A case study in hard contact and the limits of Statcast

A couple of weeks ago, Justin Upton launched an Alex Colomé fastball deep into the Seattle night. The Mariners were ahead by two and the Angels had runners on the corners with two outs. Off the bat, it looked like the ball was destined to fly over the fence. Watching at home, I immediately thought Colomé had given up the lead. To my surprise, the ball settled into Guillermo Heredia’s glove, 372 feet away from home and about 30 feet short of the fence. Crisis averted.

Here’s a GIF of that fly out for reference:

Because we live in the era of Statcast, we can find out all sorts of information about this particular batted ball. It was hit with an exit velocity of 103.1 mph with a launch angle of…