Ben Revere Outfield Assist Alert
We’ve entered into the Statcast era, but just before the Statcast era, we had to make do with more subjective evaluations. Among the evaluations was the Fan Scouting Report, a Tangotiger project to crowd-source player defense. One of the categories to be evaluated as part of the Fan Scouting Report has been arm strength. Okay, so, getting to the point, Ben Revere became a big-league regular in 2011. I looked at all the reports for outfielders who were regulars between 2011 – 2015, splitting into individual player-seasons. This is a five-year window, yes? I sorted all the players in ascending order of perceived arm strength. I isolated the worst 20. Here’s how many times the following players appear in the worst 20:
- Ben Revere: 5 times (out of a possible 5 times)
- Coco Crisp: 4
- Juan Pierre: 3
- Carl Crawford: 1
- Curtis Granderson: 1
- Jacoby Ellsbury: 1
- Jon Jay: 1
- Khris Davis: 1
- Nate McLouth: 1
- Nyjer Morgan: 1
- Raul Ibanez: 1
Overall, combining the seasons, Revere rated second-worst in arm strength. He also tied for worst in arm accuracy, so, you know, that sucks. Revere has a weak arm, relatively speaking, and he’s always had a weak arm, relatively speaking, and this is all to establish the setting. Revere is a center fielder who can barely throw, and that’s why Miguel Montero went and tried to tag up on a routine fly near the track.
“Bold,” is one thing you could say. “Disrespectful” would be no less accurate. Montero clearly didn’t respect Revere’s throwing arm, and, well, there’s really no reason to. But this time Revere got the last laugh, and it’s not like his throw was even particularly impressive. It was off-line and short of the bag, but Montero might’ve spent too much time thinking about Revere’s arm and too little time thinking about the fact that he himself is a 32-year-old catcher. Yeah, Revere has gotten a lousy rating out of 100 in arm strength. Montero just last year got a 25 for his speed.
The best part of all: Statcast era, right? I asked Daren Willman about the Statcast reading for Revere’s assist, which was his first of the season. Willman:
Doesn’t look like the system captured the MPH for that throw…
Even Statcast doesn’t know what to do with a Ben Revere outfield assist. The entry’s blank. As blank as Joe Maddon’s mind grapes.
Revere now has as many assists this year as Jason Heyward.
Jeff made Lookout Landing a thing, but he does not still write there about the Mariners. He does write here, sometimes about the Mariners, but usually not.
Idea: Jose Altuve should get thrown out by Ben Revere while trying to tag up on a Christian Yelich pop fly.
Lol. I also wonder if Billy Butler has ever attempted to advance on a ball hit to Revere.
What would an outfield of Coco Crisp, Ben Revere and Khris Davis look like?
It would be a black hole. Balls would enter, but never come back out
You’d need a whole inner outfield or outer infield of Manny Ramirezes (Ramirei?) to cut-off throws from those three.
Barry Bonds will be in his easy-chair conserving power.
Alright. I hate that F graphs is writing these great pieces on my favorite team. Two in one day after none in a month!? Don’t raise my expectations.
How is Delmon Young not on this list?
You can’t win if you don’t play 😉
His arm actually rated well by scouts when he was a prospect. However, at some point he just suddenly couldn’t throw. I remember us Twins fans seeing him in the outfield and thinking a) wasn’t he supposed to be an adequate outfielder? and b) wasn’t he supposed to have a better arm than this?
This vine looks fake. It has to be. A weather balloon in the atmosphere hit a pocket of swamp gas and refracted the light from venus.
I refuse to believe we live in a world where Ben Revere throws someone out from that deep in the OF. Next thing you know you’re going to tell me that Bengie Molina once hit a triple.
Jose Molina once hit two triples in the same season!
You made me look. Jose hit two in 2004, Bengie hit two in 2000, Yadier hit two in 2015. All told the catching Molina brothers have 15 triples and each of them has hit two triples in one year.
Or a world where Edgar Martínez, in the final month of his final, age 41 season, stole a base off Mark Buehrle.
That’s the stoppable force meeting the movable object right there.
Yeah, but what about that bat? SIX extra-base hits.