In an /r/baseball thread yesterday, someone asked this question of Walker Jenkins' first career home run. And I thought, hey, we should be able to figure this out with a simple Baseball Savant search!

Incredibly, it's not even the slowest first-homer pitch for the last two weeks. Milwaukee's Luis Lara hit his first career home run on a 36.9 mph pitch from Leo Rivas on 8/18, during a shellacking of the Mariners. Jenkins' homer came off a 37.4 mph pitch. video

Both are beat out by just one other player: Carlos Cortes, of the Athletics, hit his first homer off of a 34.8 mph pitch from Scott Kingery during a blowout of the Angels. Funnily enough, Cortes has also allowed 4 homers as a pitcher. video

No other players have hit their first homer on a sub-40 mph pitch...in the data set, which only goes back to 2008, and actual statcast data starts in 2016. However, they're all very recent (more on this below). Cortes is 29, a second year player, and currently below replacement level, and Luis Lara is not a power hitter. So, Jenkins could very well be the best slugger on the list by the end of his career.

Mildly interesting tangents:

• Jenkins' 38 degree launch angle is tied for the second highest. First place goes to Kyle Higashioka on the first recorded event, against Frank Schwindel in 2022 - a 39 degree launch angle. The other 38 degree homer was Griffin Conine off Tyler Heineman on 8/9.

• Miguel Rojas is the only player to both homer off of and allow a homer off of a sub-40 mph pitch, all in 2025. He allowed such homers on 4/12 and 5/13, then hit one on 6/14, which is kind of eerie.

• LaMonte Wade is the only lefty to allow a homer on a sub-40 mph pitch (hit by Denzer Guzman). Incidentally, this is also the highest exit velo (106.1 mph), lowest launch angle (20 degrees), and shortest distance (363 feet).

• Of the 15 sub-40 mph pitches hit for home runs in the search, one each occurred in 2022 and 2024, and the rest have come in the last two seasons. Maybe Noodle-Arm Flanagan accomplished this feat in 1912, but I'm going to assume not unless someone tells me otherwise.

• Additionally, these events are clustered late in the year. In 2026, all seven have happened since 7/28. In fact, the data tells me that you can only hit a homer off a sub-40 mph pitch before 7/28 if one of two things are true: either you are the first person to ever hit such a homer, or Miguel Rojas is involved.

statcast search

Been looking around card stores/shows for the Buxton HFA with no luck, decided to buy off eBay.

Acton makes sense, he's actually been very good in AAA since returning from injury and he's already on the 40-man roster.

Ross is a bit of a surprise in terms of position players. I would have expected either Roden or Emmanuel Rodriguez, but I suppose they wanted another infielder.

Also possible they wanted to callup someone who they are fine with being on the bench a lot, and Ross fits that bill. Ben Ross profiles as a superutility player in the vein of Ryan Kreidler with solid defense at multiple infield and outfield positions, but some troubling swing and miss.

The Twins will have to release someone from the 40-man roster in order to add Ben Ross.

Just my opinion.

I just started scoring a few days ago. This was a fun one!

P.S. Yes, my handwriting is trash lol.

Assuming Buxton is shut down for the rest of the regular season, he’s sitting at 25 HR and 46 RBI’s. A ratio of 1.84, that looks to be lower than

According to this: https://www.baseball-reference.com/blog/archives/10785.html

He would behind Bond’s 1.88 (73 HR, 137 RBI) season.

Is this right? Can anyone else find different?

Tigers (63-74) @ Twins (66-72)

First Pitch: 6:40 PM at Target Field

Line Score - Game Over

Box Score

Scoring Plays

Highlights

Decisions

Game ended at 9:31 PM.

Remember to sort by new to keep up!

Tigers (63-74) @ Twins (66-72)

First Pitch: 6:40 PM at Target Field

Just got my fair share of Minnesota at the state fair, next up is a Twins game. Any recommendations in the park? Food, drink, or other. Also, any good bars for a solo drink outside the stadium? I like a good view, a good chat with locals, or just a good beer!