7HHuXq0icY]2. Michael Taylor, 493 feet
If you told ten baseball fans that a member of the Washington Nationals hit the season’s second-longest home run, I’d bet any amount of money that all ten would wager it was hit by Bryce Harper and not Michael Taylor. That said, hits 493-foot dinger at Coors Field was every bit as impressive as the 42 his teammate hit in 2015. And in case you were wondering…Harper’s longest homer was measured at 461 feet. Impressive…sure. But not good enough to make this list.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6WXsj3ODeo]3. Jonathan Schoop, 484 feet
On August 26, Jonathan Schoop hit what, at first, appeared to be a really, really long (and high) foul ball off Johnny Cueto. Thankfully, for the Baltimore Orioles, it was deemed fair and was, without a doubt, the most jaw-dropping of the second baseman’s 15 home runs in 2015.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WkOb9rI5OrQ]4. Nelson Cruz, 483 feet
Nelson Cruz finished up the 2015 campaign with 44 home runs, good for second most in the American League. The bomb he hit April 29 off Wandy Rodriguez just might have been the most impressive. The icing on the cake? The 483-foot home run was against the same team that opted to cut him loose following the 2013 season.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s91V_w8GjGo]5. Josh Donaldson, 481 feet
Given he’s probably the front runner for the American League MVP award, it’s only fitting that Josh Donaldson ends up on this list. The slugger’s two-run shot April 23 off Chris Tillman not only went 481 feet…it also holds the distinction of being having the quickest exit velocity of 120.5 miles per hour.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeH0V6TPNLg]Now, as great as each of those home runs were…it’s quite possible that Xander Bogaerts “Little League grand slam” was the season’s most entertaining. What do you think?
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wQmeA1ANuls]Thank you Statcast for providing the numbers.
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