Cannon Arms in 2016

Which outfielders had the best arms throughout the 2016 season? To answer this question, we use Outfield Arm Runs Saved. This metric evaluates fielders’ arms by considering both their ability to throw out baserunners without the use of a relay man—Outfield Kills—and the percentage of the time a baserunner attempts to take an extra base on that given fielder (XBT%).

We can see that Adam Eaton led the way in 2016 with 11 Runs Saved due to his arm—9 saved in right field and 2 saved in center—followed by Starling Marte and Colby Rasmus with 9.

Let's examine the leaders in both Outfield Kills and in preventing runner advancements. It is important to look at the players with the lowest XBT% for each outfield position because a runner is less likely to take an extra base when a left fielder, who is closer to third base, fields the ball. The left field positional average for extra bases taken is only 37 percent, as opposed to 55 and 47 percent for center field and right field, respectively.

Eaton and Marte led the league in Outfield Kills with 16, tying for the third most in a season since Baseball Info Solutions began collecting this data in 2003. Meanwhile, along with finishing third in Outfield Kills with 10, Rasmus led the league with the lowest rate of extra bases taken. He only allowed 21.8 percent of runners to advance.