Are OF assists dead?

So I was reading a review of Rick Ankiel's book on Amazon and it got me to thinking about assists. Ankiel is well known for having a cannon and like most people I've seen the highlight reels of his amazing throws. I also saw him play in Triple A and I saw him uncork an amazing throw from the outfield. But he had 32 career assists in 536 games in the OF which would give him 141 assists if he played 2370 games in the outfield which is the same amount as Clemente. Now he's no Clemente, no one is, but why doesn't a guy with such a great arm as Ankiel throw out runners at a higher rate. If you throw out the players who spent all or most of their careers in the deadball era (for obvious reasons) that leaves Clemente as the leader at 266 career assists. He is followed by Mel Ott at 256 and Paul Waner at 241. The nearest post WW II player is Hank Aaron at 201 and the nearest active player is Nick Markakis at 122. Markakis has racked up his assists in 2073 games in the outfield so Clemente more than doubled his total in only 297 more games. Now I know some of this in recent years is due to more strikeouts and so frorth as discussed in the baseball jujitsu thread but it doesn't account for all of it. I guess I have too much time on my hands like many of us these days but I just got to thinking because I have always enjoyed watching outfielders with strong arms throw out runners. I envy the people who lived in the Pittsburgh area who got to see Clemente play all the time. I only got to see him when he came to San Francisco. But the Giants had a pretty fair outfielder with a strong arm by the name of Willie. Thoughts?

it is a whole lot of base coaches putting the stop signs on and waiting for the 2 or 3 run homers...

Baseball thinks differently today about the value of outs and taking the extra base. As with bunting.

A very interesting post. I think great throws are an exciting part of baseball. I grew up watching Clemente and he was my favorite player. My first live glimpse of him was in Forbes in '66; with Aaron on second Mathews hit a shot toward the RF corner. Clemente cut it off, wheeled and threw a missile to home plate in time to get Aaron - except that Jim Pagliaroni dropped it! I gave away Pags baseball card the next day.

Even Clemente's totals dont sound that big. If you look at the assists leaders every year they tend to be guys with weak arms that teams try to run on. Guys with great arms dont get run on. Unfortunately, because those are exciting plays

People don't run on the big guns, they run on the noodle arms. Noodles get more assists.

For a long time I played Left Center on a softball team, was the fastest guy on the team. I couldn't throw on the fly to second if I wasn't charging the ball. Guys on either side could hit 2nd after going back and running away from the IF to make a catch. One hop strikes to home were possible for them, while the SS had to take throws from me well into the OF

With most of the same guys on other teams from year to year, they learn not to run on the other guys, and to test me regularly. I always had more assists than both of them combined, because I'd have more assist chances in a game than they might all year. They were 3 (-4) and I was 1 (+4).

You are Earle Combs!

Yeah, I was the fast guy in left-center with a dead arm. A little more shaky on the defense. I tried to run in quickly to deter thoughts of taking an extra base and got the ball in quickly. They ran on me...and I still couldnt throw people out!

Seem Vlad play in Montreal so many times...Nobody ran on Vlad...simple as that...
And before him Andre Dawson and Ellis Vallentine...plus a little of Larry Walker...nobody ran on them either...
People ran all the time on Tim Raines, Warren Cromartie, and guys like that...

I think it's that simple...

02, 2020 6:02 pm
Seem Vlad play in Montreal so many times...Nobody ran on Vlad...simple as that...
And before him Andre Dawson and Ellis Vallentine...plus a little of Larry Walker...nobody ran on them either...
People ran all the time on Tim Raines, Warren Cromartie, and guys like that...

I think it's that simple...

.

I agree up to a point but if it were true that no one would run on a strong arms and Clemente would have no assists. I saw him make a throw in Candlestick from the right field corner to third base and the third baseman caught it chest high and there was almost no arc at all on the ball. The only purpose for throwing all the way to third was to let the hitter know not to try and stretch that double into a triple.....now or sometime in the future. Yet people still try to take that extra base on him and often paid the price. But I’m sure just as often runners thought better of it and held up. I also saw him make a few lesser, but still amazing, throws over the years in Candlestick. As I’m sure mrharryc will attest that when it comes to throwing arms that there are mortals and then there is Clemente.