| You hear talk about somebody being a 5 tool | | | | for power alone. This is not very common by |
| baseball player. These athletes are very few and | | | | itself. Take a look at the list of home run leaders |
| far in between. Five tool players are the highest | | | | in the major leagues and you'll see that out of the |
| paid players in the game if you can even find | | | | hundreds of players that play the game the list |
| them. But what exactly is meant by a 5 tool | | | | isn't any more than a dozen or so. Therefor, |
| player? How do you know when somebody | | | | finding somebody who hits for power by itself is |
| actually fits this description? We're going to | | | | not an easy task. Finding speed, power and the |
| present the basic definition of what a 5 tool | | | | ability to hit for average is very rare. And that's |
| player is and why these are such a rare breed. | | | | only 3 tools. |
| A 5 tool player is one that has great speed, can | | | | Then we come to fielding. Defense is something |
| hit for average, hit for power, a great throwing | | | | that requires a lot of practice. They talk about |
| arm and is excellent defensively. Let's take a look | | | | somebody having soft hands. That's a person |
| at each of these separately. | | | | who catches just about anything hit to him no |
| Players with great speed are hard enough to find. | | | | matter how hard. The great fielders in the game |
| Most of these are usually lead off hitters because | | | | defensively are a select few by themselves. Now |
| they are needed to get on base and steel bases | | | | add that to the other 3 tools and the list narrows |
| in order to get into scoring positions. Most lead off | | | | even more. |
| hitters are mostly contact hitters and don't hit for | | | | But we're still not done. Then there is the matter |
| much power. So right there, finding somebody | | | | of a player's throwing arm. Most of your best |
| with great speed and somebody with power is | | | | throwing arms are actually pitchers because they |
| already hard enough. | | | | need to be able to throw hard to get hitters out. |
| But then we get to somebody who can hit for | | | | Pitchers certainly don't hit for power. Many short |
| average. This is something that can easily be | | | | stops and third basemen have good arms but |
| linked together with just about any of the other | | | | very few of them hit for power, let alone have all |
| tools but one, hitting for power. In order to hit for | | | | 5 tools. |
| power, you have to either be incredibly strong or | | | | So as you can see, a 5 tool player is indeed a |
| swing the bat very hard. When you do this, it is | | | | rare breed. So many power hitters are very big |
| hard to hit for average because you are more | | | | and therefore very slow. Tall, thin, fast players |
| prone to striking out a lot. Most power hitters | | | | don't usually hit for power. And yet, there have |
| strike out over 100 times a year. These people | | | | been a number of 5 tool players in the game of |
| usually don't hit for a high average. | | | | baseball, including Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Hank |
| Then of course there is the person who just hits | | | | Aaron and Barry Bonds. |