Here’s Distance (And Exit Velocity) Of Roman Anthony’s Titanic Blast
Contrary to popular belief, the troll-silencing home run Red Sox prospect Roman Anthony hit Thursday night has indeed landed.
The No. 1 prospect in baseball showed out in Boston’s spring breakout game vs. the Tampa Bay Rays, hitting a gargantuan home run Thursday night in Port Charlotte, Fla.
While it’s not totally clear just how far away from home plate the ball came to rest, the consensus is that thing went for quite the ride.
“While Charlotte Sports Park doesn’t have Statcast, executives from both teams cited an exit velocity of roughly 110 mph and a projected distance of close to 435 feet on the moonshot by Anthony,” MLB.com’s Ian Browne wrote Thursday night.
This isn’t new for Anthony. The outfielder routinely squares it up. As Baseball America pointed out last spring, Anthony early in the season had “the second-highest 90th percentile exit velocity amongst all Double-A bats so far with a scintillating 112 mph (on just over 20 balls in play).” Anthony later in the season set an unofficial franchise record with a home run that generated a 116 mph exit velocity for Double-A Portland.
Sooner than later, Anthony will get a chance to test his jaw-dropping skill set against big league pitching on a full-time basis. That will come with a set of adjustments for the 20-year-old, but he has looked like the real deal so far this spring. Anthony has done well to cut down the swing and miss in his game. After striking out 126 times in 119 games over two levels last year, Anthony has just three strikeouts in eight games (23 plate appearances).