Powering up: Piscotty has most-improved outfield arm

Now that Statcast™ technology is active in each Major League park, we have the ability to measure things we’ve never been able to before — like outfield throwing arms.

Last winter, for examle, we used it to identify Houston as having 2015’s best collection of strong outfield arms, and in May, we were able to point out that even though Miguel Sano’s transition to the outfield had been rocky, his arm was for real.

Now that we’re more than halfway through the second year of Statcast™, we can begin to answer a different question. Which outfielder improved his throwing arm the most since last season? Or, to put it another way, is it even possible for an outfielder improve his arm strength noticeably? If so, how?

Let’s get right to the leaderboard before we get to the explanation. We found 93 outfielders, roughly three per team, who had at least 40 tracked throws, both this year and last. We used our “competitive throws” definition from the Astros story, which allowed us to discard the unimportant lobs back to the infield and focus only on throws that were shown to be at least 90 percent or more of a player’s full displayed arm strength.

What we found was that there was a clear leader, and he can be found playing right field in St. Louis. (As well as on Thursday’s free MLB Plus broadcast on MLB.TV, where Carlos Martinez and the Cardinals face Jon Lester and the Cubs.)

Most improved throwing arms, 2015 to 2016 (through Aug. 7) 1) +7.7 mph, Stephen Piscotty 2) +4.9 mph, Jay Bruce 3) +4.5 mph, Juan Lagares 4) +4.2 mph, Corey Dickerson 5) +3.8 mph, Aaron HicksMinimum 40 throws in both years

That’s a nearly nine percent improvement for Piscotty, from last year’s 86.8 mph to this year’s 94.5 mph, and it’s by far the largest. …

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