What happened to the pure slugger in baseball?

Welcome to SB Nation Reacts, a survey of fans across MLB. Throughout the year we ask questions of the most plugged-in baseball fans across the country.

Looking at the long history of Major League Baseball shows a clear swinging of the pendulum in style of play. Booming offenses gives way to dominant pitching, which in turn brings out an emphasis on home runs. After the heyday of the steroid era, it became common for the home run leader to slug fewer than 50, or even 45, home runs in a season. That has gradually changed to the point where over the last few years the home run champ finishes at or near 60 on the season.

This year, however, has seen a step back. Kyle Schwarber currently leads the league in home runs with only 40, on pace to hit 47 on the year. That would mark the fewest home runs in any season (excluding the shortened 202o season) in a decade. Schwarber isn’t a lock to win the home run race, either. There are five other players who are basically just a really good few games away from being tied for the lead.

Just as interesting as who will win the race is how many home runs it will take to wear the crown. There are seven players right now who are on pace to hit at least 40 home runs. How many of those players can catch a little bit of fire and surpass 45 on the season?

Looking at the season as a whole, it hasn’t felt like there has been a shortage of long balls. Maybe the distribution of home runs is all that has changed, so more players are hitting a dozen home runs instead of a select few hitting 55.

In the hopes of finding a happy medium, what do you think is the right amount of home runs in a season for the best slugger in baseball? How many homers should the top guy expect to have in a given season?

Be on the lookout for results to these surveys and the rest of the SB Nation Reacts surveys later this week!