Solid . When you measure a pitchers average fastball velocity, its simple. His first two throws fell just short. 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. The biggest plus Andrew Vaughn has going this season is that Tony La Russa won't be there to block his playing time. 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. 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. I think his weakness, so far as he has any, is in his throwing arm. . Some, obviously, but its not everything. 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. Or he could clog your IL for two-thirds of the season. Meet Pete Crow-Armstrong, whom the Mets selected with their first pick. 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. Rankings Top 15 MLB Corner Outfielders for 2023. lob after catching the third out of an inning). Only in baseball can the son of a potato farmer who born and raised on Long Island become Boston's favorite son. Palm Beach, Fla - It's early, but with each passing day Jordan Walker 's case to break camp with the Cardinals major league team gets stronger. (Those downsides are only injury concerns (he played in 135 games last year), and his outfield eligibility will probably expire after this season.) However, he took it to another level Friday night when he unleashed a pair of critical outfield assists. (Previous individual throws are still valid -- Aaron Hicks touching 105.5 mph back in 2016 is still the hardest throw on record -- but season averages are not available for those years just because fewer throws were tracked. 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. exit velocity of 95 mph or higher. He's barely a half-season into his career. "feet per second in a player's fastest one-second raw numbers and as a measurement against average. Outfielders can get a running start, preparing for a long throw. Its an important one, too. He missed 52 games due to injury, and his BABIP was a career-low (by a lot) .227. Escape Velocity takes the average of a player's batted ball velocities subtracted from 88. He is exactly the type of guy you wait for once you've built up your other categories. He is an OF5 being drafted in the OF4 range because of the cliff the position drops off of in drafts. 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. Corey Julks. Just beware that his numbers might look much closer to 2021 than 2022. With a seasoned Adley Rutschman and Gunnar Henderson in front of him, Santander will fill your power categories in the tenth round or so. This will probably be the 26-year-old's last season with catcher eligibility, but in non-keeper leagues, he is a good asset. Mlb Outfield Arm Strength Rankings There is no definitive answer when it comes to ranking MLB outfielders by arm strength, but there are a few metrics that can be used to make an educated guess. Acuna should return to his former self with the extra time post-surgery. (Catcher throwing arm data has been available for some time and may be found here.). Here are Justin Leger's top 20 outfielders for the upcoming season. But in 1957, while playing for the Omaha Redbirds of the American Association, Gorbous made two ridiculous throws. At the end of his breakout season, Justin Dirden felt fatigued. pitch. He was big guy, very strong, very muscular. Steamer projections have him at 43/109/104 for the upcoming season, and his ratios should see a small decline as well. attempt. The left-handed outfielder had a rock solid 2022 season, holding a .281 batting average with 12 home runs while leading the South Atlantic League with 34 doubles joining Project Birmingham. There is a lot to love about O'Neill in fantasy formats, but there is a lot to question as well. Baseball is largely played in terms of feet and seconds, and they all add up quickly. His arm recorded 195 assists over the course of his career and only adds to his case to be called the greatest of all time. Steven Kwan put together a 5.5-WAR debut season with an old school game built on contact ability, speed and defense. window.". He still has a microscopic walk rate, but he also took four points off his K%. 20. He batted third or fourth for most of 2022, but his skillset reads like a No. The 25-year-old ranks in the 100th percentile in average EV, HardHit%, xwOBA, xBA, xSLG, and Barrel% while coming in the 99th percentile in MaxEV. the fastest reactions and most direct routes in the Today, the Prep Baseball Report Mississippi scouting staff takes a deeper look at outfield performances from the June event. 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. If he returns to 2021 form, he can be a five-category contributor, but he comes with plenty of risk in 2023. 15. There is a lot of value to be had here. Oscar Gonzalez does not take walks. Just beware you'll probably get closer to 500 plate appearances than the preferred 600 with his injury history. xwOBA is formulated using exit velocity, launch angle 9. A Bolt is any run where the Sprint Speed (defined as 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. Heres what his 43rd-hardest throw looks like its clearly one hes putting effort into. All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and FanGraphs. 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. 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. Early 2023 Fantasy Baseball Outfield Rankings: Top 30 offers an abundance of power-speed bats, but also risk You may think a top 30 only scratches the surface, but outfield thins quickly The immortal Vin Scully put it best: "Clemente could field the ball in New York, and throw out a guy in Pennsylvania.". The speedy Reynolds headed full steam towards third as Jackson played the ball on the warning track. White Sox first baseman Jos Abreu has about the same number of tracked throws as Rodrguez does. Dave Winfield's throwing arm was so powerful that simply warming up in the outfield was a dangerous proposition. If strikeouts count against you in your league, then you might want to stay clear of Adolis Garcia. 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. How hard, in miles per hour, a pitch is thrown. 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. How high/low, in degrees, a ball was hit by a batter. Another year, another pile of accolades for Mookie Betts who won his fifth Silver Slugger, sixth Gold Glove and made his sixth trip to the All-Star Game in the third season of a 12-year, $365 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers. For a batter, Best Speed is an average of 50% of his hardest hit balls. 3. As for Vlad, well he only had 13,000 innings. 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. The volume just hasn't been there to truly be a fantasy stud. Realmuto can top at the position. The other draws include his 27 homers and 16 stolen bases, something only J.T. Frelick also climbed three levels in his first full season, and the 2021 first . Nicknamed "Muscles," Mantle's throws were both accurate and strong. But its also clear that it doesn't work for other positions. The talent is enormous but now, at age 33, the injury concerns continue to grow as well. Signed pitcher Aroldis Chapman to a one-year, $3.75 million contract. The four-category stud is worth a first-round pick. His EV and HardHit% certainly showed no signs of slowing down, and he remains an on-base machine batting at the top of a fearsome lineup. His average arm strength on max-effort throws was 97.9 mph, making him the top right fielder -- the position with the strongest arms, with a league average of 90.5 mph. 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. Speaker refused, worked like a maniac to rehab the arm, and not only went on to become a Hall of Fame player and one of the greatest center fielders to ever play the game, but to have one of the best throwing arms that the game has ever seen. Statcast refers to the spin that contributes to movement How much time, in seconds, it takes a runner to get from Current: 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. But at the end of the day, fantasy managers are drafting him for his elite speed and ability to steal bases, a skill that may get even better depending on how the new baserunning rules play out. 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. He also posted well-above-average defensive metrics (5 DRS, 19.7 UZR/150) in left field, which makes it much easier to justify including him in these rankings. 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. Arm strength is measured on "max effort" throws, or the average above a player's 90th percentile performance. 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. Meusel threw strikes to any base from the outfield. Let's meet the 40 players who had the best outfield arms in the history of the game. Jump is a Statcast metric that shows which players have Here we go. a batted-ball event with a launch angle between eight Its hard to think its entirely about Storys move to the right side. player has saved over his peers. He hits the ball with great power, ranking in the 92nd percentile in maxEV. His slash line was an other-worldly .311/.425/.686 with an xwOBA of .463 and wRC+ of 207. thrown with. You know what you're getting. 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. And first basemen, who hardly ever need to throw hard -- only 10 tracked throws all season above 85 mph -- get the average of their top 1%. Taylor Ward's breakout in his fifth MLB season was interrupted by a nagging hamstring injury that cut into his ability to be a consistent fantasy asset. one base to another, like Home To First. Lin features another true 70-grade arm that plays at that level in games and fits well in right field. How hard, in miles per hour, a fielder throws the ball. His throwing arm used to be a relative weakness. and, on certain types of batted balls, Sprint Speed. A .230/.305/.388 career hitter in 534 plate appearances entering the 2022 season, Ward was one of the year's biggest surprises. He is projected as a 15/15 outfielder and worth a look in the double-digit rounds. 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. Other concerns include the fact that Judge will be 31 years old for the majority of the season and played in a career-high 157 games last year. window.". 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. 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. Defensively, he is a great player. able to make a catch on an individual batted ball. Ramon Laureano, Oakland Athletics. In 118 games, he slashed .292/.347/.468, buoying the ratios for fantasy managers in roto leagues. Daulton Vasho has catcher eligibility, which is one of the primary draws to him being drafted in the 40-50 range. A Batted Ball Event represents any batted ball that Really, unless you are playing in a stolen base premium league, Alvarez offers little downside heading into 2023. We dont have Statcast from the early days of his career, of course, but we do have articles from way back in 2014 titled Trout working hard to improve arm strength. In 2019, the L.A. Times detailed the work hed put into improving that relative weakness. Just look at the 2022 averages on competitive throws from those positions. become a hit. Statcast Statistics Player Batting 2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | All Not only was it probably the better part of 300 feet, it was dead on line and in the air the whole way.". Kyle Schwarber strikes out at such a large clip (29.9 K%) that it is easy to miss his dominance in other fantasy categories. While "The Catch" is unquestionably one of the great plays in the history of the game, the part of the play that is often overlooked is the throw that Willie Mays made immediately following it. Follow @RickWeinerBR Just Missed the Cut 1 of 42 Barry Bonds Shin-Soo Choo Mike Hershberger Andruw Jones Mark. Mike Trout unleashed a throw from center field Monday night at Dodger Stadium that looked more . Guerrero currently ranks fifth on the active list for outfield assists. 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. . 1 spot on this list for years to come. 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. Statcast defines a 'hard-hit ball' as one hit with an All rights reserved. In traditional 5x5 leagues, Garcia can provide value from the fifth round on.