Josh Shepardson | Fri, Feb 18th 2022, 6:31am EST

Advanced Stats Leaderboard: Sprint Speed (2022 Fantasy Baseball)

The fantasy baseball ranking season is in full swing. For me, that typically starts with searching advanced stats leaderboards. Advanced statistics are often more predictive than traditional box score statistics. Thus, they’re an excellent jumping-off point. This series will dive into a variety of my favorite advanced metrics. However, I must caution that no statistic in isolation is the secret sauce for unearthing a hidden gem or burgeoning stud. Instead, they are a piece of the puzzle and best viewed through that lens, using other statistics in conjunction with them to formulate a well-rounded opinion of the fantasy value of players.

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Sprint Speed

Sprint speed is a Statcast metric for speed, defined as “feet per second in a player’s fastest one-second window,” according to Baseball Savant. Mike Petriello wrote a piece further explaining the metric in detail for MLB.com in April of 2018. Basically, Statcast uses a sensical approach to measuring a player’s speed when they’re likely running their hardest.

Breaking this piece into two sections was more challenging than the other leaderboards. Baseball Savant uses a minimum of 10 opportunities to qualify runners for their leaderboard. However, using such a low threshold fills the list with baserunning specialists and players unlikely to help fantasy gamers. So instead, I bumped the threshold to 150 opportunities for a section I labeled as regulars and used 75 opportunities for the second section. Still, as you’ll see, a few notable regulars didn’t hit the threshold to appear in the first table but are included in the second section.

Now, let’s add even more context. According to Baseball Savant, the league average for speed on a “competitive play” is 27 feet per second (ft/sec), 23 ft/sec is at the bottom of the barrel, and 30 ft/sec is approximately the top of the heap. They also define a run above 30 ft/sec as a Bolt. I didn’t incorporate Bolts into this article. However, the top players in the forthcoming tables were also among the leaders in Bolts.

2021 Sprint Speed Leaders Among Regulars

There is more to stealing bases than just being fast. For instance, reading a pitcher's moves to home plate, getting a good jump, and other nuances are paramount for being an elite base stealer. However, being fast is a superb foundation piece. Thus, it's no surprise to see many of the game's best base stealers on the table above.

Interestingly, Starling Marte led Major League Baseball with 47 stolen bases in 2021 but was tied for 26th out of 135 players with at least 150 opportunities in Sprint Speed. In addition, Cedric Mullins II was tied with three players for fourth in stolen bases (30) and narrowly missed the leaderboard, ranking tied for 22nd.

Still, the table is stacked with the game's best stolen-base artists. Whit Merrifield (40 stolen bases), Trea Turner (32), Myles Straw (30), and Tommy Edman (30) were the four other players in the top-five for stolen bases last year, and all are on the table.

In 2021, 19 players stole 20 bases or more, and eight are on the table above or below. In addition, 32 players stole 15 bases or more, and 14 are in this piece. Out of the 20 players in the table above, 14 stole 13 bases or more, and only Cesar Hernandez, with a single stolen base, fell short of five stolen bases.

Other Noteworthy Players in 2021

Tyler O'Neill and Fernando Tatis Jr. fell short of 150 opportunities in 2021. However, they're anyone's idea of a regular. Tatis Jr. swiped 25 bases in 130 games, and O'Neill stole 15 bases in 138 games. Both players have top-shelf power and above-average speed.

Byron Buxton and Ronald Acuna Jr. are also power and speed whizzes. Since speed is the subject of this article, allow me to point out that Buxton stole nine bases in only 61 games, and Acuna snared 17 bases in 82 games. Unfortunately, Acuna had surgery to repair a torn ACL he suffered last summer. Still, he's young, increasing my optimism he'll nearly seamlessly bounce back to his pre-injury form. Nevertheless, it may take him time to shake the rust off and recapture his pre-surgery speed.

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Josh Shepardson is a featured writer at FantasyPros. For more from Josh, check out his archive and follow him @BChad50.

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Advanced Stats Leaderboard: Sprint Speed (2022 Fantasy Baseball)

Sprint Speed

2021 Sprint Speed Leaders Among Regulars

Other Noteworthy Players in 2021

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