The Defense Thread, 2014

[malkusm]

By we, you mean the historically good Orioles Defense?

No sorry, I was channeling Brian Cashman.

[Frobby]

(And) Gardner has a noodle of an arm.

Judging from his throws on our two sac flies yesterday, Ellsbury's arm is nothing to write home about, either.

[Frobby]

Game 9, April 9

Poor play by Cruz on a pop fly to LF where Cruz failed to call off Schoop who was trying for an over the shoulder catch after a very long run into the OF. Luckily the Yankees stranded the runners that inning.

Poor play by Davis in the 9th on a grounder down the 1B line. I agreed with the official scorer that it should be scored a hit, but Davis makes that play a lot of times.

On the game ending DP, a poor pivot throw by Lombardozzi, but Crush makes the pick to end the game.

On the Yankee side, a noodle armed throw by Gardner in the 9th allowed Flash to stretch his hit into a double. Earlier, Soriano made a diving catch in LF but I think he made that play look more difficult than it really was. BRob followed up by corralling a hot smash on one hop.

[backwardsk]

Jones made a nice adjustment on a liner by Gardner that had its bottom drop out.

Cruz is an adventure out there. He also got turned around on a third out flyball (Ellsbury I believe).

[Aristotelian]

Game 9, April 9

On the Yankee side, a noodle armed throw by Gardner in the 9th allowed Flash to stretch his hit into a double. Earlier, Soriano made a diving catch in LF but I think he made that play look more difficult than it really was. BRob followed up by corralling a hot smash on one hop.

Also I thought Delmon's ball looked catchable. They were playing him deep but that ball was up there for a while and nobody got it in a key situation. I think Lough gets that ball about 70% of the time.

[JayThomas]

Game 9, April 9

On the Yankee side, a noodle armed throw by Gardner in the 9th allowed Flash to stretch his hit into a double.

Absolutely no way anyone should get a double on that ball. Gardner had the ball before Flaherty got to 1B for heavens sakes. He should've been out by 10 feet.

[Aristotelian]

Absolutely no way anyone should get a double on that ball. Gardner had the ball before Flaherty got to 1B for heavens sakes. He should've been out by 10 feet.

Yes, weak throw to the wrong side of the bag. AJ would have nailed it.

[Aristotelian]

One more play deserves mention. How about Jeter's bunt right back to Meek? You have a fast runner on second, but I thought he would have been dead to rights if Meek had gone to third. He at least could have given a look to third to check Gardner back to second.

I would not have given Davis an E but it was certainly borderline. The ball was hit very hard and Davis had to field it on a short hop. I think that's a hit if you watch the play in real time even if it looks like an error in slow motion.

[Frobby]

One more play deserves mention. How about Jeter's bunt right back to Meek? You have a fast runner on second, but I thought he would have been dead to rights if Meek had gone to third. He at least could have given a look to third to check Gardner back to second.

I would not have given Davis an E but it was certainly borderline. The ball was hit very hard and Davis had to field it on a short hop. I think that's a hit if you watch the play in real time even if it looks like an error in slow motion.

The ball to Davis was hit pretty hard, was right down the foul line, and he got his glove on it when the ball was already past his body. I think he makes that play more often than he misses it, but it was not routine IMO, plus there is some question in my mind whether a throw to the pitcher covering 1B would have beaten the runner. So, I'd be generous and call it a hit.

I agree Meek should have looked to 3B on Jeter's poor bunt. Gardner is very fast so I don't know if throwing there would have been prudent, I'd need to watch the replay more carefully to decide.

[JayThomas]

I agree Meek should have looked to 3B on Jeter's poor bunt. Gardner is very fast so I don't know if throwing there would have been prudent, I'd need to watch the replay more carefully to decide.

I think the YES announcers got it right. Gardner held up because he didn't know if Meek would catch it in the air. When Meek had the ball in his glove Garner was only about 10 feet off 2nd and starting to run. It looked like Meek checked him. Maybe because he was so close to 2nd Meek figured that that counted as looking him back. I think Meek thought he wasn't running. Otherwise there's no way he doesn't throw to 3rd. He'd have had Gardner by 20 feet. Actually, he'd have had Gardner by so much that it would've caused a rundown, and I'm not sure that would've ended well for the slow-footed Orioles trying to track down the fleet Gardner.

[El Gordo]

The ball to Davis was hit pretty hard, was right down the foul line, and he got his glove on it when the ball was already past his body. I think he makes that play more often than he misses it, but it was not routine IMO, plus there is some question in my mind whether a throw to the pitcher covering 1B would have beaten the runner. So, I'd be generous and call it a hit.

I agree Meek should have looked to 3B on Jeter's poor bunt. Gardner is very fast so I don't know if throwing there would have been prudent, I'd need to watch the replay more carefully to decide.

Meek definitely should have looked to third. Jeter's bunt was up and Gardner had stopped and was leaning back to second because he thought the ball might be caught in the air. He would have been out.

[cmurter]

Well, 2 throwing errors by Schoop and a botched dp turn by flash all in the 4th inning. Missing Manny and JJ tonight.

[LookitsPuck]

The more I watch Schoop at 3rd, the more I don't want him anywhere near the hot corner. His footwork and his hands need a lot of work.

[Can_of_corn]

The more I watch Schoop at 3rd, the more I don't want him anywhere near the hot corner. His footwork and his hands need a lot of work.

Not counting the AFL he has a whopping 24 games at third under his belt in the minors. It isn't surprising he needs work, Manny was the exception not the rule.

[OFFNY]

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Owwwwww !!! My balls hurt really bad right about now.