Last night, Brady House hit one of the more impressive home runs I have seen at Nationals Park. In the third inning, House absolutely unloaded on a 99 MPH fastball from Eury Perez. He sent it on to the concourse an estimated 474 feet, well at least at first. It was a perfect swing and an absolutely titanic blast.
There have been plenty of ups and downs in Brady House's first 145 games as a big leaguer. However, swings like that are what keeps fans dreaming. House has not had the same sort of rapid improvement that we have seen from some hitters, but he has certainly improved. His chase rate is down 3%, his barrel rate is up over 8% and his walk rate is up over 4%.
These are all important steps in the right direction for a talented but raw hitter. A big reason for these improvements is House having a more defined plan of attack during at bats and before games. After the game, House talked about going into his cage sessions with more of a purpose instead of just swinging to get reps.
Blake Butera said that he expects to see more power from House as he develops that approach. As we saw last night, raw power is not the problem here. House hits the ball hard consistently, and can hit some absolute moon shots. He has all the raw tools to hit 30 homers, he just needs more refinement. Since he has come back from the minors, he has taken steps in the right direction in that regard.
Speaking of that moon shot, the distance of the homer became a source of slight controversy. At first, the distance was shown as 474 feet, which would be tied for the longest home run by a big leaguer all year. However, that total was changed to 445 feet later on. Interestingly, Heriberto Hernandez also hit a homer 445 feet in the 8th inning. At least to the naked eye, House's looked like it went significantly further.
For his part, House said that this was probably the furthest he has hit one. It went to an area of Nats Park where you seldom see balls go. Butera said he has seen Andres Chaparro and Andrew Pinckney hit it up there in batting practice, but he had not seen anything like that in a game. Doing it off a 99 MPH heater makes it even more impressive.
Whether it was 474 feet or 445 feet, the point is that Brady House hit an absolute nuke. That was the kind of home run that makes fans come to the ballpark. Just the sound off the bat was different and not something you hear too often. As the ball left House's bat, the left fielder did not move a muscle and Eury Perez just threw his arm up in disgust. I am not exactly statcast, but I buy the 474 foot mark more.
House is no stranger to long home runs in his career. In the minors, he hit some tape measure shots. I remember one in AAA last year that went 458 feet and hit the top of the batters eye. Ever since he was in high school, Brady House has had the ability to hit majestic homers.
We have seen plenty of flashes from the 23 year old, but we need to see him put it all together. Despite that homer last night, House is still hitting just .183 with a .569 OPS against right handed pitching. Going into next year, House will have to prove he is more than just a platoon bat.
That mammoth homer is a good place to start, but we still need more consistency. Throughout his career, it feels like House just gets a little bit better every year. He has never made some stratospheric leap, but he has steadily improved. That was also the case this year, as he got noticeably better but still has not truly broken out.
With more big league reps and another offseason under his belt, I think next season could be the year where House truly establishes himself as a big league regular. It really does need to be the year because we cannot wait forever. Those flashes need to turn into consistency. Home runs like that give you a lot more faith in Brady House though.
