Grading Speed by Position?!?

[Luke-OH]

New article on the front page. I take a look at early 2018 Statcast sprint speed data.

Thoughts?

http://www.orioleshangout.com/2018/04/20/statcast-sprint-speed/

[webbrick2010]

More data detaling how bad a CF Adam Jones is.... yet Buck will start him in CF and Gentry in RF

Gotta respect those veterans.... winning is secondary.... at this point gotta admit winning is pointless so I hope they keep Buck for the full season

[amdcpus]

Jones is dead last in sprint speed for all CF in MLB. Terrible.

[Can_of_corn]

Schoop scored better than I would have expected.  Machado scored rather worse, he's barely faster than Sisco who I was hoping would hit a 60 compared to other catchers.

Yea, Schoop is the name that really stands out for me.

[Luke-OH]

It's early so I expect individual numbers to shift some. Jones is so troubling because he was really slow for a CF last season too (although not this slow).

As for the MLB wide data, I expect the averages to remain pretty similar, but the standard deviations to decrease as the data set grows.

[Frobby]

You mentioned they changed their methodology — seems like the new methodology shows the players to be slower than before.   Is that right?

Even though I knew Jones was slow for a CF, I’m shocked to see him with sprint times slower than Mancini.    Overall, it’s a pretty slow team.   

I noted you graded Beckham’s speed as a SS, not as a 3B.    But you graded Manny as a SS as well.

[Luke-OH]

13 minutes ago, Frobby said:

You mentioned they changed their methodology — seems like the new methodology shows the players to be slower than before.   Is that right?

Even though I knew Jones was slow for a CF, I’m shocked to see him with sprint times slower than Mancini.    Overall, it’s a pretty slow team.   

I noted you graded Beckham’s speed as a SS, not as a 3B.    But you graded Manny as a SS as well.

Thanks for catching the error, the grades are correct, I just typed SS instead of 3B. It's fixed now.

I think some of the individual times will change as the season progresses. The league-wide mean sprint speed is down .2 from Camden Depot's article using last year's data. I don't know if that's a statistically significant difference this early in the year, especially with a lot of teams playing in the cold.

[Luke-OH]

9 minutes ago, vatech1994 said:

Luke,

You continue to do some GREAT work.  This is amazing stuff.  Most of us have been concerned about Adam’s footspeed for some time, but this really drives it home.  He would be well below average in speed AS A CORNER OUTFIELDER let alone a center fielder.  His days in the outfield are numbered which means his days in the majors are numbered.  I LOVE Adam Jones but his career is about to be over regardless of whether he can maintain a 770-800 OPS.

Overall, this is most of the reason we aren’t a good defensive team anymore.  It is pretty simple.

Thanks again for this hard work.

Thanks, I'm glad people enjoy reading it, I'm mainly a prospect aficionado, but I have a bit of sabermetric curiosity at times.

[ChuckS]

Interesting stuff and good work on the research. 

It kind of backs up what my eyes have been telling me about Adam Jones.  AJ has looked really slow for the last couple years and especially getting up the first base line.  A lot of plays at first base I expect to be close and he's thrown out by several feet. 

Schoop and Alvarez's sprint speed is surprising, although I will say I've always thought Schoop looked pretty fast from first to third and second to home.  Certainly faster than Machado. He may be one of those guys that has above average sprint speed but a below average first step and lateral quickness.  He probably would have been a pretty good RF with that arm/sprint speed if that's where he was developed.  

Really gotta move Adam off of CF ASAP.  Where do Hays and Mullins stack up in comparison?

[eddie83]

The biggest concern about Schoop is being able to stay at second as he gets older. Those numbers are in his favor. 

Sisco did look fast for a catcher going 1st to 3rd tonight. 

[tntoriole]

1 hour ago, eddie83 said:

The biggest concern about Schoop is being able to stay at second as he gets older. Those numbers are in his favor. 

Sisco did look fast for a catcher going 1st to 3rd tonight. 

I wish he had looked faster getting under that foul ball tonight. 

[Hallas]

Interesting.  I wonder if the weather has affected running.

Of course, football players don't seem to mind.  But then they're more padded/insulated and probably more acclimated to running in the cold.

I honestly thought Jones was faster than that.  I guess my eyes deceive me.

[Luke-OH]

2 minutes ago, Hallas said:

Interesting.  I wonder if the weather has affected running.

Of course, football players don't seem to mind.  But then they're more padded/insulated and probably more acclimated to running in the cold.

I honestly thought Jones was faster than that.  I guess my eyes deceive me.

Yeah, I think it’s too early to be certain about a player’s true talent speed. Like I put in the article, I’m going to update this later in the season when the sample size is more robust.