Best throwing arm by position

[dominik]

Rate the best throwing arms by position. Arm strength should be main criterion but also consider accuracy and consistency.

[9RoyHobbsRF]

hmmm

Two Pirates immediately come to mind

Clemente and supposedly Maz was so good on double plays because he could throw well with runners bearing down on him

Mays was pretty good for CF

C = hmmm Bench?

converted P may be great for other OF positions like Ankiel

SS - Shawon Dunston was drafted before Dwight Gooden and Whitey Herzog said of course - he had a better arm

[Sirmudgeon]

RF is generally a fun one. Roberto Clemente, Dewey Evans, Ichiro Suzuki are a pretty good threesome. I'm with you on Mazeroski, would add Roberto Alomar and Bobby Grich. At short, Dunston had a gun, so did Garry Templeton, and Cal Ripken Jr. Third, I liked the cannon on Mike Schmidt, Brooksie was pretty accurate, and Graig Nettles had a good one, too. First, how about Willie Montanez, he was pretty accurate, but I gotta go with that nark Keith Hernandez. CF is sort of foggy, I know Mays was great, so was Cesar Cedeno and, so I hear, both Torriente and Charleston. LF is a flat-footed Bo Jackson, flat-out. Catcher, Bench and Ivan Rodriguez and, from what I understand, Buck Ewing and Biz Mackey. Manager, Billy Martin or Earl Weaver, maybe John McGraw, lots of examples to emulate from umps throwing them out of the game. GM, Bill Veeck could throw a mean party. Owner, Nolan, hands down.

[wrgptfan]

Ellis Valentine has got to be up there.

[BlackCloud]

Ken Caminiti had a gun at third, over the top and he just looked like he threw harder then others. Jesse Barfield and Dave Parker could throw lasers. Remember Joe Ferguson, the old Dodger catcher/outfielder? He could throw too. And Steve Yeager behind the plate. Keith Hernandez at first. Most aggressive defensive first baseman I can recall.

[Yankwood]

I had a scout tell me Raul Mondesi outthrew them all from right. I saw Maz play as a kid but Cano has a rocket. Aurelio Rodriguez (the original Arod) was great from 3rd. SS is tough but Furcal threw like a nut when he first came up.

[ol' aches and pains]

SS - Shawon Dunston was drafted before Dwight Gooden and Whitey Herzog said of course - he had a better arm

Agree with this-Dunston had the best arm I've seen at shortstop.

[CandlestickBum]

I had a scout tell me Raul Mondesi outthrew them all from right.

Raul had a huge cannon, nobody ran on him, he'd throw line drives from deep RF right to 2nd base that almost looked like an infield throw it would have so little arch or loop on it. He was one of those perennial "maybe next year" players, full of promise to be a great one, but always falling short somewhere. I'm sure he frustrated Dodger fans, a lot. :balloon:

Any center fielders beat out the great Willie Mays?

[westsidegrounds]

. Owner, Nolan, hands down.

what about Bill Cox, though? He was thrown out of baseball.

Any center fielders beat out the great Willie Mays?

not better than Mays, but Dom DiMaggio deserves a mention.

[Yankwood]

again, we don't know how much of this stuff is "urban legend" but Rocky Colavito supposedly threw a ball from home plate over the centerfield fence before a game in 1955 and the throw was measured at 436 feet. Regardless of the accuracy of this account, Rocky was said to have had a tremendous throwing arm. And a great baseball name, to boot.

[nerfan]

C: Johnny Bench
1B: Keith Hernandez
2B: Jackie Robinson maybe? Bobby Grich
SS: Cal Ripken? Honus Wagner maybe. Shawon has the best arm I can remember.
3B: Brooks or maybe Graig Nettles
LF: Bo Jackson... Ted Williams was an awful fielder but apocryphally had a strong throwing arm (anyone care to back me up on this)
CF: Andruw Jones
RF: Roberto Clemente, Barfield, Vlad

[Edgartohof]

As far as RF is concerned, players like Clemente and Vlad and Ichiro come up but of those 3, Ichiro seemed to be the most accurate. Of course, I never got to watch Clemente throw but from what I have heard, it seemed that his arm strength was more important than accuracy. Ichiro on the other hand could throw with the best of them and was more accurate to boot.

[sandy1]

Raul had a huge cannon, nobody ran on him, he'd throw line drives from deep RF right to 2nd base that almost looked like an infield throw it would have so little arch or loop on it. He was one of those perennial "maybe next year" players, full of promise to be a great one, but always falling short somewhere. I'm sure he frustrated Dodger fans, a lot. :balloon:

Any center fielders beat out the great Willie Mays?

doubt it ! - from BBF member westfield -

Willie Mays had , "the best throwing arm in baseball," according to Joe DiMaggio. Daniel M. Daniel, a sportswriter who was elected to baseball’s HOF and started covering baseball regularly around 1915, (and the Yankees during DiMaggio’s tenure) said “Willie Mays had the greatest arm I ever saw”.
His 1951 throw to nail Cox at the plate was known simply as “ The Throw” by players in both leagues, and his teammates describe his throws from the outfield came in humming, like pitches off the mound :

…Mays overtook it with a sprinting catch, and Cox, tagged up at third, broke for the plate, and there was no way Mays or any other human of record was going to throw him out. Willie threw with his right hand but his bodily momentum was to his left. For him to try a throw in that state would resemble an actor in the Boys in the band dancing toward offstage while waving to the audience with his retreating hand, and with just about that much baseball effect.
Mays , however, had a different idea. In the act of catching the ball he came down hard on his left foot, spun counterclockwise with his back to the infield, came out of the spin with a low, humming throw- “ It wasn’t a throw,” first baseman Lockman said afterward, “it was a pitch” – and it came in to the plate on the fly at what catcher Wes Westrum estimated as “85 miles an hour –minimum. “ The startled Westrum caught it, then turned to confront the equally startled Cox, who said, “oh, ****, no,” and didn’t even bother to slide.
__________________

...He throws from center with a zip and an aim that have brought chagrin to the National League's brashest baserunners. "He's thrown men out at first like he was a shortstop," says the Giants' captain and shortstop, Alvin Dark. "He nails 'em at home like he was throwing from second."

Two of his throws have been estimated to be over 400 feet to nail the runner at home plate. (Einstein, Mays’ biographer, mentions three-I found two.)
The first one was on August 29th 1954 against the Cards. The score was tied and a player named Cunningham was on first. On a hit and run double to deep right center Mays pursued the ball, whirled and threw a one-hop to get Cunningham at the plate.

The other one happened in Mays’ other MVP year of 1965 against the Pirates at Forbes Field. August 24th. A Pittsburgh sportswriter estimated this throw at 410 feet – below is Arnold Hano’s description of the play :

Mays picked up a a hit at the base of the left centerfield wall at Forbes Field and fired a 400 – foot strike to the plate to nail Willie Stargell as he tried to score from first. The throw was so enormous and so true that nobody quite believed it, neither Stargell who was fifteen feet from the plate when Tom Haller had the ball waiting, nor announcer Russ Hodges who had expected Mays to fire to the cutoff man who would then relay the ball to the plate, nor the fans . The throw actually was 406 feet !

[Sirmudgeon]

Sandy1, those are great stories, thank you, love stuff like that.

[CTaka]

C - IRod, Bench, Ewing, Hartnett
1B - Sisler, K Hernandez (if we're looking at worst arms, Frank Thomas clearly gets my vote here)
2B - Kent, Hornsby, Maz
3B - ARod (Aurelio, not Alex), J Collins (largely on accuracy; not sure how strong his arm was)
SS - Honus, Dunston
LF - Meusel, Yaz, Stargell
CF - Mays, Speaker, Geronimo
RF - Clemente (best I ever saw), Ichiro, Evans, Mondesi, Barfield

Among DH's, I guess I'll go with Edgar Martinez because he played a little 3B.