Best Outfield Arms

[Edgy MD]

No order, but...

Mays
Youngblood
Valentine
Burnitz
Hidalgo
Francouer
Sheff
Snider
Claudell
McReynolds

...Ankiel.

Mays, Sheff, and Snider were obviously past their best years, but make the cut nonetheless, if only honorarily. Hopefully Ankiel won't fall into that category, because he's not bringing much to the table, so he better bring all of it.

Who else? Derek f'n' Bell? Endy? Timo kinda.

[Ceetar]

Cliff Floyd had a 9.4 ARM rating on Fangraphs in 2004.(2010 Francoeur had a 9.7)
04 Cameron 2.7
05 Beltran 1.5

only goes back to 02 though.

[Frayed Knot]

I remember a long ago SI article on outfield arms. In it, scouts and execs were discussing their favorites, the strongest, the best, and whatnot.
And as they talked they put some guys in the 'Great' category, and then others maybe slightly below that although not all lists agreed.
But then, in the view of just about everyone, separate and above all others, there was Ellis Valentine. They talked about his arm is total awe and wonder.

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, Floydie deserves to join McReynolds among leftfielders in this group.

Cut ahead to about .50 here to get some the throwing plays.

[youtube:2lu75hsb]Mxty8xnRchQ[/youtube:2lu75hsb]

[Benjamin Grimm]

Darryl Strawberry?

[Edgy MD]

Funny, I distinctly remember including him, but I didn't. Definitely Straw.

[G-Fafif]

Milledge.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

Rusty could throw his first time through town.

[Zvon]

Swan Swan H wrote: Rusty could throw his first time through town.

He could throw in mid air. He might have been the first player I ever saw do that. Not really throw in mid air, but he'd throw his body behind it and fly/tumble forward after release. I thought that the extra effort was pretty kool and even did it a few times playing softball.

[Frayed Knot]

Swan Swan H wrote: Rusty could throw his first time through town.

Until that wall crash in the '73 NLCS. Don't think his arm was ever the same after that.




My favorite Ellis Valentine throw involved him and Pete Rose -- it could have been this game

Rose was on 1st via a lead-off single when Manny Trillo hit a pitching wedge of a shot to medium-shallow RF just inside the line. Valentine, charging in and over towards the line, fields the ball on it's first high hop and, in one motion, does a 270-degree spin-o-rama in order to uncork a knee-high bullet to 3B where Hubie Brooks swipes the tag through the cloud of dust and right across the forearms of the head-first diving Rose.
It would take a Hollywood director about 30 cuts to get the timing as perfect as how that high-speed ballet played out and even then he'd probably have to throw in some CGI to make it look as good.

[RealityChuck]

Roberto Clemente.
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[Edgy MD]

Well, that's not fair.

[MFS62]

Dave Kingman belongs on that list.

Later

[Edgy MD]

Kingman certainly had a strong arm, as a former pitcher, but his mechanics were such that it was never really an effective weapon.

[dinosaur jesus]

Jesse Orosco.

[MFS62]

Swan Swan H wrote: Rusty could throw his first time through town.

Toward the end of his career, Joe DiMaggio had a sore arm. But during the warmups before the first game of every series, he would uncork a strong throw, so the other team could see it, and not take liberties with his arm during a game. They didn't know that he was masking his arm that couldn't do that again for another few days.

Later

[batmagadanleadoff]

Jim Hickman.

[Guest Swan Swan H]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Jim Hickman.

For some reason I had it in my head that Hickman made the throw that Ray Fosse caught when he was bowled over by Pete Rose in the 1970 All-Star game. My memory fails me. I checked, and he was the guy that got the hit that started the play. A different ex-Met - Amos Otis - made the throw. Hickman only made the one All-Star game, and he never played in the American League.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Swan Swan H wrote: batmagadanleadoff wrote: Jim Hickman. For some reason I had it in my head that Hickman made the throw that Ray Fosse caught when he was bowled over by Pete Rose in the 1970 All-Star game. My memory fails me. I checked, and he was the guy that got the hit that started the play. A different ex-Met - Amos Otis - made the throw. Hickman only made the one All-Star game, and he never played in the American League.

Hickman could throw it, so I've read. In fact, Hickman's arm was so strong that he once considered converting to a pitcher during his early Polo Grounds era struggles.

[Edgy MD]

I wonder who has the better success rate --- batters converting to pitchers or pitchers converting to batters.

Going on a black/white binary basis --- did he succeed (become a big league starter) or not --- I wouldn't know which side to bet on. Going on a net-success basis, I think it would have have to be pitchers converting to hitters, just because Babe Ruth would swing the data on all on his own.

[dinosaur jesus]

Edgy MD wrote: I wonder who has the better success rate --- batters converting to pitchers or pitchers converting to batters. Going on a black/white binary basis --- did he succeed (become a big league starter) or not --- I wouldn't know which side to bet on. Going on a net-success basis, I think it would have have to be pitchers converting to hitters, just because Babe Ruth would swing the data on all on his own.

My impression is that position players who become pitchers are more likely infielders, especially third basemen, than outfielders. I'm thinking of Bob Lemon and Skip Lockwood. But there are so few who've already been in the major leagues as position players that it's hard to generalize.

Another consideration is that is that when someone goes from pitcher to position player, he's probably already shown that he can hit. But if it's the other way around, all anybody knows is that he's got a good arm. Whether he can learn to pitch is another matter.

My favorite hitter-to-pitcher conversion is Jimmie Foxx, who decided at the very end of his career that he was a pitcher now. And he was pretty damn good, too: a 1.59 ERA in nine games, and won in his first start.

[Guest 86-Dreamer]

Melvin Mora made some nice throws in the '99 playoffs.

[Theoldmole]

Carl Furillo. Because I'm still a Brooklyn Dodger fan.

[G-Fafif]

Speaking up once more for Lastings Milledge who showed off his gun from opposite corners in impressive fashion before his MLB career was much more than a week old.

From

:

Milledge, who in the second inning misread Johnny Estrada's liner and let it bounce off his glove for an error, sparkled when given another chance. With one out and Craig Counsell on first base, Chad Tracy grounded a single to right field. Milledge fielded the ball and, in one beautifully effortless motion, threw a laser on the fly to third baseman David Wright that beat Counsell by two steps. The fickle crowd, which booed his earlier error, gave him a lengthy standing ovation, and Mart�nez, Valent�n and Wright waited near first base to applaud him. "The whole time the ball was coming, I knew that, if that guy goes, I was going to get him," Milledge said.

From June 7, 2006:

Milledge hit a two-out, two-run homer off Jae Seo in the seventh to give the Mets a 9-6 lead. Then, Nomar Garciaparra hit a liner down the left field line to open the eighth against Duaner Sanchez, but was thrown out by Milledge trying to stretch the hit into a double. Pinch-hitter Andre Ethier hit a two-out, RBI double later in the inning before Sanchez struck out pinch-hitter Olmedo Saenz to end the inning. Billy Wagner, the Mets' fifth pitcher, worked a 1-2-3 ninth for his 12th save. "You don't know how a young guy is going to do," Mets manager Willie Randolph said of the 21-year-old Milledge, who was playing in his eighth big league game. "It's nice to see the kid help us out. Big, tremendous home run; a great throw. He's making a nice case for himself." Milledge was brought up from the minors last week when Xavier Nady underwent an appendectomy.

[Edgy MD]

Nice salvage work.

Dumb question, but why was Xavier Nady's condition in 2006 a trigger for a Milledge promotion. Wasn't he a Pirate by then?

[G-Fafif]

Nady went to Pittsburgh after the midnight ride of Duaner Sanchez, July 31.

[metirish]

Duaner Sanchez was pitching for the Mets, when he got injured they flipped Nady to the Pirates right?

[Edgy MD]

Yeah, I'm fusing 2005 and 2006, somehow.

[metirish]

I just can't believe it was all so long ago......

[MFS62]

TheOldMole wrote: Carl Furillo. Because I'm still a Brooklyn Dodger fan.

Do you remember Gino Cimolli? He was playing right in a game at Ebbets Field and tried to throw a runner out going to third. He was a bit over eager, and the throw went into the upper deck behind third base. (At least the throw was on line)

Later