Matthew Taylor: Jonathan Schoop on historic homer pace for O's second basemen

Only one Orioles batter has hit a home run 446 feet or longer in each of the last three baseball seasons, according to ESPN's Home Run Tracker. That batter is Jonathan Schoop, the O's hard-hitting 24-year-old second baseman who is well on his way to a career high in homers. As Schoop continues to learn to hit at the major league level, he will establish new Orioles precedents for power hitting by a second baseman, likely starting as soon as this season.

Schoop had the team's second-longest homers in 2014 and 2015, which traveled 446 feet and 457 feet, respectively. Meanwhile, his 461-foot shot on June 19 is the O's longest since Chris Davis sent one 466 feet versus the San Francisco Giants on Aug. 10, 2013, during his team-record-setting 53 homer season.

Schoop had a sizzling month at the plate, including contributing five of the Orioles' record-setting 56 homers for June. He had five home runs in a month only once before in his brief career, and that was last September. He improved his average from .264 to .300 territory over the course of the past month, saw his on-base percentage improve from .286 to the .330 range and went from slugging .456 to slugging more than .510.

Given his hot stretch and his 13 homers so far in 2016, Schoop is all but assured to become the first O's second baseman with three 15-homer seasons. It will have taken him all of three seasons to do so, and one of those seasons was shortened significantly by injury.

Brian Roberts is the only Orioles second baseman to match Schoop with multiple 15-homer seasons. Roberts had a career-high 18 homers in 2005 and 16 homers in 2009. Schoop's career-best 16 home runs came in 2014, and he followed that up with a 15-homer effort last season. Roberts and Schoop together account for half of the 15-homer seasons from the second base position in Baltimore, with Roberto Alomar (22 in 1996), Bobby Grich (19 in 1974), Davey Johnson (18 in 1971) and Don Buford (15 in 1968) providing the others.

Schoop is currently on pace for 27 longballs, which would eclipse Alomar's single-season team record for second basemen of 22 home runs. It's worth noting that Johnson belted 43 homers for the Atlanta Braves in 1973, the season after being traded away by the Orioles. That's the most in a season by a second baseman. Grich, meanwhile, had 30 homers in 1979 for the California Angels. His five best seasons for slugging percentage came after his time in Baltimore.

Schoop has a ways to go to claim the American League's Silver Slugger Award for second baseman. Nevertheless, he still has gold in his sights. ESPN's Home Run Tracker includes the Golden Sledgehammer award, which tracks the longest average true distance for batters with at least nine homers. Schoop currently trails Mark Trumbo for the Orioles' top spot. Trumbo's average true distance for his 23 home runs is 412.2 feet, while Schoop's 13 homers have traveled an average true distance of 411.8 feet.

Other O's batters may homer more frequently, but few hit it as far as Schoop does when he gets ahold of one.

Matthew Taylor blogs about the Orioles at Roar from 34. Follow him on Twitter: @RoarFrom34. His ruminations about the Birds appear as part of MASNsports.com's season-long initiative of welcoming guest bloggers to our site. All opinions expressed are those of the guest bloggers, who are not employed by MASNsports.com but are just as passionate about their baseball as our roster of writers.