The opening weekend of baseball showed how close the shortened 60-game season will be. Consider that there were no sweeps - everyone went 2-1 or 1-2 - including the anticipated series between the defending World Series champion Nationals and World Series favorite Yankees. New York took two out of three, and it looks like they're getting the Giancarlo Stanton of 2017 National League MVP form. After last year was lost to injuries, the 30-year-old opened up 2020 with two mammoth home runs, both of which were over 450 feet.
Between Stanton and fellow behemoth Aaron Judge (let alone everyone else in the lineup), the Yankees were made for the Statcast era. Since 2015, they've coordinated with Major League Baseball to provide all sorts of analytic information, most notably with at-bats. The term "exit velocity" has become an accepted part of the baseball lexicon and, well, Stanton and Judge are the standard-bearers:
Together they've combined to hit the nine hardest home runs in all of baseball in the Statcast era and 12 of the top 15. Do you remember all of these absurd homers?
1) Stanton, 8/9/18: The hardest hit home run since the inception of Statcast came in Stanton's first year with the Yanks. He took an Ariel Jurado offering 449 feet to left. The only reason it didn't go farther is because it was such a low line drive by home run standards, but it still went off the bat at a record 121.7 mph. Mind you, that's not the hardest-hit ball of Stanton's career - that would be a 122.2 mph single.
2) Stanton, 7/25/20: Stanton opened up the year with a bang in Game 1 (more on that in a minute), but Game 2 on Saturday took the cake in the season-opening series. Stanton hit a 483-foot bomb off of Erick Fedde that left the bat at 121.3 mph. Even in an otherwise forgettable 9-2 defeat, Stanton managed to steal the spotlight.
3) Judge, 6/10/17: In Judge's record-setting rookie season he had plenty of towering shots in his 52 homer campaign, most notably when he just about sent a ball out of then-Safeco Field. But his hardest-hit homer actually came earlier in the year against the Orioles. Chris Tillman left an 84-mph pitch middle in and Judge didn't miss, bending it around the left field foul pole at 121.1 mph.
4) Judge, 4/28/17: The Rookie of the Year's shot off Chris Tillman came about six weeks after he teed off on another Orioles starter, this time Kevin Gausman. An inning after hitting a solo home run, Judge followed it up with a 119.4 mph shot into Monument Park in the sixth inning, sparking a big Yankee comeback. Down 9-2 at the time, New York would storm all the way back to win it 14-11 in extras.
5) Stanton, 6/6/18: After 12 scoreless innings in Toronto, the Yankees finally came to life in the 13th in the pitchers duel, putting up a pair of runs before Stanton came up to the plate. He all but secured the win in electrifying fashion, hitting an 85 mph, down-the-middle pitch into the seats. An absolute laser, it left the bat at 119.3 mph and capped the scoring in a 3-0 victory.
6) Stanton, 6/23/15: The hardest-hit home run in a non-Yankees uniform, Stanton hit many towering shots in his days with the Marlins, and this one is up there with the best of them. In the bottom of the first against the Cardinals he sent a Carlos Martinez pitch into the stratosphere, coming off the bat at 119.2 mph, a record that would stand for nearly two years. Stanton hit it 486 feet, which tied for the longest home run of the 2015 season. The other to hit a 486-foot blast? Also Stanton.
7) Stanton, 9/28/17: Stanton's final home runs as a member of the Marlins came in the same game with a two home run performance against the Braves in Miami. After taking Julio Teheran deep in the fourth, he gave the Miami faithful a parting gift in his MVP season. His 59th home run of the year, and 267th of his Marlins career, came in the eighth off Rex Brothers. The 118.7 mph blast went 467 feet, to the very edges of the ballpark, as the Marlins won the game and ended a mediocre season on a win streak.
9) Stanton, 4/23/15: Just weeks into the Statcast era, Stanton hit what is far-and-away the shortest home run on this list. It was well under 400 feet, but the ball he hit with the Marlins against the Phillies was absolutely hammered. The 118.5 mph smash went from home plate to the stands - 377 feet in all - in 3.105 seconds. Ridiculous.