It’s Wednesday and that means that it’s time to take a look at the Daytona Tortugas longest home runs this season. This week we’ve been looking at the different levels and the longest homers hit there by the Cincinnati Reds minor leaguers at that level this season.
The Florida State League, the home of the Tortugas is known as a league that saps power. The ball doesn’t quite fly as much there – but there’s also just the fact that some of the ballparks there are bigger than your usual minor league parks. There are 12 teams in the league and Daytona’s 67 home runs were tied for 7th in the league. The league average was 75 home runs. Bradenton led the league with 107 home runs, and St. Lucie came in last place with 51 home runs. With that said, here’s the list of the 20 longest home runs hit by Daytona Tortugas hitters this season.
| Date | Hitter | Distance | Team |
| 6/30/19 | Hendrik Clementina | 443 | Tortugas |
| 5/15/19 | Bruce Yari | 438 | Tortugas |
| 6/25/19 | Bruce Yari | 438 | Tortugas |
| 6/7/19 | Jonathan India | 426 | Tortugas |
| 5/10/19 | Jonathan India | 424 | Tortugas |
| 8/4/19 | Mark Kolozsvary | 423 | Tortugas |
| 8/27/19 | Hendrik Clementina | 421 | Tortugas |
| 4/25/19 | Jonathan India | 420 | Tortugas |
| 4/9/19 | Jonathan India | 418 | Tortugas |
| 5/20/19 | Jose Garcia | 415 | Tortugas |
| 5/3/19 | Hendrik Clementina | 414 | Tortugas |
| 5/4/19 | Hendrik Clementina | 413 | Tortugas |
| 5/9/19 | Jose Garcia | 412 | Tortugas |
| 4/20/19 | Carlos Rivero | 410 | Tortugas |
| 5/19/19 | Jose Garcia | 410 | Tortugas |
| 4/13/19 | Jonathan India | 407 | Tortugas |
| 4/24/19 | Hendrik Clementina | 407 | Tortugas |
| 6/6/19 | Stuart Fairchild | 407 | Tortugas |
| 7/9/19 | Shard Munroe | 407 | Tortugas |
| 8/8/19 | Hendrik Clementina | 406 | Tortugas |
As I’ve noted throughout the week, the further up the chain in the farm system you go, the more you should expect to see longer home runs. Guys are older, more skilled, and physically stronger as a whole. We are seeing that today when compared to what we saw yesterday on the Dayton Dragons list. Dayton didn’t have 20 home runs go 400+ feet. The Dragons did have more total home runs as a team, though.
What the Tortugas did, though, was send them deeper when they did put them over the fence. Of the 67 home runs that they did hit there were 27 that went 400 or more feet. That’s 40.3%.
The longest homer was hit by Hendrik Clementina at 443 feet. A tortuga could walk that far in 1 minute and 43 seconds. A tortuga could swim that far in 28 seconds. It’s not surprising to see Clementina at the top of the list. In 2018 he hit a 465-foot home run and a 459-foot home run while playing with Dayton. He’s got big time power.
First Fun Fact
Bruce Yari hit seven homers on the season, but two of them were 438-footers. He only needed a few more feet to get them back to his hometown in Canada.
Second Fun Fact
Carlos Rivero only played in 14 games for the Tortugas this season and he had just one home run while he was there. But the one that he hit was crushed and it went 410 feet. His other home run on the season came with the Dayton Dragons and went was a 371-foot homer.
You can see the entire series right here to check out how the top home runs went for each level within the Cincinnati Reds farm system.