Happ hit that opening day ball with 108.7 mph exit velo with a launch angle of 32 degrees.
so i baseball-savant'd and found two things:
- in the statcast era, there have been only 8 balls struck with that same exit velo and launch angle that were not home runs. That graph shows the distances of those eight – happer's went a measly 320 when all the rest were 380+. there.have been around 130 total balls hit with those same metrics in that time. That's what some people call an anomaly
- in 2025-2026, there have been 13 balls hit at that EV and launch angle. 12 have been home run
hahahah! Happ is locked in and it should be five consecutive games with a HR to start the season!!
go cubbies!!
7 comments
Another year… another 4 weeks where Happ does well at the plate and some fans pretend that makes up for the 20 other weeks where Happ is a disappointment.
I’ve seen enough – move to Arlington Heights and build a dome…
I’m not sure I’d call him “locked in”. He has 4 hits in 17 AB’s with 6 strikeouts. Like, cool…3 homers but he’s batting .235
How many balls have been hit at that exact EV and launch angle total including HR? I get that he crushed it and it woulda been gone if the wind were blowing out. But might be that a specific EV + launch angle combo is anyway a lowish number (because 32° and 107mph or 109 or whatever wouldn’t qualify). If there have been 500 hit and this few went out that would be a lot more interesting
Dont you mean 4 consecutive games?
Ian Happ is so funny because he’s such an unnecessary lightning rod. Through 4 games he looks good! But it’s 4 games. You can’t even claim he is streaky here because he hasn’t had time to be up or down. Let’s all relax. A 31% k rate over 4 games is nothing. Talk to me when he hits like that over a month. He is perfectly fine right now heading into game #5. If we want to overreact we should overreact to like Moises or something
This one really broke my heart. My friend and I watching both put $10 on Happ hitting a homer in his last AB of the game. We both stood up so fast the moment he hit it just for it to get knocked down by the wind.