The Defense Thread, 2017

[Frobby]

Game 38, May 17

- With a runner on 1B, Schoop fielded a chopper and tried to tag the runner as he went by, missed him but was able to fire a bullet to 1B to get one out on the play.

- Manny made a diving stop on a ball that took a funny hop as he dove, scrambled to his knees and threw, beating the runner on a close play with Davis making a nice stretch to the OF side.   

- Jones did a great job of cutting off a ball in the gap that otherwise would have scored the runner from 1B.

- Smith made a nice sliding catch in RF, though he may have misjudged the ball at first.    

- Manny booted an infield chopper that he charged, with it bouncing off the bottom of his glove.   

- Adam tried to cut off another ball in the gap and it skipped under his glove, but Mancini had hustled over to back it up, so no extra bases were taken.   

- Mancini caught a high, hooking fly ball in foul territory on the run.   He may have misjudged how quickly the ball was hooking, but it was a nice catch.    

Lots of consequential defensive plays the last two nights.   

[ORIOLE33]

Damn Schoop.

[Frobby]

Game 42, May 21

The O's made three errors today, but I missed them.     Schoop's was on a ground ball into the shift on the SS side of 2B that he just flat booted.   The other two were by Miley and Manny.   

Manny started a nice DP on a ball to his backhand side and Schoop made a nice turn.

In the 6th, the O's failed to complete a 3-6-1 DP when Miley was slow to cover 1B and Janish threw a little behind him.   Then the next hitter hit a fly to RF that was catchable but Trumbo backed off and let it fall in front of him.   

Adam Jones caught a high pop up about 15 feet from the infield grass after Janish had trouble seeing the ball.

Asher and Janish turned a very nice 1-6-3 DP in the 8th, with Asher reacting well and making a quick throw to Janish who made the pivot with a runner sliding right underneath him.   

Schoop made a nice play ranging behind 2B to get a force play, and in the 9th made a leaping catch of a line drive.   

[Ori-Al]

Our pictures too often don't do a good job of picking up their teammates after an error. We've seen examples the last two games in which errors that merely placed a runner on first were followed by the pitcher allowing a single, followed by a home run.

On the other hand, our offense isn't that good at taking advantage of free baserunners.

[Frobby]

4 hours ago, Ori-Al said:

Our pictures too often don't do a good job of picking up their teammates after an error. We've seen examples the last two games in which errors that merely placed a runner on first were followed by the pitcher allowing a single, followed by a home run.

Going into today, the O's had allowed only 6 unearned runs all year, lowest in the league.    So I'd say the pitchers have done a good job of limiting the damage from errors.  

[Frobby]

Game 43, May 22

- Schoop booted a grounder while foolishly trying to turn towards 2B to attempt a DP he had no chance to make.   

- Castillo picked off a runner at 1B to end a 5-run inning for the Twins.   Later he nearly picked off another runner.   

- Jones broke back on a ball, then had to make a diving catch running full out coming in,

- Davis made a great diving stop in the hole and threw to Crichton covering on a close play.   

- Mancini attempted a diving catch on a ball slicing towards the corner, but it shorthopped his glove and bounced away, though nobody advanced.    

- On a play where the O's had Hardy shifting towards 2B, a ball was hit almost right at him but Schoop cut the ball off just as it was coming to Hardy's glove and made an off-line throw going away from 1B.

- There were 2 or three grounders towards the middle that Schoop couldn't reach, plus he nearly threw a ball away trying to catch a runner rounding third.   Manny made a great play to snare the throw.    

[Frobby]

Game 44, May 23

- Schoop made a diving stop on a hot smash in the first inning and threw out the batter.   

- Castillo made a sliding catch of a low foul pop over his head.   

- Manny couldn't catch a foul pop pretty far down the LF line.   He may have heard Mancini's footsteps.   

- Jones short-hopped a liner to CF and fired to 2B to get a force out on Buxton, who had held up to make sure the ball wasn't caught.

- Castillo had a third strike bounce off his shin guard and couldn't find it, and the runner was safe at first.  

- Davis missed a hard smash that was hit right at him on one hop, as he moved his body out of the way and tried to glove it.   

- Bleier picked off a runner and Davis made a strong throw to 2B to beat the runner there by a step.

- Mancini made a nice running catch on a shallow fly that Hardy also chased.    He may have misjudged it at first, but he ran hard and caught it on a dead run.   

[Frobby]

I didn't see Castillo's play live, only on the postgame show, which is probably why I underdescribed it.    

I agree Manny should have caught that foul pop and Mancini should not be used as an excuse.   

[ChuckS]

There was a play in the second inning where Trey Mancini and Adam Jones kind of collided going for a ball that was grounded into the gap.  That is Jones' ball and Mancini has to learn to back off on those.  Mancini got in the way of Adam fielding the ball cleanly and the slow-footed Miguel Sano scored all the way from first base.  There were two outs.  The next batter was retired.  

May not go in the books as an unearned run, but it was a preventable run and ended up being the difference in the game. 

[Frobby]

Game 45, May 26

- In the third, with a runner on 1st, Manny charged a chopper that took a weird hop but he corralled it and made a perfect throw to Schoop, who dropped it.   

- Later in the inning, Altuve hit a sky high chopper in front of the mound but Castillo grabbed it and fired to 1st, narrowly beating Altuve.

- Manny slid to field a grounder and threw to 2B from his butt to force a runner.

- Schoop made a diving stop of a grounder in the hole and threw the runner out.    

- There was a play where Schoop was on the SS side of 2B and couldn't get to a grounder hit just to the 2B side of the bag.    A quicker 2B makes that play IMO.

- With runners on 1st and 3rd and nobody out in the 8th, infield playing in, a grounder was hit to Janish, who froze Correa at 3B, then flipped to Schoop for the force.   Correa took off for home but Schoop made a strong throw home, slightly off line to the 3B line but Castillo was able to grab it and make the tag.   

- Kim made a very nice diving catch to end the 8th inning.

Overall, a pretty strong defensive game, in a losing cause.    

[Frobby]

Game 48, May 27

- Manny made a tremendous play grabbing a hopper over the 3B bag and then throwing from deep in foul territory with his momentum going away from 1B, and Davis made a nice scoop.   One of those plays only Manny can make.

- With Beltran on 2B and nobody out, Manny fielded a grounder and caught Beltran off the 2B bag and threw to Schoop, who chased Beltran down for the out.   It looked to me like Manny kind of head faked Beltran into thinking he was going to throw to 1st.

- Chris Davis and Janish turned a nice 3-6-3 DP.    I must say, Janish has a lightning quick transfer and release on his throws.   

- Kim let a ball get over his head for a double that was very close to  the place where the wall suddenly goes back about 15 feet.    It looked to me like Kim was a little uncomfortable in that spot and took a bad route.    However, that's a very tricky spot to play.   

- Schoop dropped a throw from Rickard as a runner was sliding into second.    The runner easily would have been out if Schoop had caught it.   

- With a runner on 3B, Castillo let a pitch get under his glove for a passed ball and a run scored.    Really a poor job by Castillo there, the ball didn't even bounce.  

- Rickard didn't pick up a two-hop single cleanly and the batter advanced to 2B when he muffed it.  

A few good plays, but pretty sloppy overall.   

[Can_of_corn]

Encina tweeted this during the game.

 

[Frobby]

8 hours ago, Can_of_corn said:

Encina tweeted this during the game.

 

I'd be interested to know which three hits.    However, I think Encina is misinterpreting "hit probability."    As I understand it, the only two variables that go into that statistic are exit velocity and launch angle.    The direction the ball is hit doesn't enter the equation at all.     Therefore, a low hit probability does not necessarily mean the defense was poor, it may mean the ball was hit to a good spot.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/217705412/statcast-introduces-hit-probability-for-2017/

In any event, Asher did not pitch well at all in that inning.

 

[InsideCoroner]

1 hour ago, Frobby said:

I'd be interested to know which three hits.    However, I think Encina is misinterpreting "hit probability."    As I understand it, the only two variables that go into that statistic are exit velocity and launch angle.    The direction the ball is hit doesn't enter the equation at all.     Therefore, a low hit probability does not necessarily mean the defense was poor, it may mean the ball was hit to a good spot.

http://m.mlb.com/news/article/217705412/statcast-introduces-hit-probability-for-2017/

In any event, Asher did not pitch well at all in that inning.

 

Which must be the case, because otherwise that doesn't make any sense. The only hits to the outfield off Asher were these:
- The 2-run double Gonzalez hit which hit off the side of the angled wall. 
- The double Correa hit over Kim's head 
- Reddick's triple into the right field corner which landed five feet from the foul line

The other three hits were Springer's homer and two singles through the infield. Or do they mean less than 15% probability of being caught? The Gonzalez double caromed 20 feet off the wall on its way down, even Manute Bol with a glove on a barge pole couldn't have caught that. Maybe they mean the line drive that Correa hit, but it was a laser and short-hopped the fence. Nobody could have gotten to Reddick's triple either. 
 

[Frobby]

Game 49, May 29

- Schoop started an excellent 4-6-3 DP in the first inning, fielding a ball a couple steps to his glove side, pivoting and making a strong throw to the bag, and Hardy made a great turn with a runner bearing down on him.   

- Rickard and Trumbo miscommunicated on a high fly ball, with Trumbo stepping in front to catch a ball that Rickard was camped in front of.    Due to the minor collision, the runner on 1st tagged up and went to 2nd.   

- The next play, a ball was hit in the 1B/2B hole and Davis made a diving try and deflected it into short CF.    The runner on 2B should have scored, but ignited the 3B coach and froze at 3B.    (He later scored anyway.)   I think Schoop could have fielded the ball if Davis hadn't tried for it.   

- Mancini made a perfect throw from fairly deep LF to  nab Gardner trying to advance to 3B on a fly out.    Great tag by Manny on the play, letting the ball travel right to the body to get the runner by a couple of inches.   

- There was a ball scorched towards the SS side of Manny on a hop, where Manny seemed a little slow to react and it got by him.   Not an error by any means, but a play Manny makes more than half the time.

- Schoop made another nice DP, charging a squibber, tagging Sanchez as he ran onto the infield grass, and making a strong sidearm throw to 1B from a tough angle that Davis did a good job to catch. 

- Trumbo made a sliding catch on a high fly to short RF, though it probably shouldn't have been necessary for him to slide but he got a bit of a late start.