The countdown: Ranking Salvador Perez's 2021 home runs, part 5
The journey around the bases continues.
I had planned to get through this countdown before pitchers and catchers reported to spring training. Thanks to the lockout, I’m still right on time. So while the baseball world focuses on matters of a fiscal nature, I choose to celebrate the dinger. That seems to work out well.
And with that, the Salvador Perez dinger-palooza countdown is back. We’re knocking on the door of the top 20. The exit velocities are getting louder, the distances are ever so much longer and the launch angles remain generally impressive.
In case you missed the previous editions, or just want to relieve some slightly less impressive Salvy blasts, here is the countdown so far:
Part One — Home runs 48 through 41
Part Two — Home runs 40 through 36
Part Three — Home runs 35 through 31
Part Four — Home runs 30 through 26
#25 — 8/10/21 vs New York Yankees (1)
Perez made his major league debut on August 10, 2011, in Tampa. You surely remember that game. He collected his first RBI on a sac fly in the fourth inning. He laced his first big league hit in the sixth. (In a fun bit of trivia, both came off Wade Davis.) But it was his defensive work in that contest that really caught the collective consciousness. He picked a runner off first base in the fifth inning and nabbed another one at third in the eighth. He almost had the trifecta with a close one at second. You’re not supposed to remember random August games when your team is 12 games out of first and on their way to another 90-plus loss season. Yet it was just a glimpse of what was to come between Perez, the franchise and the fan base.
Fast forward ten years…
This was Perez’s 28th dinger of the season, establishing a new career-best mark. It was his first of two in this particular contest—what a way to celebrate a decade in the bigs. The other home run in this game checked in at #41.
#24 — vs Texas Rangers 4/4/21
The dinger that started it all. Home run number one.
Kind of takes you back, doesn’t it? That opening series against the Rangers was all kinds of bizarre where the Royals scored 25 runs in their first two games. The Perez dinger was in the third contest where they could only muster three runs total—two coming on the above blast. If you want to get into some extreme esoteric statistical trivia, amaze your friends by telling them Michael A. Taylor and Whit Merrifield both hit two home runs before Salvy hit his first in 2021. Then tell your friends to subscribe to this damn newsletter. Thanks!
#23 — @ Cleveland 4/7/21
Doing this exercise, it feels like most of Perez’s home runs have a launch angle that lends itself to an extended hang time. It allows the dingers to be properly savored. A moment where your breath is stolen by the ferocity when bat meets ball, followed by the quick intake of air to allow the unleashing of a roar of appreciation. When I watched this video back, my initial thought was, damn, that ball got out of the yard fast!
Let’s stay in Cleveland for the next dinger. And a fun fact about the damage Perez did at Progressive Field…
#22 — @ Cleveland 7/10/21
There’s just something beautiful about a cut fastball delivered middle-middle that gets vaporized.
We’ve ventured into no-doubter territory. From here on out, every home run is going to leap off of Perez’s bat in a trajectory that answers the question before it can even be posed: “Is that going to leave the yard?”
How about another question…Isn’t this art?
We talk about how Perez loves to hit at Target Field in Minneapolis, but among the AL Central rivals, he did his most damage last summer at Progressive Field in Cleveland. His .936 OPS was almost 140 points higher in Cleveland than in Minnesota. And his 152 sOPS+ underscored the damage he brought with him to the shores of Lake Erie. Among visitors who had at least 20 plate appearances, Perez’s sOPS+ ranked fifth overall last year.
I can’t lie…I may be more impressed by Perez’s three walks than his three bombs. I’ll save it for the next countdown.
#21 — @ Baltimore Orioles 9/8/21
This is where I wish the gif had audio attached. This is a late season game between two teams…I’m trying to be delicate here…two teams that were going nowhere. Baltimore has had it especially rough of late. As such, there were 4,965 souls in the stands at Camden Yards on this September night. Probably about half that number were still around at this point in the game, with the Royals winning by four in the seventh. The lack of atmosphere meant that sounds just kind of reverberated all night. But the sound when Perez’s bat greeted the fastball from Diplán…that’s the sound that gets the attention of the scout.
Crushed. I especially enjoyed the reaction of catcher Pedro Severino. And Diplán’s pivot on the follow through.
It’s poetry in gif form. And the perfect ending to another entry. Until next time…