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Joey Gallo did break Statcast, it appears.
Last season, Texas Ranger Joey Gallo had a number of booming, moonshot, tape measure home runs that appeared to go much farther than the Statcast system reported. It led to much questioning from fans, players, and the media about whether Gallo had simply broken the Statcast system.
Well, apparently, that’s what happened. Buried at the bottom of his latest notes column, Gerry Fraley writes that Statcast had to “re-work” its system this offseason because of Gallo, as Gallo apparently “overpowered” the system.
So this year, when Gallo hits a home run to the same general area that Statcast last year said was 445 feet, and every scoffed at, we can compare the results.
And since I’ve got you thinking about Joey Gallo, here’s a video of all his home runs from 2017:
UPDATE — Harry Pavlidis of Baseball Prospectus throws a little rain on the parade:
they knew for years that they were losing high hits before their peak, and mismeasuring. They had the fix available, too. And it certainly wasn't just a Gallo thing.
— Harry Pavlidis and five thousand others (@harrypav) March 4, 2018
Yeah, it stands to reason it isn’t JUST Gallo. But Gallo is one of the handful of main culprits. And that’s still neat.