The 2014 major league season is over and power was on the decline again, with home runs down about 10 percent from 2013, to their lowest rate since 1992 (0.86).
Longest HR in Regular Season
That just made really impressive and interesting home run performances stand out a little bit more. Here's a look back at some of the favorites compiled by our home run tracking team.
Long Ball Leader: Giancarlo Stanton
Giancarlo Stanton hit three of the eight longest home runs this season. Seven of those eight went at least 450 feet, and Stanton hit more such home runs than any team in baseball.
Average Distance Champion: Matt Holliday
Giancarlo Stanton’s average home run distance was 415.3 feet, but despite hitting 24 home runs farther than 400 feet, he did not lead the league in average home run distance.
Among the players who hit at least 20 home runs, Matt Holliday had an average home run distance 3 feet longer than Stanton’s.
Best Month of the Season: Edwin Encarnacion (May)
Edwin Encarnacion hit 16 home runs in May, joining Barry Bonds, Mickey Mantle and Mark McGwire as the only players in major league history to hit at least 16 homers in that month. After going deep just twice in March/April, Encarnacion had five multihomer games in May, tied for most in a calendar month in major league history.
Encarnacion pulled all but one of his home runs in May and has pulled 88 home runs over the last three seasons, the most in baseball.
Long Blast of the Year: Mike Trout at Kauffman Stadium
Longest Home Runs, Since 2006
Mike Trout hit a career-long 489-foot home run off Jason Vargas on June 27, the longest home run of the year.
The 489-foot blast is the longest by an AL player since the beginning of ESPN Home Run Tracker in 2006, and the sixth-longest overall.
Piling Up Home Runs at a Record Rate: Jose Abreu
Jose Abreu set a record by reaching 25 career home runs faster than anyone in MLB history.
Abreu finished the season with 36, the most by a rookie since 2001, when Albert Pujols hit 37 for the St. Louis Cardinals.
Home Run Oddities and Anomalies:
Highest Apex
Corey Dickerson of the Rockies hit a home run on Sept. 16 that reached 171 feet at its highest point, the third-highest apex since the beginning of ESPN HR Tracker in 2006.
Shortest Home Run
David Ortiz hit the third-longest home run of the season, but he also hit the shortest (excluding inside-the-park home runs). On Aug. 16, Ortiz hit a fly ball 318 feet down the right-field line at Fenway Park, barely wrapping around Pesky’s Pole. The 318-foot homer is the second shortest Ortiz has hit since ESPN began tracking homers in 2006 (312 feet on June 6, 2009).
All Chris Carter Does: Hit Short Home Runs
Chris Carter hit 37 home runs this season, 15 of which were longer than 400 feet. Carter’s average home run distance was 384.1 feet, the lowest among players with at least 25 home runs. In addition, Carter’s home run park percentage was 67 percent (meaning each of his homers would have been home runs in an average of 20 parks), second lowest of anyone with at least 20 homers (Anthony Rendon, 57 percent)
Carter hit 21 home runs at Minute Maid Park in Houston and benefited greatly from the short porch in left field.
No Doubt of Encarnacion’s Power
Encarnacion hit 17 home runs classified by www.hittrackeronline.com as “no doubt” home runs, five more than anyone else in MLB.
A “no doubt” home run means the ball cleared the fence by at least 20 vertical feet and landed at least 50 feet past the fence.
Decline of Power since 2012
In 2014, there were 4,186 home runs, 748 fewer than in 2012. In 2012, there were nearly twice as many 450-foot home runs (96) as there were this year (49).
2014 Postseason
Harper leads the way
Bryce Harper hit the longest home run of the postseason, a 445-foot blast off Hunter Strickland of the Giants in Game 1 of the NLDS. The home run, which went into the third deck in right field of Nationals Park, was Harper’s career long.
Harper’s was also tied for fifth-longest postseason home run in the past five years.
Postseason Anomaly
Nelson Cruz hit the shortest home run of the postseason, a 342-footer off David Price that barely sneaked inside the right-field pole.
Longest Home Runs, 2014 Postseason
The Cardinals hit 105 home runs during the regular season, second to last in MLB (Royals, 95).
However, their power came alive in the postseason, hitting 15 home runs in nine games.
The Royals were second in the postseason with 11 home runs, but they played six more games than St. Louis.