Tris Speaker recorded no less than 12 assists from the outfield in 20 of the 22 years that he played, including three seasons with 30 or more and 12 seasons with at least 20, giving him a record that will likely never be broken449 career assists for an outfielder. In 2022, thats down again, to 76 mph. Kwan is in the 100th percentile of K% after striking out only 60 times in 638 plate appearances. He's also had nearly 2,000 tracked throws since Statcast came online in 2015, and exactly one of them -- one! In fact, if we look at the 16 fielders who had enough throws to qualify at both second base and shortstop this year, plus Story, and look at their comparisons on both sides of the bag every single one had a harder average throw from the left side than the right side, by an average of 5.3 mph. He struggled with the Padres, slashing .236/.388/.390 with only six homers and 16 RBI in 52 games, but he also took a trip to the NLCS. If strikeouts count against you in your league, then you might want to stay clear of Adolis Garcia. A two-time gold glove winner, Mondesi's career high for assists didn't come until 2001 with the Toronto Blue Jays, when he threw out 18 baserunners from right field. lob after catching the third out of an inning). Corey Julks. He has power to all fields, bats in the middle of a World Champion lineup, and will protect your ratios in traditional 5x5 leagues and those with advanced categories. raw numbers and as a measurement against average. An All-Star for just the second time in his career, he slotted perfectly in the No. From 1956 until he retired in 1964, he only threw out 32, due largely in part to the injury. An intimidating physical presence standing 6'5" and weighing 235 pounds, Dave Parker only exacerbated things by walking around the field with a shotgun. produces a result. If you have the IL spots, his current ADP of around 130 makes sense. A batted ball with the perfect combination of exit If anyone needs a change of scenery in order to maximize his talent, Bryan Reynolds is that guy. 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. The other draws include his 27 homers and 16 stolen bases, something only J.T. The 25-year-old set a new career high in 2022 in games played and still didn't crack 100, finishing at 98 with a variety of ailments and injuries derailing any sort of rhythm he could get. Jesse Barfield could always throw, and anyone who challenged his arm generally found themselves on the losing end of the battle. A range-based metric of skill that shows how many outs a Potentially ever, though we certainly cant go back through history here to see how hard Shawon Dunston or whatever shortstop of your choice might have thrown. 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. 45-Foot Phase Activity Number ofThrows. His slash line was impressive at .284/.345/.509 with a wOBA of .366. On Saturday . The bad news for Nick Castellanos was a 46-point drop in his batting average in 2022. Traded shortstop Adalberto Mondesi to the Red Sox for pitcher Josh Taylor. It was his hardest throw in nearly three calendar years. There is a lot to love about O'Neill in fantasy formats, but there is a lot to question as well. 27 prospect in the Cleveland organization would finish as one of the 10 best outfielders in baseball? 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. "feet per second in a player's fastest one-second Just beware you'll probably get closer to 500 plate appearances than the preferred 600 with his injury history. MLB average for right fielders is about 49 percent. In three seasons, he only has 924 plate appearances, and fantasy managers have been left to wonder what it would look like if he got 600 appearances in one season. xwOBA is formulated using exit velocity, launch angle 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. Expected Weighted On-base Average (xwOBA), 1B -- average of top 1% of throws -- minimum 100 throws to qualify, 2B/SS/3B -- average of top 5% of throws -- minimum 75 throws to qualify, OF -- average of top 10% of throws -- minimum 50 throws to qualify. 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. 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. 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. 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. How far, in feet, a fielder or runner has traveled on a 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. Anything below 88mph is considered 0. A finger injury derailed his season, but he finished the year strong. How far, in feet, a fielder or runner has traveled on a The Cardinals seem to regularly find an unheralded rookie who emerges as a key contributor, and in 2022 it was Donovan who started the year as the team's No. If he returns to 2021 form, he can be a five-category contributor, but he comes with plenty of risk in 2023. The 29-year-old hit .274/.367/.433 with 30 doubles, seven triples, 16 home runs, 64 RBI and 102 runs scored as the table-setter atop the Mets' lineup, and he once again played a roughly league-average center field. Ken Griffey Jr. is one player you look at and bemoan "Had he only been able to stay healthy". Were talking raw speed here, not accuracy. 13-ranked prospect. He is not projected to be quite as much of a disaster in 2023 - his HR total should creep back above 20 instead of 13 - but a 20/70/70/5 guy with a .260 batting average and low OBP isn't someone you have to reach for in a draft. window.". How far, in feet, a runner is ranging off the bag at the Yes, of course. His strikeout rate crept above 30% for the first time since his rookie year. The No. and 32 degrees. Baltimore Orioles. How hard, in miles per hour, a fielder throws the ball. Statcast Statistics Player Batting 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | All + Allen Williams, LHP/OF, Cleveland Central, 2019 window") of the runner is at least 30 ft/sec. What is not of concern are the 81 games he gets to play at Yankee Stadium this year and each one after until 2031, thanks to his 9-year, $360 million free-agent contract. "He was a leader offensively and defensively for us. Players in the National League knew that Clemente could throw anyone out from anywhere in the ballpark, yet 266 of them feebly tried to advance on his powerful right arm, also known as "El Howitzer.". However, his 30+ HR, 100+ runs, and solid advanced metrics will contribute across the board, and he is worthy of a late first-round pick. Its the chicken-and-the-egg question of our times. 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. An All-Star and Gold Glove winner for the first time, Happ hit .271/.342/.440 for a 119 OPS+ with 42 doubles, 17 home runs, 72 RBI, 72 runs scored and 4.4 WAR in 158 games. MLB.com lists Ramon Laureano (average 94.8, top 100.1) and Cody Bellinger (101.1 top) as two outfielders with some of the best arms in the league. 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. player has saved over his peers. Carroll's upside is in the 30/30 range, and he should have no trouble sticking as the everyday centerfielder with his plus-defense. 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. Let's meet the 40 players who had the best outfield arms in the history of the game. Proving ineffective, the Blue Jays featured one of the worst defensive outfields in the majors last season, ranking 18th in Outs Above Average (-3) and 21st in Defensive Runs Saved (-6),. The Bulldogs and Sooners are joined by California (which is off to a strong 6-1 start) and Ohio State (a . 1) Oneil Cruz has to be the hardest-throwing shortstop, right? The charges would later be dropped. Yankees fans like Frank Costanza had reason to be irate that the Bronx Bombers traded Jay Buhner to the Seattle Mariners for Ken Phelps back in 1988. Ruth carried his strong pitching arm into the outfield, where he threw out 204 runners over the course of his career. He finished his career with one Gold Glove award and 117 assists, largely in part to the fact that nobody was crazy enough to try running on him after awhile. He famously broke the A.L. able to make a catch on an individual batted ball. Julio Rodriguez led the 2022 youth movement throughout MLB, skipping Triple-A to win Rookie of the Year with 29 of 30 first-place votes and electrifying the crowd at the HR Derby in July. xwOBA is formulated using exit velocity, launch angle 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. After Ichiro, Francoeur has the best throwing arm in baseball today. 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. Anything below 88mph is considered 0. He even threw a ball 100.8 mph on April 21, though it didn't result in an assist. Just look at the 2022 averages on competitive throws from those positions. Yet when Meusel had the ball in his hand, anyone who was still running the bases was a candidate to get picked off by one of his powerful throws. Some, obviously, but its not everything. An All-Star for the second time, he posted a 144 OPS+ and led the Giants with 23 home runs, and that earned him a qualifying offer which he accepted. Arm Strength. Not any more. He is near the bottom of the league in K%, Whiff%, BB%, and chase rate. From 1998 through 2002, Bobby Abreu racked up 59 assists patrolling right field for the Philadelphia Phillies. Seven times in his 23-year-career Yaz won a Gold Glove, and seven times he led outfielders in assists, including a career-high 19 in 1964. At. He falls into the "walk year" category, so he might outperform his projections. Do Not Sell My Personal Information. There is hope that the White Sox have realized that Eloy Jimenez is a designated hitter and will deploy him as such in an effort to keep the 26-year-old healthy. While the play itself was quite amazing, Dodgers starter Ralph Branca would end up taking a no-hitter into the ninth inning before the Pirates would collect two hits off of him. It was not his best all-around season by any stretch of the imagination, due in large part to the significant time he spent watching from the sidelines, but it was still good enough for a top-five ranking on this list. Ronald Acuna Jr. appeared in 119 games last year, a significantly higher number than the original projection of a July return from his torn ACL injury. He is a pure contact hitter who gets on base and isn't afraid to run (19-for-24 in SB attempts). 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 How much time, in seconds, it takes a runner to get from A Batted Ball Event represents any batted ball that Heres all of 2022s Braves. Along with his stellar offensive numbers, Tucker also won his first career Gold Glove while posting stellar defensive metrics (13 DRS, 4.6 UZR/150) in right field. Andrew Benintendi, Kansas City Royals/New York Yankees. Solid . Showcasing the Arm Younger players rarely have the opportunity to play in stadiums where statcast tracks their every move. Meusel finished his career with 157 assists, including a three-year period from 1921 through 1923 where he racked up 69. 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. 3. Hard to believe he was that agile. He just hasn't thrown enough to qualify yet from those spots, and when he does, he'll look like he has a considerably better arm than Goldschmidt which he does. He filled up the stat sheet with 22 doubles, 25 home runs, 76 RBI, 89 runs scored and 14 steals while playing his usual solid defender in center field in a 4.0-WAR campaign. He hit 31 HR in 451 plate appearances with 78 RBI. When he makes contact, Arozarena's elite maxEV will allow good things to happen. Only in baseball can the son of a potato farmer who born and raised on Long Island become Boston's favorite son. Andre Dawson epitomized the tern "five tool player" for more than a decade before 12 knee surgeries and age began to take their toll. All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs. exit velocity of 95 mph or higher. produces a result. Theres a lot of lobs and non-competitive throws. At his current ADP of 129, he is an absolute steal, even taking into account that he won't play 150 games. Exit Velocity & Barrels Leaderboard Current: Exit Velocity & Barrels A table displaying leaders in Statcast metrics such as Sweet Spot % (SwSp%), Barrels, Exit Velocity (EV), Batted Ball Distance (DST), Projected Home Run Distance (HR-DST), Launch Angle (LA) and Batted Ball Events (BBE) . The 27-year-old is miscast as a center fielder (-14 DRS, -3.2 UZR/150) and that undercut his overall value a bit. 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. Sure but mostly on relays home from the outfield, or sometimes on double play attempts. USA TODAY Sports photo. Which is a great lead-in to our next question . That out of the way, lets ask some of the fun questions. To get past that, the averages work like this. Going back to 2015, he has two of the three hardest throws ever tracked by an infielder. Over a 17-year career that was spent primarily with the Montreal Expos and Colorado Rockies, Walker picked up 154 assists, including eight seasons with 10 or more. All rights reserved. But what goes unappreciated is the arm strength of baseball's workhorsesthe infielders. After accumulating 35 assists in his first two seasons, baserunners simply chose not to try and advance when Puckett had the ball in his hand. The immortal Vin Scully put it best: "Clemente could field the ball in New York, and throw out a guy in Pennsylvania.". Not only is he still a very good hitter at the age of 38, but when Ichiro throws the ball from right field it still comes out of his hand like a laser beam. 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. Clemente has more outfield assists than anyone who played after 1930 (I believe this was the year where they made the rule that you were allowed to run instead of speed-walk on the basepaths). Outfielders can get a running start, preparing for a long throw. Home Run record with 62, scoring 133 runs, driving in 131, and stealing 16 bases to boot. He hits the ball with great power, ranking in the 92nd percentile in maxEV. With that, he became just the second player in Astros history with a 30-homer, 25-steal season, joining Hall of Famer first baseman Jeff Bagwell who did it twice. How high/low, in degrees, a ball was hit by a batter. In 2019, 24 players hit 30 home runs or more who qualified at outfield. Ugly defensive metrics (-15 DRS, -17.7 UZR/150) and the fact that he was essentially a platoon player (57 PA vs. LHP) kept Pederson from ranking any higher, but he was a terrific bargain on a one-year, $6 million deal. Right here, at the Baseball Savant leaderboards, as well as on appropriate player pages. velocity and launch angle. For Rodrguez, thats 43 throws. A lot of things went wrong for Giancarlo Stanton in 2022. Van Slyke would finish his career with five Gold Gloves and 107 assists. When Michael Harris II made his MLB debut on May 28, 2022, he was just a few months past his 21st birthday and had played just 43 games at the Double-A level, jumping over Triple-A entirely. His 10 hardest non-relay/pivot throws on the right side of the infield average 75.7 mph, maxing out at 78.2 mph. in "feet per second in a player's fastest one-second His 10 hardest throws of the season are as an outfielder, and his 20 hardest throws are at positions other than second base. Escape Velocity takes the average of a player's batted ball velocities subtracted from 88. Indeed, the 25-year-old came back in late April, immediately began stealing bases, and rewarded fantasy managers who used a high draft pick on him. Luis Mieses OF (Prev. MLB Advanced Media, LP. -- came in above 72 mph. One of the greatest defensive centerfielders to play the game, Jim Edmonds played with a reckless abandon, often launching his body into the air or wall to make a catch. 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. 1 among shortstops over the last three years, ahead of Fernando Tatis Jr. Cruz has five of the six hardest shortstop throws this year, and eight of the top 13. Outfielders get the average of the top 10% of their throws. Signed pitcher Aroldis Chapman to a one-year, $3.75 million contract. Steamer projections have him hitting another 40 and maybe crossing the century mark on runs and RBI if anyone aside from Shohei Ohtani shows up to play in L.A. So the answer here might really be more than one answer, in that infielders who spend times on both sides of second base seem to throw harder from the left side, and Story might best be served as a second baseman going forward. His OBP was the second-lowest of his career at .323, but his xwOBA was .375, so hopefully, some improvement is in the cards for 2023. How much time, in seconds, it takes a runner to get from 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. . it's a tough call between Clemente and Whiten.". window.". become a hit. He once again tallied more walks (135) than strikeouts (96). The Cubs surprisingly held onto him at the trade deadline despite significant interest, and he now enters a contract year looking to build off his breakout performance. one base to another, like Home To First. But Callison also threw out 175 over the course of his career, including a four-year stretch from 1962 through 1965 when he racked up 90 assists, leading the league each season. The biggest plus Andrew Vaughn has going this season is that Tony La Russa won't be there to block his playing time. 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. Traded outfielder Michael A. Taylor to the Twins for pitchers Steven Cruz and Evan Zisk. Some forget that before he was saving baseball with his bat, Babe Ruth was a heck of a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. Hardly the same, is it? He missed time in the middle of the season with a finger injury he incurred while stealing a base, or he would have probably joined the 30/30 Club. Any infielder. However, he took it to another level Friday night when he unleashed a pair of critical outfield assists. In a down season by his own lofty standards, Juan Soto was still one of the most productive offensive players in the game. and bam, you're dead.". Mays fired the ball back into the infieldby his own admission, he had no idea where the ball was goingbut it stopped Al Rosen from advancing to second base and, more importantly, stopped Larry Doby from scoring, forcing him back to third base. A promising career cut short by injury and addiction, Ellis Valentine possessed one of the great throwing arms in baseball history.