The 28-year-old hit .305/.394/.556 for a 140 OPS+ with 32 doubles, 24 home runs and 71 RBI in 485 plate appearances, earning his first All-Star selection. 1 guy is pretty obvious, through the compilation of thought from folks around the industry. Pete Crow-Armstrong named among top OF prospects in MLB 38M ago / by James Neveau Cubs hicago Cubs outfielder Pete Crow-Armstrong has been turning heads with his skills both at the plate and on defense, and a new ranking lands him among the best outfield prospects in the game. The eight-time Gold Glove winner was finally inducted into Cooperstown in 2010. Martinez, Charlie Blackmon, Teoscar Hernndez, Austin Meadows, Lourdes Gurriel Jr. Walker was known for his abilities at the plate, but he also had a gun for an arm. Cobb is widely regarded as one of the best baseball players in the history of the game. He also improved dramatically on defense, recording +2 Outs Above Average after finishing at -13 in just 53 games in the field in 2019, so his glove is no longer a reason to keep him out of the lineup. Edmonds is currently third among active players in outfield assists with 131. He led the National League in outfield assists twice in his career. But at the least, we know the potential is there. One of the most exciting defensive plays in baseball occurs when there is going to be a play at the plate. Through all the excess options, it becomes even more important to find the top values and to not settle for "good enough" production. During Wednesday night's game against the Athletics, Yankees outfield Aaron Hicks broke a Statcast record for the fastest ball thrown in recorded history with a 105.5 mph, 246 . Robles struggled in 2020, but he had 17 homers, 28 steals, 65 RBIs and 86 runs in '19 and has no competition for playing time this season. The 29-year-old opted out of the final two years of his contract shortly after the World Series concluded. According to Bill James' Baseball Abstract, Valentine had the best arm in baseball in the 1970's. The 31-year-old is hitting .337/.413/.543 with 15 home runs and 41 RBI in 74 games since the beginning of June, and his 3.5 WAR on the year ranks fifth among all first basemen. those in the top 10 percent of a players sample. His nickname is Laser Ramn, so you already knew hed have to make this list. The 29-year-old proved that performance was sustainable over a full season this year, logging a 133 OPS+ while hitting .296/.346/.524 with 29 doubles, 32 home runs and 116 RBI. However, Mays is more well-known for "The Catch" than for his arm. All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference and accurate through Monday's games. They've helped to bridge the gap with veterans Brandon Belt and Evan Longoria both missing significant time because of injuries. One important stipulation: Each player could only be selected for one of the five tools. 4. Honorable Mention: Chicago White Sox, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, Milwaukee Brewers, San Diego Padres, Seattle Mariners, Tampa Bay Rays. He might just be entering his throwing prime, making this the perfect time to claim his golden arm for my superplayer. Walker won seven Gold Gloves and ended his career with 154 outfield assists. Frelick also climbed three levels in his first full season, and the 2021 first . Trout is about halfway through his career, maybe even further along than that. Kaline, also known as Mr. Tiger, made his major league debut at age 18. Bez was responsible for five of the 31 tracked assists of at least 90 mph by infielders last season, the second most in MLB, and his average arm strength on max-effort throws (88.3 mph) was the third best among infielders. The 23-year-old had more walks (145) than strikeouts (93) on his way to an MLB-best .465 on-base percentage. The Giants acquired him at the trade deadline, and he is poised to cash in as a free agent this offseason. After years of teasing his immense raw power potential in the minors and sporadically in the big leagues, Tyler O'Neill finally put together his long-awaited breakout season. Julio Rodriguez was the team's best player while former top prospect arms Logan Gilbert and George Kirby shined in Seattle's rotation. In five-and-two-thirds career innings, Colavito only gave up one hit. The biggest surprise has been Austin Riley, who looked like the weak link after posting an 84 OPS+ in 503 plate appearances over his first two seasons. Andre Dawson had a cannon for an arm. Each writer provided anywhere from 80-100+ outfielders so we could create our consensus top-80. The wild card in this tier is Kelenic, MLB Pipelines No. Furillo also has the distinction of having needed just one more hit in his career to have a .300 average, while he instead finished at .299. A standout defender throughout his time in the big leagues, Bader stepped his offensive game up this year, hitting .267/.324/.460 for a 116 OPS+ with 21 doubles and 16 home runs. For a boost in the batting-average category, target McNeil, Verdugo or Brantley. The guy who seemed to be in complete control of his plate appearances in his dominant seasons suddenly looked incredibly confused. In 2019, it was all about arm strength for Laureano. Ha-Seong Kim (Padres): 95.2 mph 4. Craig Counsell, Brewers. The best player at the position was Ronald Acuna (.280 with 127 runs, 41 home runs, 101 RBI, and 37 steals . Colavito is another player on this list who has a legendary arm. He tallied a career-high 42 doubles along with 35 home runs, 84 RBI and 101 runs scored in a 5.9 WAR season. Part I: Hit toolPart II: Power toolPart III: Run toolPart IV: Fielding tool. Nearly every player on this list has been an All-Star, and all the rest have a chance to make their first Midsummer Classic this season. At age 19, Kaline recorded 16 of his career 170 outfield assists. The MLB Tonight panel breaks . He has won four FSWA Awards including on for his Mining . His shoulder first began giving him problems in . Cobb's 392 outfield assists are second all-time. Lourdes Gurriel Jr., Toronto Blue Jays. This year, he barely edges out Pittsburgh's Neil Walker, who checks in at minus-12-2, for the . Now the #20 prospect in the Yankees' organization, Hardman posted a 109 wRC+ across High-A and Double-A last season with 22 HRs in 111 games, but his over 30% K% is alarming for his projectability long-term. Base runners in the National League feared the arm of Roberto Clemente. The best arms tend to have lower rates because they get run on less, though Clemente is barely in the top 70 all time and IIRC Vlad doesn't even crack the top 200 Though I guess my point agrees with you, he wasn't great but he wasn't awful 2 Buzzed27 San Francisco Giants 5 yr. ago Not sure what you're talking about exactly. 3. Cobb is also remembered for his feisty attitude and his aggressive playing style. Baseball's best arms: Ranking MLB's top 10 starters & relievers for 2021. The 26-year-old made notable strides at the plate in 2020, posting the best chase rate (14.1%, second lowest in MLB), walk rate (15.6%), hard-hit rate (43.2%) and barrel rate (12.5%) of his career. In 2019, 24 players hit 30 home runs or more who qualified at outfield. He was forced to retire at age 30 as the result of a broken jaw which forced him to play with a facemask for a few years. . It's not like swinging hard and hitting a ball 115 mph. Two seasons into his 13-year deal with the Phillies, his production has been excellent -- a .385 on-base percentage, an OPS+ of 134, 139 runs in 215 games. ESPN's Buster Olney leads the discussion of the latest news and notes around baseball with the game's top analysts. The 30-year-old is hitting .268/.333/.482 for a 105 OPS+ with 22 doubles, 18 home runs and 66 RBI. Speaker also holds the unique record for most unassisted double plays by an outfielder with six. Tabbed as the 58th-best outfield prospect nationally (D1Baseball). 14. Below, we're focusing on fantasy baseball outfield sleepers. he Boston Red Sox outfield exceeded expectations in 2021. The third tier is filled with enticing players, but its also rife with uncertainty. The well-rounded Betts is our second-ranked outfielder and No. Despite missing almost all of September with a hairline fracture in his left thumb, Bez tied for third in Defensive Runs Saved (26) and placed second among all players in Outs Above Average (+19). This tier includes a number of power-speed options, led by Tucker and Robert, who both went 30/30 in the Minors in 2019 and continued to contribute on multiple fronts in '20. but if he regresses to 2017 or 2021 levels no one should complain. Tagged: 2023 MLB Draft, MLB Draft, Dylan Crews, Jacob Gonzalez, Max Clark, Brock Wilken, Walker Jenkins, Christian Little, Patrick Reilly, Dylan Cupp, Thomas White, Enrique Bradfield, Tanner Witt, Jaxon Wiggins, Teddy McGraw, Carson Montgomery, TJ Nichols, Drew Bowser, Jackson Baumeister, Will Sanders, Blake Mitchell, Tre' Morgan, Tommy Troy, ESPN's Paul Hembekides sent this along: "I think his issues in 2020 stem from a lack of confidence -- he just stopped swinging. Mike Trout was born on Aug. 7, 1991, and every so often, it's worth a few moments to consider the start to his career, to remind yourself that you are watching a historic peer of Willie Mays, Hank Aaron, Babe Ruth. All of the sudden, the ball is at the base, and a runner who thought he had it made is out. Let's marvel at the all-around game that is Mookie Betts. The corner outfield duo of Nick Castellanos and Jesse Winker both rank among the MLB leaders in a number of offensive categories: Joining them isTyler Naquin, who earned a spot on the MLB roster on a minor league contract and is earning $1.5 million on a one-year deal. Bellinger could be a great pick for any tool -- hit, power, speed, glove or arm. Need more power? Of course, that required trading several core players, but given the fact that Anthony Rizzo, Kris Bryant, and Javier Baez were all rentals at last year's deadline, the Cubs made out phenomenally. Below you'll find the consensus rankings that eight of our MLB writers were involved in. Along with a .199 average and 213 strikeouts, he led the AL with 111 walks and had a solid .351 on-base percentage. The 26-year-old got off to a slow start this year, but he caught fire in May and never looked back. In addition to the fact that he ran the fastest ever-recorded 40-meter time at the NFL combine (4.08 seconds), the two-sport star had one of the best arms in baseball history. Santander is locked into an everyday role with the Orioles, and he has produced 31 homers with 91 RBIs and an .807 OPS in 130 games over the past two years. Bonds had a strong throwing arm even before he began to bulk up. He also led the field with an average pop time of just 1.88 seconds on throws from home to second, and recorded eight of the 10 fastest caught stealing throws across MLB. He earned a starting nod in the All-Star Game, and he deserves a ton of credit for the job he did protecting Vladimir Guerrero Jr. out of the cleanup spot in the Toronto lineup. Each player was included in the rankings at the position where he played the most innings. In total, he made 10 throws of 95-plus mph last season and had three throws of 300 feet or more. Sometimes he looked like he was guessing wrong over and over and over, with the befuddlement covering his face as he walked away from the plate. . With big-name, big-money free agents, there is usually a question of how the player will respond in big games, big moments. Even with all of those free passes and teams pitching around him, he still managed 20 doubles, 29 home runs and 95 RBI. He immediately impressed both his manager and scouts with his impressive throwing arm. Teel is an excellent athlete with a strong arm, and has a good swing with excellent hand acceleration, but he had some bad BABIP luck last year and hit just .276/.402/.439, a drop from his strong . The league may have changed the rules on shifting . The club also traded away Diego Castillo at the deadline in exchange for JT Chargois and Austin Shenton. He had an average max-effort arm strength of 94.1 mph, seventh-fastest among MLB outfielders (min. Great teams are composed of . Mays' throwing arm deserves more recognition as he was he had the second strongest arm of any outfielder in the 1960s. But Bellinger is one of only three outfielders with a tracked throw over 101 mph last season -- Hunter Renfroe and Aristides Aquino are the others -- and that wasn't the first time he hit triple-digit velo on a throw from the outfield (he also did it once during the 2018 postseason). Previous picks: Michael Brantley (hit), Nelson Cruz (power), Trea Turner (run), Kevin Kiermaier (defense). Trent Grisham, San Diego Padres And it would be a crime not to grab Bellinger in this five-tools exercise somewhere. . Even though Meusel played just 11 seasons, he still recorded 157 outfield assists. His middling defense (-6 DRS, -4.8 UZR/150) and the time he missed kept him from ranking any higher. "He's a hitting outlier," Votto responded. Steven Hajjar- Michigan prospect sophomore that fanned 24 of 87 batters faced and 3-0 record in four game. Mike Yastrzemski, San Francisco Giants. Joey Votto travels with Ted Williams' book "The Science of Hitting" and has built a Hall of Fame rsum based on a lot of the principles that Williams espoused -- like not doing the pitcher a favor by chasing pitches out of the strike zone. But with several intriguing free-agent outfielders available this winter, Chaim Bloom and Co. could look to add some depth at the position. 2021 Topps series 1,Rookie Monte Harrison #126 Miami marlins outfield baseball. Mays had 195 career outfield assists and he won 12 consecutive Gold Gloves. The towering right fielder posted a 149 OPS+ with 39 home runs and a career-low 25.0 percent strikeout rate. What is particularly impressive about Mantiply, though, is that literally every single . Hot Stove Tracker Starting Lineups Transactions . The 24-year-old has a 131 OPS+ with 23 doubles, 27 home runs and 76 RBI, and he has also made significant strides defensively at the hot corner. 5. His 5.7 WAR was second on the AL West champions roster, behind only Carlos Correa. He homered 12 times in a 10-game stretch at the end of June, but he missed most of July with a hamstring strain. J.T. Similarly, Grisham has played fewer than 120 games in the Majors. best outfield arms in mlb 2021 This is the best team in baseball. The Tampa Bay Rays began the offseason by declining their$4.5 million club option on catcher Mike Zunino, who logged a 50 OPS+ and minus-0.2 WAR in 118 games with the team in 2019 and 2020. MLB By Chris Novak on March 3, 2023. The 26-year-old finished the season as a 6.0 WAR player, earning a spot among the Gold Glove finalists in center field on top of his excellent offensive numbers. He threw a ball 445 feet and 10 inches in 1957 while he was a member of the St. Louis Cardinals' Triple-A team. In his 10 years, Valentine did manage to win one Gold Glove and he recorded 85 assists. Three-time AL MVP Mike Trout of the Los Angeles Angels definitely ranks in the top 10 outfielders, along with Mookie Betts and Charlie Blackmon. Bez was responsible for five of the 31 tracked assists of at least 90 mph by infielders last season, the second most in MLB, and his average arm strength on max-effort throws (88.3 mph) was the third best among infielders. The question that resonated at the end of October is about the best position player on the planet -- Betts, or Mike Trout? Throughout the year, we released monthly updates to our position-by-position power rankings, selecting the top 10 players at each spot. Free shipping for many products! After missing much of the 2019 season and all of last year with a gruesome injury, Haniger finally returned to action, posting a 122 OPS+ with 39 home runs and 100 RBI for the upstart Mariners. The aisle of youth had two of the best young arms in Cuba but Raisel Iglesias and Yoan Lopez now represent two of the best Cuban arms in the Majors. Shortstop Dansby Swanson is hitting .322/.372/.594 with 10 home runs in 36 games since the All-Star break. Dave Roberts, Dodgers. This situation happens when an outfielder can make a great throw to try to nail the runner that is heading home. Utley's UZR/150 has been at least 8.0 in nine of his 10 seasons as a regular in the big leagues. The tattoo was earned, as Mondesi had one of the strongest arms in baseball in the 1990s. Here's everything we know, The paths of KD and Kyrie: How one month changed three franchises and two superstar legacies, From bubble struggles to NCAA seed improvement, why these final weekend games matter, Foden's return to form helps mask De Bruyne's troubles, Nelson sends Arsenal into euphoria with last-gasp winner over Bournemouth. The 33-year-old figures to be a hot commodity on the free-agent market this winter. The sport needs to have him back on the postseason stage in the next few years. No other infielder came close to matching his average arm strength on Statcast-measured throws. Nate Eaton is making a case for sticking on . O'Neill finished with a 150 OPS+ and 34 home runs while hitting alongside Paul Goldschmidt and Nolan Arenado in the middle of the lineup. It must be noted here that Tatis did have an issue with throwing miscues that drove down his overall defensive value. Let's get right into it. Statcast Leaders Baseball Savant Top Prospect Stats. The 28-year-old hit .291 with 35 homers, 97 RBIs, 106 runs and an .899 OPS the last time we saw him. Fingers crossed that the 2021 MLB season will begin on time -- and that we get to see some live baseball at the ballpark this year. It's possible Ozuna will sign with an NL team and play left field most of the time. The identity of the No. Jackie Bradley Jr., free agent Adam Eaton, Chicago White Sox, Right field, 11, (14-3) Adam Eaton of the Chicago White Sox makes a run for it | Ezra Shaw/Getty Images. has him drawing comparisons to Hall of Famer Ted Williams. After bouncing around the infield over his first five seasons, Bez settled in as the Cubs starting shortstop last year and was one of the best defensive players in all of baseball. Managers who don't grab an outfielder in the first two rounds will still have an ample supply of impact players Barfield would consistently throw strikes from right field to home plate. More MLB videos How Does Carlos Correa Fit on the Giants? I want my superplayer to own a cannon and have shown time and time again that he can be accurate with it. Up next is the 22-year-old Soto, whose production over his first three seasons has him drawing comparisons to Hall of Famer Ted Williams. Tier 3: Randy Arozarena, Trent Grisham, Michael Conforto, Giancarlo Stanton, Nick Castellanos, J.D. With the Astros first pick the 2021 draft, they took a prospect who fell right in their laps. Kevin Kiermaier, Tampa Bay Rays Through Williams's age 21 year -- two seasons -- he had 203 walks, 54 homers and an OPS of 1.041 in 293 games. Ramirez has never won a Gold Glove and he is thought of more for his offensive prowess than his defensive abilities. Mays is in the discussion for the greatest player of all-time. Honorable Mention: Boston Red Sox, Chicago White Sox, Houston Astros, Los Angeles Dodgers, Philadelphia Phillies, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals, Toronto Blue Jays. 7. Catch up on the 2021 MLB Player Rankings series: Catchers, First Basemen, Second Basemen,. With three more home runs from Albies, the 2021 Braves will become only the second team in MLB history to have all four primary infielders tally 25 home runs, per ESPN Stats & Information's Jared Berson, joining the 2008 Florida Marlins.