Like movies, catches are now rated by stars, and Byron Buxton produced the baseball season's first must-see catch on Opening Day.
The Twins center fielder's diving grab in the third inning of a 7-1 victory over Kansas City earned a perfect five-star rating, according to MLB Network's Statcast.
Royals All-Star Alex Gordon's liner in his second at-bat had just a 24 percent catch probability. The batted ball had an exit velocity of 106 miles per hour and traveled 289 feet, yet Buxton tracked it down by traveling 36 feet in 2.9 seconds.
So what is Statcast and its new metric of catch probability?
Statcast is Major League Baseball's way of analyzing players' performance through technology. Catch probability is the newest metric that shows the likelihood of an outfielder making a play based on the distance he needs to travel and the time he has to cover that ground.
JASON GONZALEZ
