Hamilton takes Statcast crown as baseball’s fastest

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt reaffirmed his place as the world’s fastest man Sunday night in Rio de Janeiro he won the 100 meters for the third consecutive Summer Olympics.

When it comes to baseball, there also is no debate. Although an encounter with an outfield wall forced him from Monday’s game, the Reds’ Billy Hamilton has established himself as the swiftest runner in the Major Leagues. A quick glance at the stolen base leaderboard provides strong evidence for this, and it hardly takes a seasoned scout to notice Hamilton’s speed with the naked eye. But thanks to Statcast™, there also is hard data to support the 25-year-old’s gold-medal status.

• Hamilton exits with sore knee, shoulder

Sprints are all about getting from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible, and while baserunning is more complex, the goal is the same. Statcast™ hasn’t tracked anyone who gets to his destination faster than Hamilton, considering a variety of starting and ending points.

Home to first For the fastest hitters in baseball, it can take less than four seconds from the point of contact to charge the 90 feet to first base. One way to cut down that time is to create momentum toward first by dropping down a bunt, especially if the hitter is left-handed. That makes bunt plays a separate category of sorts, so let’s focus on non-bunts.

On June 27 against the Cubs, the switch-hitting Hamilton batted from the left side against Cubs reliever Trevor Cahill. Despite leaning out over the plate to roll a low-and-away pitch to second base, Hamilton got out of the box in a hurry and bolted down the line, beating Cahill to the bag as first baseman Anthony Rizzo went for the ball. On the infield single, Hamilton’s home-to-first time was a blistering 3.61 seconds, best on a non-bunt play this season.

Home to second If Hamilton hits a ball that rolls all the way to the wall, he’s going to smell a triple. That’s what happened on …

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