The 5 Hardest-Hit Home Runs So Far This Season

Trout's L.A. Laser

The Bomb

The Components

On a 2-2 count, Mike Trout went down in the zone to get Joakim Soria's 91.8 mph fastball and launched it 420 feet at an exit velocity of 114.4 mph. The launch angle of 17.7 degrees is only higher than CarGo's for home runs with an exit velocity north of 114.

The key trend that sticks out here is the fact that no one was on base, and Trout hit a solo shot on a not-so-friendly home run pitch. But, solo shots seem to be to Trout's liking these days.

Eight of his 13 longballs have come without anybody on base, and his wRC+ of 163 in these situations is 11th in the league. He's done so by avoiding ground balls and hitting a lot of line drives.

Trout's ground-ball rate is 41.5% with no one on while his fly-ball rate dips to 32.1%, leading to a line-drive rate of 26.4% with the sacks empty. But, the key stat is that, even though he's hitting fewer fly balls, Trout is hitting 23.5% of them for home runs -- 6.8% higher than with men on base.

It's plain to see that, when his teammates fail to get on ahead of him, the MVP is looking to bring himself around to score in a very abrupt manner -- on line-drive dingers.

I guess that means no more early-season struggles, right?