FanPost

Details on Todd Frazier's 8/15 Home Run - Not 474 Feet!


Like many of you, I watched Todd Frazier's home run live. I was actually at the ballpark, and I thought it was going a very long way. HitTracker.com said, though, that the home run only would have gone 436 feet - a mere 32 feet past the CF wall. Part of this is due to the fact that the boat actually leans back toward the field from the batter's eye.

Since I can't say it as elegantly, I emailed HitTracker and Greg gave me this fantastic description of what was happening with physics and Toddfather's homer. Commence long email string:

From: Greg, HitTracker Online guy
Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2012 10:34 PM
To: Jake
Subject: RE: I don't think you guys got Todd Frazier's home run right

Jake,

Thanks for taking the time to write...

The ball Frazier hit actually hit a bit to the left of where you have it, right above the wall between the left two camera rooms and the right two. I have that spot as 410 feet from home plate and +38 feet above field level. It was a fairly high arcing homer that projected out at 436 feet. The Reds have a home run estimation application they use that allows the operator to choose between three numbers, a high, medium and low arc; I'm sure they chose either the medium or low arc, because no one using such a tool ever selects the high arc, since it gives the shortest distance. In any event, there's no way it was anywhere near 474 feet...

On my site, a homer is rated as ND ("No Doubt") if it clears the fence by at least 25 vertical feet and projects to land at least 50 feet beyond the fence. This one had the height, but projected to land only 36 feet past the fence, and so it missed the ND rating by a bit.

Really, this homer looked longer than it was, because the boat is deceptively close to the HR fence, and the fence is not particularly far from home plate...

Anyway, thanks again, and let me know if you have any questions...

Greg Rybarczyk

Hit Tracker

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: RE: I don't think you guys got Todd Frazier's home run right
From: Jake
Date: Thu, August 16, 2012 8:41 pm
To: Greg

Awesome description. Even if I disagree a little bit – I was at the game, and the replay doesn’t seem to show the ball very well – your math must be solid and usually is. To me, it didn’t look like the ball was falling fast enough that it’d drop 40 feet vertically in just 32 horizontal feet. Based on the replay, it looks like the ball is basically dropping straight down though, and I just wish there were a better camera angle to confirm.

Thanks for taking the time to reply (expeditiously, too!). Do you mind if I share this with the internet?

-------- Original Message --------

From: Greg

Sent: Thursday, August 16, 2012 11:55 PM
To: Jake
Subject: RE: I don't think you guys got Todd Frazier's home run right

Jake,

Actually, the average home run is descending at an angle of about 50-55 degrees when it lands, so a ball hit a bit higher than average would be descending even more steeply. A drop of around 40 feet in 32 feet of horizontal distance is pretty typical, actually...

I'll also agree that the replay was not ideal - I think the ball hit the railing, and then sort of dropped from there, it certainly did not just come down and scrape the wall of the batter's eye.

Anyway, go right ahead and post this somewhere if you like, and if I can provide any follow-up, I will...

Greg

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