NEW YORK – The A’s Danny Valencia fell victim Wednesday to the fastest throw ever recorded from the outfield, according to readings from Statcast, a company that measures all kinds of numbers for sports analysis.
Yankees left fielder Aaron Hicks threw a one-hop bullet to home plate to nail Valencia, who was tagging up from third in the top of the fourth. Statcast measured Hicks’ throw at 105.5 miles per hour, the highest velocity ever measured on a throw from the outfield, as reported by mlb.com’s Bryan Hoch.
That doesn’t mean it’s the fastest outfield throw in the history of the game, but just the fastest that’s been captured by today’s technology.
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At any rate, it was somewhat surprising after seeing Hicks bury a throw home into the ground from a much shallower spot in left earlier in the inning, when Yankees catcher Brian McCann couldn’t handle the throw and Chris Coghlan scored the A’s second run.
But ask Valencia, and he wasn’t surprised that Hicks showed off a cannon when he tried to score.
“He has to make a perfect, almost unheard-of throw to get me there,” Valencia said. “And he did. That throw’s gonna be talked about a lot. I came up with him in the Twins’ organization. I always knew he had a great arm. He just wanted to show that he’s still got it.”