Let's look at how the manual defines Speed ratings:
Speed
Speed is a measure of how quickly a player can run from one base to the next. Players with a high rating in Speed are more of a threat to steal bases, and are more likely to advance further on a ball in play. Running Speed is strictly for offensive play. For example, Speed does not factor into an outfielder's range. However, Speed and Defensive Range are linked internally. For example, as a player ages, his speed and range will generally decline at the same pace.
Looks, guys, I love some OOTP and all, but the player Speed ratings are utterly ridiculous and absolutely untenable. Speed is a very easily definable metric in the Statcast era. Every player in the league has a Sprint Speed measured in feet per second, and they have a percentile ranking based on that. Presumably, the 2024 Speed ratings should be based on 2023 performances, but none of it makes sense.
For instance, Julio Rodriguez had an average Sprint Speed of 29.6 ft/s in 2023, good for 96th percentile in the league. That's quite literally a 96 on a scale of 100. If we're looking at Speed in game on the 1-100 scale, J-Rod has a Speed rating of 60. That is completely nonsensical, especially when you consider that some players have ratings above 100.
Take, for instance, Elly de la Cruz. He was tied for the fastest player in the league last year, with an average Sprint Speed of 30.5 ft/s, putting him at 100th percentile (100 rating of 100) in real life. His in-game Speed rating: 120, literally double the Speed of Julio Rodriguez.
But wait, it gets dumber. The guy that Elly de la Cruz was tied with as the fastest player last year was Bobby Witt Jr. His average was also 30.5 ft/s, 100th percentile in the league. His in-game Speed rating? 87. That means Elly de la Cruz is 27.5% faster than Bobby Witt Jr. in game when in real life he [checks notes] runs at precisely the same speed.
But wait! There's more! Let's take Dylan Moore, the Mariners' utility man. He's definitely got some speed, but he doesn't have elite speed like the other guys mentioned here. He missed a lot of time with core surgery last year, but let's give them the benefit of the doubt and say they're rating him based more on how he normally runs. Heck, lets look at his peak speed! Dylan Moore's fastest average Sprint Speed came in 2021: 28.4 ft/s, which was good for 83rd percentile in the league. Excellent speed, to be sure, but not elite. His 2024 Speed rating? 75!
NONE OF THIS MAKES ANY SENSE. You can quibble all you want about Contact, Power, and Eye ratings, but this is one part of the game where the ratings are very easily measurable and should directly translate, like Fastball speed for pitchers. And yet, somehow, many players with elite speed are drastically underrated. I've seen people say Speed is only about stolen base attempts, but if that were true, Esteury Ruiz or Ronald Acuņa Jr would have the highest Speed. That should be (and does appear to be) Stealing Aggressiveness, considering Acuņa's is 100 and Ruiz's is 118 (which makes sense, since Ruiz attempted at a higher rate than Acuņa. But Acuņa's Speed in game is 75, which is equal to current Dylan Moore. Acuņa's actual Sprint Speed was 27.8 ft/s, putting him in the 72nd percentile-- which means he's the only player whose rating has come anywhere close to accurate.
Here's what I'm looking for: A mod that fixes player speeds to accurately reflect their real life speed. Simple. Is there anything like this floating around? I would like player speeds to actually bear some resemblance to reality and see how it changes player outcomes versus Vanilla. I have seriously considered editing every player in the league to reflect their Statcast speeds, but figured I'd see if some other obsessive idiot has done it already. If not... who knows? I might. Sounds like a job for autistic hyperfocus!
/rant