The Defense Thread, 2017

[baltfan]

Can Manny please set his feet on routine plays before throwing?  He made yet another bad throw on the last play of the game for no reason other than that he doesn't seem to want to set his fèet on routine plays. 

 

He he has been doing this for two years now.   

[Frobby]

5 hours ago, sportsfan8703 said:

Davis is at GG level. I don't know how you justify dWAR but I see no drop off in play from the rest of the IF to him. Davis has picked tougher hops this year than the rest of the IF combined. He's GG level.  

If the Gold Glove were awarded based on three games, Davis certainly would win.    By the way, fangraphs has a stat called Scoops that I've relied on over the years.    I've now realized it's not accurate.   During last night's game, I looked up Davis and he'd been credited with 3 Scoops in the first 2 games.    That seemed low to me (I had counted 5; see previous posts) but whatever.    Today I looked and he's now been credited with 4.     So he only got credit for one last night!    I don't know who's assembling that data, but they've clearly undercounted Chris.  Even so, at this pace he'd be credited about 215 Scoops over a full season, and the most he's ever been credited with in a year is 52.     He's playing out of his mind on defense.    He's had some really tough ones, too.

[Frobby]

Game 4, April 8

Not much interesting in this game defensively.    What little there is to report is mostly negative.   

- In the second inning, a ball was hit to the gap in LCF.   Jones started racing after it, then appeared to ease up as it looked like Kim had the ball in range.    Instead, Kim didn't get there and the ball bounced off the wall for a double.   It's possible Jones simply decided he couldn't get there and positioned himself to field the carom, but my read of the play was that Jones deferred to Kim and was surprised when Kim couldn't reach it (and he didn't come particularly close).

- A couple of batters later, with runners on 2nd and 3rd, Smith charged a ground single and made a good throw home.   Castillo fielded it cleanly but kept his glove too high on the tag and the runner slid under it.   I'm confident that's a play Wieters would've made.   Castillo partially atoned for his mistake by gunning down the batter trying to advance to 2B on the play, but the damage was done.

- Two other runners tested Castillo.   On the first, the batter took a wild swing and kind of fell into the batters box, and Castillo bounced his throw very wide to the SS side and into CF for an error.    The second time, Gary Sanchez inexplicably took off and Castillo's throw arrived about three strides before Sanchez.

- Castillo failed to block a Drake pitch that hit the plate that was scored a wild pitch but I think he should've stopped.    But he also smothered a couple of pitches that Brach yanked in the dirt and well off the plate.

- With 2 outs in the 9th, Manny made a great diving stop of a chopper in the hole, whirled and threw but his throw bounced inside the bag by a couple of feet and for once Davis couldn't come up with the scoop.    It was properly ruled a hit but it's a play we've seen them make (we are quite spoiled).   

- The final out was a high fly ball to the RCF gap.    Jones got there easily but rather than camping under it, kind of cruised over sidesaddle while Smith ran unexpectedly close to him as he caught it.    Jones held on, but the way they both handled that play made me uncomfortable.   

 

[backwardsk]

Wasn't that nice Smith catch yesterday?  Or was that Friday night?

[El Gordo]

53 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Game 4, April 8

Not much interesting in this game defensively.    What little there is to report is mostly negative.   

- In the second inning, a ball was hit to the gap in LCF.   Jones started racing after it, then appeared to ease up as it looked like Kim had the ball in range.    Instead, Kim didn't get there and the ball bounced off the wall for a double.   It's possible Jones simply decided he couldn't get there and positioned himself to field the carom, but my read of the play was that Jones deferred to Kim and was surprised when Kim couldn't reach it (and he didn't come particularly close).

- A couple of batters later, with runners on 2nd and 3rd, Smith charged a ground single and made a good throw home.   Castillo fielded it cleanly but kept his glove too high on the tag and the runner slid under it.   I'm confident that's a play Wieters would've made.   Castillo partially atoned for his mistake by gunning down the batter trying to advance to 2B on the play, but the damage was done.

- Two other runners tested Castillo.   On the first, the batter took a wild swing and kind of fell into the batters box, and Castillo bounced his throw very wide to the SS side and into CF for an error.    The second time, Gary Sanchez inexplicably took off and Castillo's throw arrived about three strides before Sanchez.

- Castillo failed to block a Drake pitch that hit the plate that was scored a wild pitch but I think he should've stopped.    But he also smothered a couple of pitches that Brach yanked in the dirt and well off the plate.

- With 2 outs in the 9th, Manny made a great diving stop of a chopper in the hole, whirled and threw but his throw bounced inside the bag by a couple of feet and for once Davis couldn't come up with the scoop.    It was properly ruled a hit but it's a play we've seen them make (we are quite spoiled).   

- The final out was a high fly ball to the RCF gap.    Jones got there easily but rather than camping under it, kind of cruised over sidesaddle while Smith ran unexpectedly close to him as he caught it.    Jones held on, but the way they both handled that play made me uncomfortable.   

 

Didn't Smith make a great catch? And that throw was on the money. surprised Castillo missed the tag.

[Frobby]

41 minutes ago, backwardsk said:

Wasn't that nice Smith catch yesterday?  Or was that Friday night?

 

2 minutes ago, El Gordo said:

Didn't Smith make a great catch? 

You're both right.    Smith got a good read and made a nice running catch on a ball hit over his head.   "Great" might be pushing it, but certainly put it in the category of a ball Trumbo wouldn't have caught.   

What was your take on the Kim/Jones play in the second inning?

[El Gordo]

1 minute ago, Frobby said:

 

You're both right.    Smith got a good read and made a nice running catch on a ball hit over his head.   "Great" might be pushing it, but certainly put it in the category of a ball Trumbo wouldn't have caught.   

What was your take on the Kim/Jones play in the second inning?

Didn't see it  Live in NYC, can't watch any MFY games on MLB.TV.

[Can_of_corn]

3 minutes ago, Frobby said:

 

You're both right.    Smith got a good read and made a nice running catch on a ball hit over his head.   "Great" might be pushing it, but certainly put it in the category of a ball Trumbo wouldn't have caught.   

What was your take on the Kim/Jones play in the second inning?

That the center fielder shouldn't defer to the left fielder unless he is absolutely sure that the left fielder can make the play with little difficulty.

[Frobby]

Just now, Can_of_corn said:

That the center fielder shouldn't defer to the left fielder unless he is absolutely sure that the left fielder can make the play with little difficulty.

Do you agree that's what happened?

[weams]

On 4/8/2017 at 7:19 AM, Frobby said:

If the Gold Glove were awarded based on three games, Davis certainly would win.    By the way, fangraphs has a stat called Scoops that I've relied on over the years.    I've now realized it's not accurate.   During last night's game, I looked up Davis and he'd been credited with 3 Scoops in the first 2 games.    That seemed low to me (I had counted 5; see previous posts) but whatever.    Today I looked and he's now been credited with 4.     So he only got credit for one last night!    I don't know who's assembling that data, but they've clearly undercounted Chris.  Even so, at this pace he'd be credited about 215 Scoops over a full season, and the most he's ever been credited with in a year is 52.     He's playing out of his mind on defense.    He's had some really tough ones, too.

Data is only as good as the guy who enter it. Or even assembles it. 

[Frobby]

1 minute ago, weams said:

Data is only as good as the guy who enter it. Or even assembles it. 

This one shouldn't be hard to assemble.    

[weams]

8 minutes ago, Frobby said:

 

You're both right.    Smith got a good read and made a nice running catch on a ball hit over his head.   "Great" might be pushing it, but certainly put it in the category of a ball Trumbo wouldn't have caught.   

What was your take on the Kim/Jones play in the second inning?

Smith did get a nice read. He is in no way is a better Right fielder than Parra, Bourn or Snider were. 

[Can_of_corn]

1 minute ago, Frobby said:

Do you agree that's what happened?

Kinda looked that way to me.

Didn't watch any replays on it.

I can't say with any certainty that Jones would have made the play.

[weams]

Just now, Frobby said:

This one shouldn't be hard to assemble.    

Yet they choose not to. 

[Cumberbundy]

Gentry makes a nice play but Wilson is not able to capitalize on it.