We’ve experienced something similar to this before, but with pitch velocities. Back when Statcast was first unveiling their various tools and leaderboards, they built a convenient search to find the hardest pitches thrown by anyone in the majors that year. It sounded like a fun idea, but reality made it seem like there was a glitch in the system: The 101 fastest pitches thrown that year all belonged to Aroldis Chapman. Therefore, Statcast had to implement a “Chapman filter,” just so you could try to parse which pitchers might be a distant second place to him in the race for the hardest thrower on earth. Chapman’s velocity has tailed off slightly and other flamethrowers have reached the majors, but thanks to young right-hander Jordan Hicks, the list of the fastest pitches still looks very lopsided.

The exit velocity leaderboard also has one player similarly front and center, which is far wilder to me than the idea of one pitcher throwing harder than everyone else. If you’ll allow me to sound very dumb about all of the various components that go into someone being able to throw a baseball at 104 mph, fundamentally speaking, the act of throwing is the only thing happening there. With hitting, there are more variables at play. The batter has to deliver a swing that is on time, accurate, and, in terms of what we’re discussing here, extremely powerful. I think of Hicks throwing a fastball as him demonstrating an unbelievable superhuman gift, but one he can more or less show off whenever he wants. Every 120 mph batted ball, however, is an entirely different kind of achievement, one that requires everything to go exactly right for a very specific kind of hitter.

It’s not easy for a hitter to distinguish himself like this. In modern times, there isn’t a single player lapping the field in homers the way Babe Ruth used to, posting absurd strikeout-to-walk ratios like Ted Williams, or making a mockery of his peers with video game numbers like Barry Bonds. Whether it’s batting average, on-base percentage, or homers, the top of the leaderboards are usually pretty close together. That’s what makes Stanton’s so special — it’s one of the only areas where we see a player truly in a class of his own. Years from now, virtually nothing about the 2020 season will look normal, with one exception — Giancarlo Stanton, owner of the hardest hit ball of the season. Just like every other year.