Hunter Pence is the best RF arm

Congratulations to Pence. The funny thing is that nobody who watches him would think “high powered arm.” But the key is “get the job done.” So, give him credit for working on his craft, even if he doesn’t have the best throwing ability.

By the way, this is a very sophisiticated analysis of outfield results, which accounts for holds as well as kills.

Additionally:

Notice that Bourn is just over 1 run above average and Lee is something like 8 runs below average. So Lee and Pence kind of offset each other’s throwing.

The objective is to get the job done…which means holding runners, and throwing out runners who want to take an extra base. I could care less if a player does it by getting to the ball more quickly or using raw arm strength. In fact, I respect Pence more, because he gets the job done without having a great arm or great throwing motion. I am sure that it requires a lot of work on his part to accomplish this…i.e., becoming more efficient in his steps and movement and creating the momentum for a quick throw. Dunn is a great example, because we know he had a quarterback’s arm. But what good is it, if he moves too poorly to get the job done as well as Pence?

As for Soriano, I have no doubt that he is a great threat to the running game in LF. I saw him throw out whole passels of Astros’ in his first year, when they were testing him. Now he stays on top of the ratings for LF because teams finally decided that they have to hold the runner. The scouting type evaluations of Soriano indicates that he combines a second baseman’s accuracy with good quickness and positioning for his throws.

But this article seems more to be a quick review of what happened than anything else.

Maybe its a good demonstration of how observations can sometimes give bias. Hunter is sort of a gangly mess of energy. When things go wrong, it seems like there should be a cloud of dust like in a cartoon.

Soriano looks silly bunny hopping or jumping for balls at the wrong time or looking like a frightened deer when he gets near the wall. But his sidearm delivery still produces a strong throw, he releases quickly and he is accurate. Wrigley isn’t big and the bottom line is he nails guys.