“It’s a lively arm”: Oneil Cruz activates turbo with a 96.7 mph throw


“It’s a lively arm”: Oneil Cruz activates turbo with a 96.7 mph throw

Oneil Cruz

It is said that whenever Oneil Cruz steps onto the field, there is always a possibility that he would give rise to a ludicrous number which turns out to be very hard to rival. In his season debut on Monday, a 12-1 Pittsburgh Pirates win, he just let one of his in-field throws just swiftly fly towards first base.

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On an evening when he showed off the full spread of his talents, Oneil Cruz produced an infield assist with a velocity of 96.7 mph. It was the hardest-thrown assist by any infielder this season, and the third-hardest by an infielder since the statistic was first recorded in 2015, trailing two throws by Fernando Tatis Jr.

Pittsburgh Pirates’ First baseman Michael Chavis, who was on the receiving end of the throw said, “The way it hangs in the air is a little bit different, the same way [with] a guy that’s pitching, a guy that throws really hard, it hangs up on it a little more, the ride or whatever you want to call it. It’s pretty much the same thing where I thought it was going to go down, and it just hung.”

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Oneil Cruz makes everyone believe that he is a special player

Oneil Cruz
Oneil Cruz

Pittsburgh Pirates’ Manager Derek Shelton said upon questions asked about Oneil Cruz, “He fielded it and it came out of his hand, and [bench coach] Donnie [Kelly] and I just looked at each other,” Donnie said the same thing: ‘I can’t imagine anybody’s ever thrown the ball across the infield that hard.’ We were talking about [Manny] Machado and Fernando Tatis Jr. It was impressive. It came out hot.”

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Added starting pitcher JT Brubaker, whose fastest fastball on Monday registered at 94.5 mph: “I knew it was hard, I didn’t know how hard it was. It’s like, ‘You had to do that to me? You had to throw one harder than I threw it off the mound?’ At the moment, it was just like, ‘Wow, that’s a cannon.’ It’s a lively arm.”

His arm wasn’t the only mechanism that he had on display. On the basepaths, Oneil Cruz clocked in a sprint speed of 31.5 ft./sec (30 ft./sec is considered elite). When asked if he took more pleasure in the hit or the throw, Cruz didn’t hesitate.

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“The hit was my favourite because I was able to bring in three runs,” Oneil Cruz said politely.

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