A Little Homer Analysis

Just for fun, a little home run analysis of the Orioles for the season thus far using some data from HitTrackerOnline.com

First, just the raw home run leaders for the O's in 2008:

           HR

Huff       19

Scott      17

Markakis   15

Mora       15

Millar     12


 

Going into September of last season, it didn't look like any Oriole batter was going to hit 20 homers (and without a power surge by Markakis in September, no one would have...). Now, we have 4 players already at 15. Low standards to be sure but it's an improvement.

So, the longest home runs (so far) by Standard Distance:

           Distance

Markakis    447 ft

Quiroz      443 ft

Scott       442 ft

Huff        433 ft

Huff        430 ft

 

Now the leaders in True Distance. I won't go into great detail on all of the definitions here so here's the Hit Tracker glossary. Basically, it's the distance a home run would have travelled if it had continued, uninterrrupted, to field level.

          Distance

Scott      444 ft

Scott      421 ft

Markakis   421 ft

Mora       421 ft

Scott      421 ft


 

Look at Luke Scott! A lot of raw power coming out of leftfield. But wait, there's more. The most No Doubt homers by an Oriole:

          No Doubts

Scott        6

Huff         3

Markakis     1

Mora         1

Millar       1

 

Scott has a ton of monster shots. More than double the next guy and no one else has more than 1! Scott is a flawed player but I am a big fan of having at least one guy who can just crush the ball way over the outfield wall. The Orioles haven't had a guy with such raw power since Albert Belle.

Now the Just Enoughs:

          Just Enoughs
Markakis       8
Hernandez      6
Huff           6
Mora           5
Millar         4
 

It's not really a surprise that Markakis leads this list. He does not have a classic home run swing; he's a line drive hitter with power. Since one of the qualifiactions for "Just Enoughs" is "the ball must clear the wall by less than 10 vertical feet", I am almost surprised he doesn't have more!

As hard as Ramon Hernandez is hitting the ball, he ssem sto be getting a little lucky with his homerun totals.

Speaking of luck, the leaders in Lucky Homers (affected by wind, temp, etc)

           Lucky Homers
Hernandez       6
Markakis        4
Huff            4
Scott           2
Payton          2
 

More than half of Hernandez's homers have been classified as "lucky". Not a good trend. Markakis is here again due to his line drive swing. Sometimes his homers are just inches away from being doubles...and vice versa.

Finally, the leaders in Average Standars Distance or as Hit Tracker calls it, The Golden Sledgehammer:

             Avg. Std. Distance
Huff              397.2 ft
Scott             395.4 ft
Mora              391.6 ft
Markakis          388.1 ft
Millar            371.3 ft
 

Aubrey Huff in an upset! Huff just edges out Luke Scott by less than 2 ft on average. I was kind of surprised to see Melvin Mora come in third though.

Just a footnote: Adam Jones has only hit 6 homers but only 1 of them was classified as "Just Enough". Our centerfielder also has some nice raw power if he can harness it. He is The Truth!