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Picked out the top 25 defensive center fielders of all time by PCA and looked at what that group had in common...and indeed it's clear that speed is common among most of those greats. That's not surprising. What's also clear, though, are that there are several guys on the list of all-time defensive greats at the position who were not all that skilled on the basepaths (had hidden speed) or who were not built for speed (slugger types like Andruw Jones).