June 28, 2017

Speed Stats

With the publication of StatCast Sprint Speed Leader Boards, FanGraphs looks at how sprint speed relates to other statistics. It correlates most strongly to base running skills, which is really no surprise.

I really like the graph at the top of the leader board, however, showing the distribution of sprint speed by position. Centerfielders are the fastest, with outfielder generally faster than infielders. The leftfield versus rightfield comparison is very intersting, with the speed of leftfielders having a wider distribution (higher standard deviation?) than rightfielders. I suspect this has a lot to do with the home park. The Yankees want a very fast outfielder in left, the Red Sox want the fast player in right.

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