On April 18th, 2011, Aroldis Chapman threw the fastest pitch in MLB history at 105.1 MPH against the Pittsburgh Pirates since the technology to track pitch speeds became available. While left field is a different position entirely (and you get the benefit of momentum and a crow hop), New York Yankees outfielder Aaron Hicks threw harder than Chapman’s record speed on Wednesday night.
Hicks threw home from left field to gun down the Oakland Athletics’ Danny Valencia trying to score. MLB’s statcast system measured Hicks’ throw at 105.5 MPH, thus becoming the fastest throw ever recorded.
Here’s video of Hicks’ incredible throw:
The throw from Hicks knocked off Carlos Gomez’s previous high of 103.1, which he recorded last September. Later that same month, Hicks recorded his previous high of 103.07.
Earlier in the same inning today when Hicks broke the record, he threw home to try and catch Chris Coghlan, but that throw was only registered at 98.7 mph.
As for where Hicks’ throw ranks in different velocity related statistics according to statcast in 2016? Hicks’ throw beats Noah Syndergaard’s high for fastest pitch of 101.4.
It’s important to keep in mind however, that Hicks’ 105.5 fireball may not be the fastest in MLB history. Statcast data only dates back to the beginning of the 2015 season and the technology can’t be used to measure old throws right now. As a result, we may never know if Hicks’ throw was faster than this one from Ichiro Suzuki:
Or this shot out of Rick Ankiel’s lefty cannon:
Sadly we may never know if it even beats this classic from Vladamir Guerrero:
We might not find out if Hicks’ cannon fires faster than Yasiel Puig’s righty weapon:
Finally, Roberto Clemente is known for having one of the strongest arms in the game’s history. But sadly, statcast didn’t exist in the middle of the 20th century:
