Best arm in baseball

[cougjunkie]

If was good that you started using other stats, because outfield assists by itself is incredibly flawed.

Since you are the sabremetrics expert please tell me what the best advanced metric is for comparing the best arm in baseball? Not the best defensive player but strictly the best arm?

[Clark Addison]

My recollection, which may be faulty, was that Bonds probably had about the best arm of any left fielder in the league. I would put him below some of the other guys who played other positions, though.

[MarkGrace]

Late in his career he struggled but when he was with the Pirates he had a great arm. Go look at his years in Pittsburgh and the OF assists he had 15 one year and 14, four years in a row. Even the advanced metrics say he was solid in Pitt. He had an Rtot of 37,28 and 24 during his tenure (late in his career is was -2). His range factor was higher than the league average his entire time spent in Pitt.

In SF he was bad defensively, but not in Pitt.

I'm much more familiar with his play in Pitt than SF, and we're not talking about general defense, but arm. If someone talks about a good arm, presumptively that means arm strength (hence Mondesi, Guillen, etc.), or at least the way I thought about it, strength plus accuracy. Bonds played the weakest armed slot in any outfield, and while displaying good accuracy, never had anything more than an average arm in terms of strength. He simply does not belong in any conversation about the great arms of all-time. When a dude has never even been the best arm in any of respective outfields he's played in (Van Slyke blew him out of the water in Pitt), how does he get in the all-time discussion?

[MartyFunkhouser]

Since you are the sabremetrics expert please tell me what the best advanced metric is for comparing the best arm in baseball? Not the best defensive player but strictly the best arm?

I'm not a sabermetrics expert. I also sincerely doubt that there is any advanced metric for comparing the best arm in baseball. It really doesn't matter. Who cares if a player has a great arm if he is a shitty defensive player. Who cares is a player has a shitty arm if he is a great defensive player.

I'm not even doubting your claims about Bonds having the best arm. I'm just saying that outfield assists isn't really going to cut it for this debate. It is all going to come down to watching the players and the eye test on which is throwing the ball faster and more accurately.

By the way, I would probably include some combination of holds and assists if you want to evaluate this statistically.

[wapiti]

Manny Ramirez led the AL in assists twice.

[San Juan Sun]

My recollection, which may be faulty, was that Bonds probably had about the best arm of any left fielder in the league. I would put him below some of the other guys who played other positions, though.

Yep, just ask Sid Bream.

[Paperback Writer]

Old School: Clemente and Mays
Grew up watching: Dwight Evans
Modern day: Ichiro

+1

With consideration to Andre Dawson and Bo Jackson.

A board game I played a lot while in Jr High and HS was a results oriented baseball strategy game called Strat-O-Matic. Players were assigned definsive ratings and outfielders also had arm ratings. Dawson and Evans had the best outfield arms during those years. It was before Sabermatrics became mainstream and when I learned some important aspects of baseball like not all Gold Glove winners were the top defensive players at their positions and outfielders with high assist totals often had weak arms.

[BGRTHNUMEGO]

Barfield had a big time arm.

[Paperback Writer]

Dwight Evans had better outfield assists but probably not any that were more entertaining. The throw from Yankee Stadium RF to Carlton Fisk at the plate to nab Lou Pinella takes place in the first 10 seconds. The other two minutes are all Red Sox-Yankees hate. Long live Bill "Spaceman" Lee.

[MarkGrace]

Not a bad toss right here.

[Surfah]

Yoenis belongs.

[wapiti]

Yoenis belongs.

ESPN did a Sports Science breakdown of that throw. The combination of speed and accuracy from that distance is ridiculous.

[cougjunkie]

I'm not a sabermetrics expert. I also sincerely doubt that there is any advanced metric for comparing the best arm in baseball. It really doesn't matter. Who cares if a player has a great arm if he is a shitty defensive player. Who cares is a player has a shitty arm if he is a great defensive player.

I'm not even doubting your claims about Bonds having the best arm. I'm just saying that outfield assists isn't really going to cut it for this debate. It is all going to come down to watching the players and the eye test on which is throwing the ball faster and more accurately.

By the way, I would probably include some combination of holds and assists if you want to evaluate this statistically.

Looking back this is a great post. Perfectly sums up my feelings about Cespedes.

[RC Vikings]

I'm not sure we will ever agree on best arm but I think Johnny Damon clearly had the worst arm to play ever MLB. He couldn't get it back to the cut off man.

[cougjunkie]

I'm not sure we will ever agree on best arm but I think Johnny Damon clearly had the worst arm to play ever MLB. He couldn't get it back to the cut off man.

Damon had the worst for sure. Coco Crisp has to be close.