Is Darren Ford of the SF Giants the fastest player in Major League Baseball?
It’s nearly impossible to tell exactly who the fastest player in the MLB is without seeing them in a footrace. I can’t argue with anyone who says guys like Crawford and Ichiro are faster, but I have followed Ford since he was with the Brewers’ organization and do have a few facts that can give people some insight to the question. 1) Ford was the NJ state champion in the 55-meter dash in 2004. 2) The the top of the speed scale in MLB’s scouting prospectus is 80 and I believe that it stops at 6.3 seconds in the 60-yard dash (anyone who runs faster than 6.3 is rated at 80+). Coming out of high school, Ford was an 80+ runner and I have read several reports (including one from Baseball America) that Ford ran 6.2 several times, including twice in the same day. I can’t find where I read it, but I remember sometime a few years back reading that he ran a 6.18. What I’m getting at is that for someone to be a full tenth of a second faster than the time at which the MLB scouting scale ends is a lo
