As MLB.com Tom's Tango has detailed, when looking at players who have played multiple positions, outfielders consistently throw about 3 mph higher than themselves at shortstop and third, 7 mph higher than at second, and 10 mph than they are at first base. That's the case with Bob Meusel, who was actually a slightly below-average fielder for his time. Acuna should return to his former self with the extra time post-surgery. He is near the bottom of the league in K%, Whiff%, BB%, and chase rate. Arguably the greatest athlete in the history of the game, Bo Jackson made impossible plays on a routine basis and his cannon of a right arm kept runners at bay. Back in 2017, a then-19-year-old Ronald Acua Jr. appeared in Miami at the Futures Game. Acua maxed out at 101.5 mph this season, and on Aug. 13, he had a 99.1 mph outfield assist, throwing out Joey Wendle trying to stretch a single into a double from the right-field It's the first time he's hit the cutoff man. Heres what his 43rd-hardest throw looks like. Baseball may never see another player as smooth at the "catch-and-throw" than Al Kaline. Few rookies in recent memory have had a greater impact on the culture of their team than Julio Rodrguez, who played a pivotal role in helping the Seattle Mariners reach the postseason for the first time since Ichiro Suzuki's rookie season in 2001. On Sept. 14, Orioles rookie Gunnar Henderson had to make a 100-ft throw from third to first.
and, on certain types of batted balls, Sprint Speed. A Bolt is any run where the Sprint Speed (defined as In his age-29 season, he played 155 games, led the NL in home runs with 46, scored 100 runs, drove in 94, and stole 10 bases. 2 spot in the lineup between NL batting title winner Jeff McNeil and the one-two punch of Francisco Lindor and Pete Alonso. Theres a lot of lobs and non-competitive throws. A lifelong Dodger, Carl Furillo was a master at playing the tricky right field corner of Ebbets Field, becoming adept at fielding balls off of the 40-foot-high wall that loomed over him. Week 1 - Days 2and 3. 13-ranked prospect. 2 prospect in baseball when the season began, he lived up to the hype and then some by hitting .284/.345/.509 with 25 doubles, 28 home runs, 75 RBI, 84 runs scored and 25 steals in 132 games. The 2015 first-round pick hit .281/.360/.473 for a 135 OPS+ with 22 doubles, 23 home runs, 65 RBI and 3.7 WAR in 135 games, and he now looks like a core piece of the lineup alongside Mike Trout and Shohei Ohtani. become a hit. In 2022, the 28-year-old ranked in the 98th percentile in outfielder jump and 97th percentile in arm strength, filling out the mold for a complete defensive outfielder. produces a result. At the end of his breakout season, Justin Dirden felt fatigued. Escape Velocity takes the average of a player's batted ball velocities subtracted from 88. How far off the mound, in feet, a pitcher releases the games / 5. Meet Pete Crow-Armstrong, whom the Mets selected with their first pick. Owner of 10 consecutive Gold Glove awards, Griffey made impossible plays not only possible, but look nowhere near as difficult as they actually were. At the time his throw slapped into first baseman Ryan Mountcastle's glove, Longoria's throw was still 15 feet away from his own first baseman, Wilmer Flores. His arm strength is middling, but he makes good throws nonetheless. Some forget that before he was saving baseball with his bat, Babe Ruth was a heck of a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. xwOBA is formulated using exit velocity, launch angle Guys who could throw, suddenly can't throw. 3) Players throw differently at different positions, right? The likelihood, in percent, that an outfielder will be The deal to acquire him from the St. Louis Cardinals prior to the 2020 season in exchange for prospect Matthew Liberatore looks like a major win. outfield.
Improving arm strength - ESPN.com become a hit. With the score tied at three and Harold Reynolds on first, Seattle catcher Scott Bradley hit a double to left.
MLB players with the best arms - MLB.com 2022 Offensive Stats: 592 PA, .235 .
You know what you're getting. Cobb's 392 outfield assists rank second all-time behind Speaker. . Expect him to be one of the faces of baseball for the next decade-plus and a strong contender for the No. Any infielder. Mike Trout unleashed a throw from center field Monday night at Dodger Stadium that looked more . Its not that his arm suddenly got weaker on the right side of the infield, of course. Had he only been able to stay healthy, we could be talking about the greatest player in the history of the gamebefore he got injured, there was no better player in the game. White Sox first baseman Jos Abreu has about the same number of tracked throws as Rodrguez does.
2023 Fantasy Baseball: Outfielders Rankings, Consensus Preseason First, standing at home plate, he only needed three attempts to throw a ball over the center field wall, 410 feet away. Yet every year on draft day, there he sits in the ninth or tenth round, and every year we all imagine what an absolute steal that would be if he were to play 140+ games. . It is difficult to predict what effect the new running rules will have on his SB total, but fantasy managers can safely count on 10-15 in this area. All rights reserved. How quickly, in seconds, a catcher can get the ball out Compare that, for example, to the 211 such throws from shortstops, or the nearly 2,500 from right fielders (which almost certainly underestimates the truth in the early years). Mullins didn't quite match the out-of-nowhere 30/30 season he put together in 2021, but he was still one of the game's better everyday center fielders. 27 prospect in the Cleveland organization would finish as one of the 10 best outfielders in baseball? The 29-year-old posted a 113 OPS+ with 66 extra-base hits, 101 RBI and 25 steals, while making modest improvements to his walk rate (5.1 to 6.1 percent) and strikeout rate (31.2 to 27.9 percent) in a 3.5-WAR campaign. He is one of the best pure hitters in the game today, and the six-year, $115 million extension he signed in June already looks like an absolute steal for the Astros. Kwan is in the 100th percentile of K% after striking out only 60 times in 638 plate appearances. newly released arm strength leaderboards for position players, when Hawk-Eye was installed in all 30 stadiums, look at their comparisons on both sides of the bag. The steals are why he goes so early in drafts because it is certainly not his patience at the plate. Unless you're in a quirky league where defense counts, Melendez fills a scarce position with decent skills. The past two seasons, Phillips has amassed 21 outs above average while patrolling center and right field (seventh-most among outfielders last season with 11). On Saturday . velocity and launch angle. MLB average for right fielders is about 49 percent. Then during a throwing competition where competitors were given a six-step running start, Gorbous launched a ball 445 feet and 10 inches from the right field corner to left field, setting a world record that stands to this day. The 30-year-old posted a 126 OPS+ with 29 home runs and 72 RBI, and he had 11 outfield assists in a career-high 2.7-WAR season. He could pop double-digit homers, but all fantasy managers need to care about is that he keeps running well (23-for-26 SB in 2022) and with impunity. Meusel threw strikes to any base from the outfield. Trout might be the best player to ever live when all is said and done, but for years, he was never really a five-tool player because his throwing arm wasnt really a strength. As Mookie Betts enters his age-30 season, there is some expected decline in a few areas (fly ball rate increased but led to a lower ground ball EV/BABIP). 25. and 32 degrees. 25. In 2022, thats down again, to 76 mph. In 118 games, he slashed .292/.347/.468, buoying the ratios for fantasy managers in roto leagues. These should correct to be nearer to his baseline, in which case fantasy managers are drafting a 30/20 guy with high on-base skills who bats smack in the middle of what is, essentially, an All-Star team. time of a pitcher's first movement or pitch release. Andre Dawson epitomized the tern "five tool player" for more than a decade before 12 knee surgeries and age began to take their toll. From 1949 through 1956, Snider threw out 82 baserunners. MLB Advanced Media, LP. -- came in above 72 mph. He may suffer some of the typical rookie issues, but all signs point to a quick adjustment and solid fantasy production. It's worth watching in Spring Training, and if he routinely bats behind Jose Ramirez, drop him in your rankings a bit as the counting stats will be affected. For a pitcher it is the average of his softest 50% of batted balls allowed. How hard, in miles per hour, a fielder throws the ball. Etc., etc., etc. Phelps would only play poorly in parts of two seasons in the Bronx. Assists, while a somewhat useful statistic in gauging how strong someone's throwing arm is, doesn't tell the whole storyit's hard to throw someone out when they don't even try to run. Acquired from the Houston Astros as part of the trade that bought Joe Morgan to the Cincinnati Reds, Cesar Geronimo patrolled center field for the Big Red Machine with aplomb, taking home four Gold Glove awards. xBA measures the likelihood that a batted ball will
Statcast Year to Year Stats | baseballsavant.com But theres also this, that Story has 195 tracked throws of at least 80 mph in his career -- he even topped 90 a few times early on -- but its happened only once since the 2021 All-Star break. High effort on throws, accurate. Christian Yelich played in 154 games in 2022, his highest total since his last year in Miami in 2017. That doesn't happen without Furillo's play. time of a pitcher's first movement or pitch release. So, here are the leaders in ARM over the past three years: Alfonso Soriano - +25.6 runs Jeff Francoeur - +23.4 runs Ichiro Suzuki - +12.5 runs Nick Markakis - +10.8 runs Michael Cuddyer - +10.4. For example, if you're an outfielder and they want you to improve your arm strength for a training period goal, you can pour spare points into arm strength even after meeting your goal;. Jesse Barfield could always throw, and anyone who challenged his arm generally found themselves on the losing end of the battle. the ERA scale, A measurement of a player's top running speed, expressed Take Tommy Edman, who has moved back and forth between both spots. Judge is the guy if fantasy managers want to shore up their slugging early. Nicknamed "The Hawk" for his ability to track down any fly ball that came his way, Dawson's right arm should have required a permit to travel between Canada and the United States. Mike Trout may have had the quietest 40-homer season in 2022. His slash line was an other-worldly .311/.425/.686 with an xwOBA of .463 and wRC+ of 207. He only played in 119 games due to a rare and persistent back injury that will require more rest days going forward, even when healthy. A six-time Gold Glove winner and the 1997 National League MVP, Larry Walker was yet another smooth fielding right fielder with a cannon for an arm who has played the game. Baseball is largely played in terms of feet and seconds, and they all add up quickly. Managers who don't grab an outfielder in the first two rounds will still have an ample supply of impact players
Sox On 35th's 2023 Pre-Season Top 30 White Sox Prospects: #1-15 1 prospect in baseball with the Red Sox in 2017, Benintendi never quite lived up to expectations in Boston, but he has set himself up for a nice free agency payday after a strong 2022 season. With runners on the corners and one out, Cardinals shortstop Luis Alicea hit a shot hurtling towards Van Slyke in center fieldone that was certainly deep enough to allow Jose Oquendo to tag up from third base. But all-in-all, the players on this list had an incredible combination of all those skills, making them more likely to throw straight for the base that the play was at rather then hitting the cutoff man. Zerby, a sophomore outfielder, hit .365 with 8 runs batted in and 8 stolen bases. In order to qualify for the
Astros Top Three Third Base Prospects for 2023 - Astros Future Meanwhile, Boston's Bobby Dalbec currently shows up with a 74.8 average as a first baseman, but he's got plenty of throws north of 80 mph as a third baseman (and, once, a shortstop). Outfielders with strong throwing arms not only result in outs, but they make the opposition think twice about even trying to run when they have the ball in their hands. Rankings Top 15 MLB Corner Outfielders for 2023. a batted-ball event with a launch angle between eight exit velocity of 95 mph or higher. xwOBA is formulated using exit velocity, launch angle Of note, he increased his stolen bases, and this trend could continue in 2023 with the new baserunning rules. 22). His 149 OPS+ ranked eighth among all qualified hitters and trailed only Aaron Judge (211) and Yordan lvarez (187) among outfielders. thrown with. He is projected as a 15/15 outfielder and worth a look in the double-digit rounds. 15. This year, thats all the way up to 90.7 mph, which is about 75th percentile among outfielders. pitch. Its sort of like pitching; all things being equal, youd much rather throw 100 mph than 90 mph, but it also might not matter so much if you cant throw strikes. His slash line declined to .263/.327/.445, though that average is misleading as his expected was .234. He played in 32 games, hitting four homers and stealing two bases while slashing .260/.330/.500 in the small sample size. An All-Star for just the second time in his career, he slotted perfectly in the No. Statcast refers to the spin that contributes to movement Which is a great lead-in to our next question 4) Do second basemen have weaker arms than shortstops because they dont need to throw as far? Pop Time to 2B: 1.6 sec to 2.5 sec Pop Time to 3B: 1.2 sec to 2.5 sec Exchange: .4 sec to 1.3 sec A batted ball with the perfect combination of exit in "feet per second in a player's fastest one-second attempt. Greene played well in center field, finishing in the 71st percentile in Outs Above Average, 67th percentile in arm strength and 75th percentile in outfielder jump, according to Statcast. Warm-up throws at 20-45feet Throws at 45 feet 2 sets / Rest 10 min between sets Warm-down throws Throw on . One of the most well-rounded players in the sport, Kyle Tucker continued his rise as a bona fide superstar for the Houston Astros in 2022. Not all was lost, though, as the 27-year-old showed off more of his speed, stealing 14 bases, which was only one less than his 2021 total. Steven Kwan put together a 5.5-WAR debut season with an old school game built on contact ability, speed and defense. In 2020, his average on competitive throws was 86.6 mph, an almost exactly-average number. Fantasy managers can draft him with confidence. Would anyone be surprised to see him reclaim the No. Non-first base infielders get the average of the top 5% of their throws. Baltimore Orioles. Are you looking to contact Customer Support about a subscription or account related question? He had the hardest-hit ball of the evening, but he also showed off his arm, uncorking a pair of throws -- each tracked at over 95 mph. Average times are calculated with the following ranges. it's a tough call between Clemente and Whiten.". When he was 13 years old, Shoeless Joe Jackson began pitching on the baseball team of the textile mill in which he worked. Not only is his arm incredibly strong, it's also accurate. One such metric is the number of outfield assists a player has recorded in their career. His career high came last year in Washington, recording nine. How much spin, in revolutions per minute, a pitch was One of the great centerfielders of all-time, Duke Snider would land higher on this list if not for suffering an injury to his arm that robbed him of much of the power behind his throws. 1 / 20. That out of the way, lets ask some of the fun questions. Bob Quinn, former president of the Boston Braves and Boston Red Sox, had this to say when asked about Bob Meusel: "Meusel's arm was the best I ever saw. He hit 31 HR in 451 plate appearances with 78 RBI. Whether he was lost in the Aaron Judge hoopla or continues to squander an incredible career on a terrible team (hint: it's the latter), Trout went about his business as he always has. In that case, he is a perfect complement to whatever three true outcome player you draft for power. To further test our theory, we took three players from the '60s and '70s who were known to have great arms and looked at their A-DP numbers. It's possible they leave him in the 2-slot, especially until Bryce Harper returns, in which case he will continue to score runs and increase his RBI total.
Arm Strength (ARM) | Glossary | MLB.com Some of them might just have weak arms, which is why they're at first base in the first place. thrown with. 20. His ratios were down across the board, but he improved his K% and BB% and suffered from some bad luck with BABIP. How hard, in miles per hour, a pitch is thrown. Bo Bichette, Bobby Witt Jr., Fernando Tatis Jr., Marcus Semien, Francisco Lindor, Corey . As MLB.com Toms Tango has detailed, when looking at players who have played multiple positions, outfielders consistently throw about 3 mph higher than themselves at shortstop and third, 7 mph higher than at second, and 10 mph than they are at first base. He is above the 90th percentile in all of the power categories and sprint speed, and when he is on the field, he is a dynamic player who contributes mightily to fantasy teams. leaderboard, a player must have more Two-Star opportunities than team A promising career cut short by injury and addiction, Ellis Valentine possessed one of the great throwing arms in baseball history. Perhaps most important of all, he played in a career-high 151 games, proving he can stay healthy for a full season after injuries had significantly limited him in 2019 (69 games) and 2021 (92 games). The talent is enormous but now, at age 33, the injury concerns continue to grow as well. A lot of 2023 draft boards will have Aaron Judge at the top of them, and there is no doubt he belongs there after his record-setting 2022. One of the greatest players that the game has ever seen, Ty Cobb needs no introduction. From 1956 until he retired in 1964, he only threw out 32, due largely in part to the injury. In his fourth year in the league, Randy Arozarena hit 20 HR, knocking in 89 and scoring 72 while stealing 32 bases. Going back to 2015, he has two of the three hardest throws ever tracked by an infielder. His xwOBA and xSLG are both near the 90th percentile, and he hit particularly well at Camden Yards in spite of the extended left field fence. The charges would later be dropped. Heres all of 2022s Braves. One of baseball's legendary figures and the greatest switch hitter who ever lived, Mickey Mantle's defense and rocket of an arm are often overshadowed by his offensive numbers. Statcast Outfielder Jump Leaderboard | baseballsavant.com Outfielder Jump Leaderboard Current: Outfielder Jump 2022 Minimum Attempts (Q) Update Download CSV Jump is calculated only on plays that are Two Stars or harder, meaning with a 90% Catch Probability or lower. In traditional 5x5 leagues, he can anchor any fantasy outfield you put him in. The definitive power rankings on the strength of the outfield, where we (no, I don't play anymore but old habits die hard) talk to ourselves and it's totally accepted as the norm. Each player was only included at the position where he played the most innings. Consistent at the plate as well as in the field, Van Slyke spent his formative years patrolling the middle of the outfield for the Pittsburgh Pirates, between Bobby Bonilla and Barry Bonds. When you measure a pitchers average fastball velocity, its simple. He finished his career with 109 assists, 61 of which came in a four-year period for the Philadelphia Phillies, from 1984 through 1987. He was big guy, very strong, very muscular. If you can stomach the idea of spending a high-round draft pick on an injury risk with a high ceiling, Robert could be a steal. Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if we still had markakis in RF, but this is surprising. Daulton Vasho has catcher eligibility, which is one of the primary draws to him being drafted in the 40-50 range. We can't blame the Pirates for Reynolds's increased K% (23.0) and decreased BB% (9.1%), but we certainly can put the onus on them for his putrid runs and RBI numbers. Top Major League Outfield Arm: Bryce Harper ( Washington Nationals) All-Time Tool: Jesse Barfield How to Identify It: Arm strength is a simple tool to evaluate in comparison to others. Arm Strength (ARM) Definition Arm Strength is defined as the maximum velocity of any throw made by a fielder -- with the max velocity always being at the release point, due to physics. No longer an everyday playernor having as strong and accurate an arm as he had in his primeAbreu forces baserunners to show him respect and think twice before running on him.