The Fastest Players in Major League Baseball
The fastest MLB players in 2019 could all play major roles in 2020
Fast baseball players can use their speed as a distinct advantage that can have greater impact than any other individual skill. Beating out more hits, taking extra bases and reaching more balls on defense are all ways that superior wheels can disrupt the game. There are those who are speedy and then a select few who are absolute burners. Here are the five players who clocked in as the fastest on the base paths in 2019.
The fastest players were determined using Statcast’s Sprint Speed and 90 Foot Splits. According to Baseball Savant, “Sprint Speed is Statcast’s foot speed metric, defined as “feet per second in a player’s fastest one-second window” on individual plays. For a player’s seasonal average, the following two types of plays currently qualify for inclusion in Sprint Speed. The best of these runs, approximately two-thirds, are averaged for a player’s seasonal average.
* Runs of two bases or more on non-homers, excluding being a runner on second base when an extra base hit happens
* Home to first on “topped” or “weakly hit” balls.”
90-Foot Running Splits were used as a metric to show a player’s speed between two bases.
