PITTSBURGH -- How did Andrew McCutchen stack up among center fielders last year? What makes Starling Marte such an elite defender? How is Gregory Polanco developing in the outfield?
In this era of statistical enlightenment throughout baseball, defensive questions remain the most difficult to answer. But with the advent of MLB's Statcast™ tracking technology, the game has been flooded by more concrete data about outfielders' route-running, speed, reaction time and more.
Statcast™ has provided catch rates, based on a combination of hang time and distance from the ball. While it's only one evaluative tool, it enables us to better determine how adept outfielders are in a few areas without watching every single play.