The hardest hit balls of the final two weeks, 9/17-9/30

This is our last time to admire the carnage of the Giants’ terrible lineup before the 2019 lineup gets going, so let’s make the most of this. The franchise has lost its way when it comes to hitting, so we don’t have many examples over the final two weeks of the season where they barreled the ball.

A refresher on that barreled status:

To be Barreled, a batted ball requires an exit velocity of at least 98 mph. At that speed, balls struck with a launch angle between 26-30 degrees always garner Barreled classification. For every mph over 98, the range of launch angles expands.

This is cleaner than pure exit velocity because of the combination of hit probability and, basically, the power potential of the hit:

[...] the Barrel classification is assigned to batted-ball events whose comparable hit types (in terms of exit velocity and launch angle) have led to a minimum .500 batting average and 1.500 slugging percentage since Statcast was implemented Major League wide in 2015 [...]

The last time we did this, the Giants mustered all of three barreled balls. Would a two week sampling provide more of these good kinds of batted ball events?

In case your news reader strips out the embedded video highlights, you can press on the result to get the video link directly.

14. Alen Hanson - 9/23/2018 at Busch Stadium vs. Miles Mikolas

Exit Velocity: 98.7 mph
Result: FLY OUT

13. Aramís García - 9/19/2018 at Petco Park vs. Craig Stammen

Exit Velocity: 99.0 mph
Result: DINGER

12. Grégor Blanco - 9/29/2018 at AT&T Park vs. Kenley Jansen

Exit Velocity: 99.2 mph
Result: DOUBLE

11. Evan Longoria - 9/17/2018 at Petco Park vs. Bryan Mitchell

Exit Velocity: 101.1 mph
Result: DINGER

10. Gorkys Hernández - 9/28/2018 at AT&T Park vs. Hyun-Jin Ryu

Exit Velocity: 101.2 mph
Result: FLY OUT

9. Brandon Crawford - 9/23/2018 at Busch Stadium vs. Miles Mikolas

Exit Velocity: 101.6 mph
Result: HOME RUN

8. Gorkys Hernández - 9/28/2018 at AT&T Park vs. Hyun-Jin Ryu

Exit Velocity: 101.9 mph
Result: FLY OUT

7. Hunter Pence - 9/25/2018 at AT&T Park vs. Robbie Erlin

Exit Velocity: 102.3 mph
Result: DING DONG GONER

6. Gorkys Hernández - 9/25/2018 at AT&T Park vs. Rowan Wick

Exit Velocity: 103.4 mph
Result: TRIPLE

5. Aramís García - 9/26/2018 at AT&T Park vs. José Castillo

Exit Velocity: 105.4 mph
Result: DINGER

4. Brandon Crawford - 9/17/2018 at Petco Park vs. Bryan Mitchell

Exit Velocity: 105.7 mph
Result: DINGER

3. Evan Longoria - 9/21/2018 at Busch Stadium vs. John Gant

Exit Velocity: 106.0 mph
Result: DOUBLE

2. Hunter Pence - 9/29/2018 at AT&T Park vs. Clayton Kershaw

Exit Velocity: 107.1 mph
Result: DOUBLE

1. Hunter Pence - 9/18/2018 at Petco Park vs. Joey Lucchesi

Exit Velocity: 108.2 mph
Result: DINGER

This was the only barreled ball of the game. It was also the hardest hit ball of the past two weeks. Now, remember, I’m using “hardest hit” to describe barreled balls, but there were others — groundouts and fly outs — with greater exit velocity. Hunter Pence simply hit this pitch “the most” of any other pitch hit by a Giants’ hitter. He actually had the two hardest hit balls of the Giants’ final two weeks. A fitting end to Hunter Pence’s Giants’ tenure, if that is, indeed, what’s going to happen.

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The Giants hit only 10 barreled balls from 9/1-9/16. Somehow, the team hit the ball harder in the second half of the month than the beginning. None of this takes into account the number of barreled balls surrendered by Giants pitching or the average exit velocity of the opponents’ lineups versus the Giants’. Still, It was nice to see Aramís García make his presence felt, though ultimately, the Giants have their work cut out for them this offseason.

But, uh, you already knew that. I’m just guessing you didn’t know which pitches were the ones they’d barreled of late...