25. A shortstop and pitcher in high school, Sheffield played both positions on the left side of the infield until 1994his seventh in the majorswhen he moved to the outfield. And he was smart as well as stronghe never threw to the wrong base and kept the double play in order, which, to a pitcher, is BIG.". A below average fielder who threw out 107 runners over the course of his career, Jose Guillen made what some consider to be the best throw in the history of baseball - click here to check it out. Buhner also played solid defense in right field and his cannon of a throwing arm gunned down 100 baserunners, including 48 from 1991 through the strike-shortened season of 1994. Its that the demands of different positions are, well, different. Hard to see a difference with the naked eye, right? 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. From his Rookie of the Year season in 1977 through 1983, Dawson averaged nearly 10 assists a season, racking up 69 over those seven years, including a career high 17 in 1978. He logged a 104 OPS+ with 52 extra-base hits, 34 steals and 3.8 WAR in 156 games, and he still has three seasons of club control remaining for an Orioles team on the rise. Known primarily as a right fielder, a position he played for 1,283 games, Dawson patrolled center for the Montreal Expos in more than 1,000 games as well. For a batter, Best Speed is an average of 50% of his hardest hit balls. Up to you. xwOBA is formulated using exit velocity, launch angle 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. Or he could clog your IL for two-thirds of the season. This Eaton is a speedy infielder who seems more useful in the outfield, where he can leverage his range and strong arm into GIF-worthy plays. Showcasing the Arm Younger players rarely have the opportunity to play in stadiums where statcast tracks their every move. How much spin, in revolutions per minute, a pitch was It's time to put a bow on the 2022 MLB season with Bleacher Report's final positional rankings. in "feet per second in a player's fastest one-second He doesn't make a lot of loud contact at the plate . 9. Ranking third here is not a knock, just shows the depth at third base. . 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. For a pitcher it is the average of his softest 50% of batted balls allowed. Let's freeze the play to show you exactly what we mean: If you check out the pop time leaderboards, the gap between absolute best and dead last is just 0.28 seconds. outfield. Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst, who both played and managed against Roberto Clemente, gave Whiten's throwing arm the ultimate compliment: "As far as arm strength goes . MLB Power Rankings: Vladimir Guerrero and the 12 Deadliest Outfield Arms Josh Benjamin January 30, 2011 If there's one weapon every baseball team has, it's an outfielder with a cannon for. of his glove and to the base on a stolen base or pickoff 25 attempts). Interval Throwing Program for Outfield / PositionPlayers. Top Major-League Arm: Bryce Harper (Washington Nationals) All-Time Tool: Jesse Barfield "feet per second in a player's fastest one-second He is exactly the type of guy you wait for once you've built up your other categories. To get past that, the averages work like this. . It will be very important to keep track of where Happ is batting in the revamped Cubs lineup. Here are the players who just missed the cut, listed alphabetically: Ronald Acua Jr., ATLMark Canha, NYMDylan Carlson, STLOscar Gonzalez, CLENick Gordon, MINTrent Grisham, SDLourdes Gurriel Jr., TORAustin Hays, BALTeoscar Hernndez, TORJake McCarthy, ARIChas McCormick, HOUChristopher Morel, CHCLars Nootbaar, STLJurickson Profar, SDLuis Robert, CWSAnthony Santander, BALMyles Straw, CLESeiya Suzuki, CHCMichael A. Taylor, KCTyrone Taylor, MILLane Thomas, WASTrayce Thompson, SD/LADAlex Verdugo, BOSMike Yastrzemski, SFChristian Yelich, MIL. With the Montreal Expos, Valentine was part of a young, talented outfield that included Warren Cromartie and Andre Dawson. Since the demands of each position grouping are different, the averages and qualifiers are different as well. and, on certain types of batted balls, Sprint Speed. Judge has shown off his rocket arm many times in the past. The likelihood, in percent, that an outfielder will be 14. On August 4, 1983, while warming up in the outfield with one of the Toronto Blue Jays' ball boys in the middle of the fifth inning, Winfield's throw hit a passing seagull, killing the bird and found Winfield arrested for cruelty to animals. play. In total, he made 10 throws of 95-plus mph last season and had three throws of 300 feet or more. 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),. Its been well over a year since his last 80 mph+ throw, much of which he spent at shortstop; Arizonas Ketel Marte, comparatively, has six such throws just this month. With many new faces around him, there is a chance he could drop down, which would harm his value. (Catcher throwing arm data has been available for some time and may be found here.). Seiya Suzuki arrived to MLB and kicked off his career in the States with a bang, hitting four HR and getting on base at a .398 clip. velocity and launch angle. 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. one base to another, like Home To First. His sophomore campaign should be a boon to fantasy teams, and he will come at a discount. His HR tally dropped from 34 to 14 and games played went from 132 to 96. The biggest downside is that he most likely does not have OF eligibility in your league, so make sure your UTIL slot is free for him. Non-first base infielders get the average of the top 5% of their throws. Escape Velocity takes the average of a player's batted ball velocities subtracted from 88. lob after catching the third out of an inning). 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. Kaline was a master of putting himself in perfect position when a ball was hit in his direction where he would make the catch and fire the ball back into the infield in one, fluid motion. Given that there is no rulebook definition of "a throw where the player is trying hard," and many non-competitive lobs are captured, we have elected to take the average of the top portion of a player's throws. outfield. Between natural talent and growing up with his uncleformer New York Mets ace Dwight Goodenteaching him how to pitch, Gary Sheffield was destined to have a cannon for an arm. But what goes unappreciated is the arm strength of baseball's workhorsesthe infielders. He played at least 50 innings at six different positions and hit .281/.394/.379 with 27 extra-base hits and a 12.8 percent walk rate in 126 games, posting a 4.1-WAR season that earned him a third-place finish in NL Rookie of the Year voting. In 2021, before he was injured, that went up to 88.2 mph. play. Meusel finished his career with 157 assists, including a three-year period from 1921 through 1923 where he racked up 69. xwOBA is formulated using exit velocity, launch angle Then again, Hendersons throw got there about 11% faster. 25. Baseball Savant. Home Run record with 62, scoring 133 runs, driving in 131, and stealing 16 bases to boot. The No. Who would have guessed an under-the-radar rookie who didn't crack Baseball America's Top 100 prospect list and ranked as the No. Sign up to receive our daily Morning Lineup to stay in the know about the latest trending topics around Major League Baseball. 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. No, I'm a California resident looking for the California Consumer Privacy Act form. "feet per second in a player's fastest one-second Fantasy managers can deal with those considering he is above the 90th percentile in Avg EV, Max EV, HardHit%, barrel%, outs above avg, and sprint speed. On Sept. 14, Orioles rookie Gunnar Henderson had to make a 100-ft throw from third to first. pitch. The reason he may fall out of the 1.1 slot on draft day is simply fantasy managers anticipating the regression that is likely to come. Not only was it probably the better part of 300 feet, it was dead on line and in the air the whole way.". That "throwing hard" is rarely a demand of the position is somewhat reflected in the leaderboards, which has many first basemen near the bottom. Some forget that before he was saving baseball with his bat, Babe Ruth was a heck of a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. 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. The movement of a pitch is defined in inches, both in Just look at the 2022 averages on competitive throws from those positions. 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. 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. 1) Oneil Cruz has to be the hardest-throwing shortstop, right? "I don't try to do too much. Traded shortstop Adalberto Mondesi to the Red Sox for pitcher Josh Taylor. Hes also, so far as Statcast is concerned, the owner of the strongest throwing arm in baseball this season -- or at least thats what being atop the newly released arm strength leaderboards for position players, available publicly for the first time, would imply. Someone in your league will reach for him during the draft. For a batter, Best Speed is an average of 50% of his hardest hit balls. All rights reserved. At the age of 21, he didn't take many walks and struggled with strikeouts, but these numbers should improve based on his profile in the minors. Are you looking to contact Customer Support about a subscription or account related question? In his fourth year in the league, Randy Arozarena hit 20 HR, knocking in 89 and scoring 72 while stealing 32 bases. 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 played in 142 games in 2022, batting first in the lineup in all of them. 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. While the outfielders are chewing grass and staring at the girl behind the dugout, infielders have. able to make a catch on an individual batted ball. Expect him to be one of the faces of baseball for the next decade-plus and a strong contender for the No. 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. When you walk around calling yourself "El Caon" (translation: the cannon) and you tell Maryann Hudson of the LA Times, "I don't know why they keep running on methey know I'm going to throw them out"only a month into your rookie seasonyou'd better be able to back that up in the field. The movement of a pitch is defined in inches, both in 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. Fantasy managers can count on significant strikeouts and not many walks, but he is at or above the 90th percentile in five power-hitting categories that can be a salve for those burns. 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. From 1956 until he retired in 1964, he only threw out 32, due largely in part to the injury. His throwing arm used to be a relative weakness. Theres a lot of lobs and non-competitive throws. Heres Astros outfielders, since 2020. 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). The organization's top four prospects, including all three Top 100 representatives, play the outfield, headlined by 2022 breakout star Jackson Chourio. One of the greatest players that the game has ever seen, Ty Cobb needs no introduction. He is a pure contact hitter who gets on base and isn't afraid to run (19-for-24 in SB attempts). That was by far the best throw I've ever seen in 10 or 11 seasons. The 27-year-old struck out 156 times in 586 at-bats while drawing only 46 free passes; if you believe it, these were improved numbers from 2021. able to make a catch on an individual batted ball. Outs Above Average Leaderboard Current: Outs Above Average Outs Above Average (OAA) is the cumulative effect of all individual plays a fielder has been credited or debited with, making it a range-based metric of fielding skill that accounts for the number of plays made and the difficulty of them. 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. His primary downfall when it comes to fantasy value is his 58.6% ground ball rate, which limits his HR and RBI totals. 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. xBA measures the likelihood that a batted ball will It's the first time he's hit the cutoff man.". 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. Mike Trout is finally a 5-tool player. Arm Strength. He's barely a half-season into his career. Beyond the gaudy numbers, he was the one consistent in a Yankees lineup that dealt with injuries and under performance, and he did it all while also playing a career-high 632.2 innings in center field. He still has a microscopic walk rate, but he also took four points off his K%. How far, in feet, a runner is ranging off the bag at the 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. When healthy, he was productive atop the Toronto lineup, smacking 25 HR, scoring 89 runs, driving in 76, and even stole 14 bases for good measure. Buxton has essentially played one full season's worth of games over the past two years, posting a 150 OPS+ with 47 home runs and 8.5 WAR in 153 games since the start of 2021. Fantasy managers just need to decide if they can ride out the 0-for-4 streaks. window") of the runner is at least 30 ft/sec. Arm strength is measured on "max effort" throws, or the average above a player's 90th percentile performance. 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. His 10.6 WAR led all of baseball, as did his ridiculous 211 OPS+ meaning he was more than twice as productive as the average hitter. (He has 14 harder throws from the right side, though obviously in far more opportunities. How hard, in miles per hour, a fielder throws the ball. Playing for the Cleveland Indians minor league team in the Pacific Coast League in 1956, Colavito threw a ball from home plate 436 feet, watching it land well beyond the centerfield wall. His strikeout rate crept above 30% for the first time since his rookie year. exit velocity of 95 mph or higher. All rights reserved. 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. -- came in above 72 mph. Judge is the guy if fantasy managers want to shore up their slugging early. Obviously. With the injury-prone label fading after back-to-back healthy seasons, teams can feel a bit more comfortable signing him to a long-term deal this winter, and he hits the open market for the first time as one of the highest profile players in the history of MLB free agency. That out of the way, lets ask some of the fun questions. The 21-year old has also shown the speed, instincts, and arm strength that project him as a center fielder long-term. 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. attempt. Those who did generally failed in their attempt to take an extra base, and Puckett finished his career gunning down 142 men on base. xBA measures the likelihood that a batted ball will 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. . window.". 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. His homers fell from 31 to 27 as a result, but he increased his runs and RBI by 11 each, and he stole 25 bases to boot. The 28-year-old is capable of making a greater impact in half a season than most players can in a full 162 games, and he racked up 4.0 WAR and 44 extra-base hits in 92 games this year while earning his first All-Star selection. How much spin, in revolutions per minute, a pitch was Kwan is in the 100th percentile of K% after striking out only 60 times in 638 plate appearances. Key West (2-0): The Conchs ended 2022 with a 22-7 record and were able to play with many of the . He leads all active outfielders in career assists with 134. 12 finisher hit .297. Athletically built at 6-foot-2, 180 pounds, the right-handed hitter barreled ball after ball with an average EV of 94.7 and top of 100.6 mph, while hitting the sweet spot at a 71 percent clip. Some, though, might just not have had the opportunity elsewhere to show it. "He has gained a lot of strength since his sophomore year. Follow @RickWeinerBR Just Missed the Cut 1 of 42 Barry Bonds Shin-Soo Choo Mike Hershberger Andruw Jones Mark. He is in the top 10 percent in maxEV and xBA, and the new SB rules could benefit someone with his speed. . 23. and, on certain types of batted balls, Sprint Speed. Going back to 2015, he has two of the three hardest throws ever tracked by an infielder. Pittsburgh Pirates coach Rich Donnelly explains: ""He eggs you on. At. 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. How quickly, in seconds, a catcher can get the ball out His slash line declined to .263/.327/.445, though that average is misleading as his expected was .234. From 1998 through 2002, Bobby Abreu racked up 59 assists patrolling right field for the Philadelphia Phillies. Byron Buxton staying healthy is the carrot dangling in front of fantasy managers every offseason. The 25-year-old hit .306/.406/.613 for a gaudy 187 OPS+ that trailed only Aaron Judge among all players, tallying 29 doubles, 37 home runs, 97 RBI and 95 runs scored in 135 games for a 6.8-WAR season. Take Boston second baseman Trevor Story, who had been a very good shortstop with Colorado, and may yet be again if Red Sox shortstop Xander Bogaerts chooses to opt out this winter and depart. The 30-year-old slashed .267/.316/.491 with 25 HR, 77 RBI, and 71 runs scored. An 18-time All-Star and the last man to win the American League Triple Crown, a feat he achieved in 1967, Carl Yastrzemski played excellent defense in left field and had a strong, accurate throwing arm. Meusel threw strikes to any base from the outfield. One of his most remarkable assists came in the top of the third inning of a game between the Pittsburgh Pirates and Brooklyn Dodgers on August 27, 1951. Kyle Schwarber, Philadelphia Phillies. Proportional frame w/ well developed strength and athleticism. 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. Bob Forsch, a teammate of his with the Cardinals, remembered Reggie's arm: "It was FUN being on the same team as he was. The 30-year-old posted a 136 OPS+ with 40 doubles, 35 home runs, 82 RBI and an NL-leading 117 runs scored in 142 games. as Active Spin. For a pitcher it is the average of his softest 50% of batted balls allowed. He finished his career with 109 assists, 61 of which came in a four-year period for the Philadelphia Phillies, from 1984 through 1987. thrown with. Despite his age and limited upper-minors experience, he didn't miss a beat in the majors, hitting .297/.339/.514 with 27 doubles, 19 home runs, 64 RBI, 75 runs scored and 20 steals in 22 attempts over 114 games. Statcast defines a 'hard-hit ball' as one hit with an He even threw a ball 100.8 mph on April 21, though it didn't result in an assist. He played in 84 games last season, slashing .295/.358/.500 with 16 HR, 54 RBI, and 40 runs. Fantasy managers dream each spring of a full season of this production, and if he manages to get to 500 plate appearances, he could be a steal at his current ADP of 78. Long toss is the commonly mentioned method to strengthening a baseball . The likelihood, in percent, that an outfielder will be Pirates starting pitcher Mel Queen hit a fly ball into the gap between right and center. The umpire called the runner safe, but it was a bad callClemente's throw beat him to the bag, and it wasn't close. Julks was solid in 2021 but had a breakout season in 2022. "Jarrett is a speedy, defensive outfielder with a good arm and high baseball IQ," Swillum said. It's a risky proposition, but the payoff could be incredible. 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). Here we go. 2022 Stats: 117 G, .261 BA/.374 OBP/.394 SLG, 19 2B, 3 3B, 10 HR, 53 RBI, 8 SB. Current: In stints with the Boston Red Sox, St. Louis Cardinals and Los Angeles Dodgers, Smith threw out 127 runners from the outfield, spending significant time in both center field and right field. Tris Speaker, one of Cobb's contemporaries, had this to say about Cobb in 1917: "As an outfielder Ty Cobb is unusually good. A three-time All-Star, Andy Van Slyke was one of the more underrated players in baseball during his career. Escape Velocity takes the average of a player's batted ball velocities subtracted from 88. If he returns to 2021 form, he can be a five-category contributor, but he comes with plenty of risk in 2023. In Game 6 of the 1971 World Series (the throw can be seen in the video around the 1:20 mark), Clemente unleashed a throw from deep in the right field corner towards third base, trying to nail the runner. In 2019, 24 players hit 30 home runs or more who qualified at outfield. The tools are all there: Robert has good speed, reduced his strikeout rate in 2022, and his expected slash numbers will be helpful to fantasy squads. MLB Advanced Media, LP. All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs. a batted-ball event with a launch angle between eight become a hit. Remembered more for his involvement in the Black Sox Scandal and alleged throwing of the 1919 World Series, Jackson routinely picked off baserunners from the outfield, racking up 183 career assists, including 90 in a three-year span from 1911 through 1913. MLB Advanced Media, LP. How far, in feet, a runner is ranging off the bag at the Ted Kluszewski, who was the Reds' hitting coach when Geronimo arrived and helped Geronimo enjoy a moderate level of success at the plate, explained how impressive his throwing arm was: "(Geronimo) is like a center in basketballhe intimidates you. In eight years of Statcast tracking, only two first baseman throws have come in above 91 mph, and each of them -- both from Vladimir Guerrero Jr., one shown below -- were on relays.