mlb outfield arm strength rankings

Yordan lvarez actually played more games at designated hitter (77) than he did in the outfield (56), but since there are not enough everyday DHs for us to do a top 25 list for that position, he's being included here alongside the rest of the league's best outfielders. He batted leadoff 64 times, indicating the Royals are dedicated to getting him plate appearances in front of Bobby Witt Jr. and Salvador Perez. player has saved over his peers. With the addition of Xander Bogaerts, the return of Fernando Tatis, Jr., and the presence of Manny Machado, this is a real-life team you want multiple pieces of in fantasy. 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. Just look at the 2022 averages on competitive throws from those positions. 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. He is near the bottom of the league in K%, Whiff%, BB%, and chase rate. as Active Spin. able to make a catch on an individual batted ball. His sophomore campaign should be a boon to fantasy teams, and he will come at a discount. 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). xwOBA is formulated using exit velocity, launch angle OF-95 mph. Corbin Carroll mashed his way through the minor league system and arrived in Arizona for his debut in 2022. window") of the runner is at least 30 ft/sec. Cedric Mullins stole 30+ bases for the second consecutive year in 2022, though the power disintegrated, lowering his home total to 16 from 30. Catch up on the Top 25 in 2022 series: Catchers, First Basemen, Second Basemen, Shortstops, Third Basemen. 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. exit velocity of 95 mph or higher. But in 1957, while playing for the Omaha Redbirds of the American Association, Gorbous made two ridiculous throws. In 1978, Cromartie and Valentine led the league in outfield assists with 24 apiece. Arm Strength. 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. 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. 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. If you want to understand how it all works stay right here. It's a risky proposition, but the payoff could be incredible. Five years later, Acua is a three-time All-Star, a Rookie of the Year Award winner, and a World Series winner. 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. More often than not, your eyes will not be deceived by what is displayed on a throw. He will . 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). Ken Griffey Jr. is one player you look at and bemoan "Had he only been able to stay healthy". Some forget that before he was saving baseball with his bat, Babe Ruth was a heck of a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. Unless you're in a quirky league where defense counts, Melendez fills a scarce position with decent skills. If you have the IL spots, his current ADP of around 130 makes sense. Strength is only one aspect of what makes a great throwing arm. 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. How hard, in miles per hour, a pitch is thrown. 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. A Batted Ball Event represents any batted ball that 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. player has saved over his peers. Signed pitcher Aroldis Chapman to a one-year, $3.75 million contract. The reigning AL Rookie of the Year heading into the 2022 season, Arozarena enjoyed his second straight 20/20 season, hitting .263/.327/.445 for a 124 OPS+ with 41 doubles, 20 home runs, 89 RBI and 32 steals. (Those downsides are only injury concerns (he played in 135 games last year), and his outfield eligibility will probably expire after this season.) 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. 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. That holds true when you realize hes still played some left side in the shift, and his hardest throw from there was this 75.1 mph throw in April. Escape Velocity takes the average of a player's batted ball velocities subtracted from 88. 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. 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 . 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. He hit 16 homers, his most since 2019, but he only stole 18 bases, a severe drop off from the 47 he snagged the year before. An intimidating physical presence standing 6'5" and weighing 235 pounds, Dave Parker only exacerbated things by walking around the field with a shotgun. A promising career cut short by injury and addiction, Ellis Valentine possessed one of the great throwing arms in baseball history. How far off the mound, in feet, a pitcher releases the He was unsuccessful, but the throw was tracked at 94.8 mph. The likelihood, in percent, that an outfielder will be Van Slyke would finish his career with five Gold Gloves and 107 assists. 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;. 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. 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. window.". The 25-year-old outfielder hit everything in sight at Double-A Corpus Christi, slashing .324/.411/.616 with 20 home runs in 93 games . Current: Guys who could throw, suddenly can't throw.". One of the greatest players that the game has ever seen, Ty Cobb needs no introduction. 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. Exit Velocity & Barrels. 3) Players throw differently at different positions, right? Furillo picked up the ball and fired a strike to Dodgers first baseman Gil Hodges, beating Queen to the bag by two feet. He led the league with 17 assists in 1982, and has 166 for his career. pitch. His ratios were down across the board, but he improved his K% and BB% and suffered from some bad luck with BABIP. At his current ADP of 129, he is an absolute steal, even taking into account that he won't play 150 games. For a pitcher it is the average of his softest 50% of batted balls allowed. His baseball career almost ended in 1905 when he enrolled at Fort Worth Polytechnic Institute. Steven Kwan was hard for fantasy managers to believe in last season, but he ended up being the 16th-ranked outfielder in 5x5 leagues when it was all said and done. ), But the counterbalance to that is looking at a handful of infielders who have played on both sides of the bag just this season. Anything below 88mph is considered 0. There may be many ways to arrive at a logical ranking of outfield throwing arms, but assists minus double plays is telling. Mike Trout may have had the quietest 40-homer season in 2022. 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). the fastest reactions and most direct routes in the with a 90% Catch Probability or lower. . 13-ranked prospect. The first half of 2022 found him in a terrible lineup, so opposing pitchers walked him 95 times in 436 plate appearances. Solid . "He has gained a lot of strength since his sophomore year. The "Free Kyle Tucker" movement didn't garner the momentum fantasy managers were hoping for as he continued to bat in the sixth spot way too often. If he returns to 2021 form, he can be a five-category contributor, but he comes with plenty of risk in 2023. 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. Home Run record with 62, scoring 133 runs, driving in 131, and stealing 16 bases to boot. A .230/.305/.388 career hitter in 534 plate appearances entering the 2022 season, Ward was one of the year's biggest surprises. Showcasing the Arm Younger players rarely have the opportunity to play in stadiums where statcast tracks their every move. Nicknamed the "Reading Rifle," Furillo led all outfielders in assists in 1951 with 24, and he has 151 for his career. All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs. He played one year of baseball for the school, but it was during a football game that his left arm was injured to the point that doctors gave serious consideration to amputating it. 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. a batted-ball event with a launch angle between eight Harris should be a 20/20 guy for the foreseeable future, and he is surrounded in the lineup by guys who will boost his counting stats. On Saturday . If there is a player in this system who can make a Bryan Ramos-like jump in 2023, my money is on Mieses. A three-time All-Star, Andy Van Slyke was one of the more underrated players in baseball during his career. George Springer continues to appear on the What Could Be All-Star Team after playing 133 games in 2022 while dealing with elbow and knee injuries that left him with many "DTD" tags. 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. He is in the top 10 percent in maxEV and xBA, and the new SB rules could benefit someone with his speed. How much time, in seconds, it takes a runner to get from 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. But thats hardly true for position players, where you might sometimes be throwing at your maximum effort (heres Julio Rodrguez with a 99.6 mph cannon to nail a runner at third base) and sometimes you are absolutely not (heres Rodrguez with a 21.6 mph [!] 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. Jesse Barfield could always throw, and anyone who challenged his arm generally found themselves on the losing end of the battle. Just make sure you have enough IL slots. Really, unless you are playing in a stolen base premium league, Alvarez offers little downside heading into 2023. What a strong throwing arm does, mostly, is make things happen faster. His strikeout rate crept above 30% for the first time since his rookie year. His first two throws fell just short. Only a starter in four of the 11 seasons he played, Whiten ended his career with 77 assists, an impressive number when you figure that he was often a pinch-hitter or late-inning replacement. 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 2019, for example, Austin Meadows was the No. 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. The first of which registered. 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. Let's dive into the top 25 outfielders of the 2022 season. one base to another, like Home To First. So is that because the elbow isnt allowing harder throws -- not that its mattered much, as hes been excellent defensively -- or because his new position doesnt demand it? Schwarber batted leadoff for the vast majority of the season, but the acquisition of Trea Turner will most likely move him down in the order. pitch. To get past that, the averages work like this. A batted ball with the perfect combination of exit Whether or not you draft Luis Robert depends entirely on how risk-averse you are to injuries. After injuries limited him to just 78 games in his first season with the Blue Jays, Springer bounced back with a 131 OPS+ in 133 games while earning his fourth career All-Star selection. 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.