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. Let's meet the 40 players who had the best outfield arms in the history of the game. The speedy Reynolds headed full steam towards third as Jackson played the ball on the warning track. of his glove and to the base on a stolen base or pickoff Interval Throwing Program for Outfield / PositionPlayers. Improving arm strength - ESPN.com MLB Power Rankings: A look at the best outfields in baseball with the You don't currently have any notifications, Copyright 2010- FantasyPros.com 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. However, he can be a mid-round source of stolen bases either way. 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. How hard, in miles per hour, a fielder throws the ball. A .230/.305/.388 career hitter in 534 plate appearances entering the 2022 season, Ward was one of the year's biggest surprises. Signed pitcher Zack Greinke to a one-year, $8.5 million contract. One of the greatest players that the game has ever seen, Ty Cobb needs no introduction. The best outfield arm of the 80's, Barfield led the league in outfield assists five times, including three years straight from 1985 through 1987. In regards to the two plays in the video, former St. Louis Cardinals third baseman Troy Glaus had this to say about the second one: "I didn't think there was a play, to be perfectly honest. 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. 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. Cannons and Popguns Rating Outfield Arms - The Hardball Times Just like the regular-season rankings, past production and future expectations played no part in deciding the orderthis is simply a rundown of the best and brightest of 2022. 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. 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). 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. Based on three separate categories (Release, Strength and Accuracy) here are the owners of the top outfield in 2005 according to the fans: Top-Ranked Outfield Arms, Fans' Scouting Report 1. one base to another, like Home To First. A full season alongside Manny Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. in the San Diego Padres lineup would provide him with the best protection he's had at any point in his career, and with free agency fast approaching after the 2024 season he's playing for a huge payday. 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. Rankings Top 15 MLB Corner Outfielders for 2023. 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. 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. He will . "feet per second in a player's fastest one-second Someone in your league will reach for him during the draft. 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. A finger injury derailed his season, but he finished the year strong. At the end of the day, he is still Mike Trout, for better or worse. 2023 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Top 40 shortstops First, standing at home plate, he only needed three attempts to throw a ball over the center field wall, 410 feet away. He finished his career with 109 assists, 61 of which came in a four-year period for the Philadelphia Phillies, from 1984 through 1987. If you want to get to the fun stuff -- the leaderboards, and fun questions about them -- feel free to skip to the part about Oneil Cruz. An All-Star for just the second time in his career, he slotted perfectly in the No. Remember though that depth of. 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. 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. To get past that, the averages work like this. Judge has shown off his rocket arm many times in the past. Luis Mieses OF (Prev. In 2021, before he was injured, that went up to 88.2 mph. Unless you're in a quirky league where defense counts, Melendez fills a scarce position with decent skills. His 6.4 WAR marked the sixth time in nine MLB seasons that he's been a 6-WAR player, and he finished fifth in NL MVP voting, one spot behind teammate Freddie Freeman. one base to another, like Home To First. 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. Not only is his arm incredibly strong, it's also accurate. Fantasy managers can expect a course correction in 2023, somewhere in the vicinity of 30+ HR, 110+ RBI, and an elite .400+ OBP. His ratios were down across the board, but he improved his K% and BB% and suffered from some bad luck with BABIP. -- Sarah Langs Statcast defines a 'hard-hit ball' as one hit with an That's the case with Bob Meusel, who was actually a slightly below-average fielder for his time. 25 attempts). 20. A Bolt is any run where the Sprint Speed (defined as How much time, in seconds, it takes a runner to get from Meet Pete Crow-Armstrong, whom the Mets selected with their first pick. Other bad news includes a Statcast page that is almost entirely blue, meaning he was ineffective in almost every meaningful statistical category during his first season in Philadelphia. 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. 3) Players throw differently at different positions, right? 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 In the bottom of the 10th inning against the Seattle Mariners on June 5, 1989, Jackson's arm made one of the great throws in the history of the game. Some of them might just have weak arms, which is why they're at first base in the first place. OF-95 mph. Run: 7.10 runner in the 60. become a hit. Suppose he continues to bat atop the Cleveland order and takes advantage of the new baserunning rules. . Jordan Walker Making Case For Spot On Cardinals Roster For as powerful as Winfield's arm was, it wasn't the most accurate, as Yankees manager Billy Martin opined after the seagull incident: "They say he hit the gull on purpose, They wouldn't say that if they'd seen the throws he'd been making all year. "He has gained a lot of strength since his sophomore year. These numbers and his BA/OBP should go up, assuming his BABIP recorrects somewhat closer to his .314 number. Guerrero currently ranks fifth on the active list for outfield assists. Heres what his 43rd-hardest throw looks like its clearly one hes putting effort into. 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. 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. On the left side, its higher: 81.5 mph on average, maxing out at 84.9 mph. Since there are three times as many outfielders as there are other positions on the diamond, it made sense to add an honorable mention list of 25 guys onto our top 25 list. 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. 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. leaderboard, a player must have more Two-Star opportunities than team He was named the MVP of the 1964 All-Star Game, best remembered for his three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth off Dick Radatz that gave the National League a 7-4 victory. He should also get to move back to the infield and play 1B now that Jose Abreu is in Houston. 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. lob after catching the third out of an inning). raw numbers and as a measurement against average.