Royals No. 1 Prospect Jac Caglianone's Latest Insane Feat: 120.9 MPH Scorcher
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Every day at this point, Kansas City Royals top prospect Jac Caglianone is doing something new and outlandish.
Caglianone, the 22-year-old first baseman who the Royals selected sixth-overall in the Major League Baseball Draft last July, was sent to Double-A to start the season after tearing the cover off the ball in big-league spring training. So far, he's just continued to rake.
Through six games in Double-A, Caglianone has gone 9-for-26 (.346) with a pair of home runs, both of which astonishingly traveled over 460 feet. The first of those home runs, hit over 116 miles per hour, was one of the hardest-hit balls anywhere in baseball to begin the young season.
On Thursday, however, Caglianone improved on that mark drastically. He ripped a single through the left side of the infield that measured in at a whopping 120.9 mph.
According to Kenny Van Doren of MLB.com, Caglianone's laser would be the 12th-hardest-hit ball in the Statcast era if it happened in the majors. The top mark is currently held by the Pittsburgh Pirates' Oneil Cruz, who roped a 122.4-mph single last August.
Caglianone's hit was measured by the Trackman system in Arvest Ballpark, which is considered to be less accurate than the Statcast system that measures exit velocity, among many other metrics, during a major league game.
But even if the system was off by a single mile per hour, or even two, Caglianone's hit was the type of rocket very few players in the majors are capable of hitting. Players like Cruz, Giancarlo Stanton, and Aaron Judge tend to see their names at the top of the season-long exit velocity leaderboards year after year.
Someday soon, Caglianone could join that group. But on top of simply hitting the ball hard, he'll have to continue proving he's a well-rounded hitter to earn his promotions to Triple-A, and eventually, the big show.
More MLB: Royals Writer Pours Cold Water On Aggressive Promotion Timeline For Jac Caglianone
Jackson Roberts is a former Division III All-Region DH who now writes and talks about sports for a living. A Bay Area native and a graduate of Swarthmore College and the Newhouse School at Syracuse University, Jackson makes his home in North Jersey. He grew up rooting for the Red Sox, Patriots, and Warriors, and he recently added the Devils to his sports fandom mosaic. For all business/marketing inquiries regarding "Kansas City Royals On SI," please reach out to Scott Neville: scott@wtfsports.org
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