The Defense Thread, 2019

[Frobby]

And right on cue, Davis stupidly looks to 2B on a good bunt and then can’t get the throw to 1B on time.   Dumb play.  

[ChuckS]

The loss tonight is on Davis.  That extra out cost us. 

[Frobby]

2 minutes ago, ChuckS said:

The loss tonight is on Davis.  That extra out cost us. 

It’s on a lot of people.   Davis made the last costly mistake, but not the only one (see above).    He should’ve known better, that’s for sure.   

[Legend_Of_Joey]

Reading through the game thread and Twitter, this was a very, VERY poorly played double header by both teams on defense.

[jtm]

11 minutes ago, ChuckS said:

The loss tonight is on Davis.  That extra out cost us. 

Davis almost single handedly cost them 2 out of 3 games in this series.  Monday, he hit a fly ball to left that landed for a hit.  Not only did he not run hard out of the box thinking it would be caught, he turned the corner at first and got thrown out because he did not stop.  In a 2 run game that was a huge play.  Then tonight he doesn’t take the out at first on a bunt with a fast runner.  If you aren’t going to earn the 23 mil a year with production at the plate, you should at least be a leader on the filed with smart baseball and hustle.  IMO, he owes an apology to his team mates after this series. 

[atomic]

11 minutes ago, jtm said:

Davis almost single handedly cost them 2 out of 3 games in this series.  Monday, he hit a fly ball to left that landed for a hit.  Not only did he not run hard out of the box thinking it would be caught, he turned the corner at first and got thrown out because he did not stop.  In a 2 run game that was a huge play.  Then tonight he doesn’t take the out at first on a bunt with a fast runner.  If you aren’t going to earn the 23 mil a year with production at the plate, you should at least be a leader on the filed with smart baseball and hustle.  IMO, he owes an apology to his team mates after this series. 

Man the whole team owes an apology for the way they played today.  Wilkerson should never play in the infield again.  

The White Sox announcers were saying the Orioles didn’t show any sense of urgency all night.  

[Chavez Ravine]

The official scoring does no justice to the surreal awfulness of Wynn's play in the 2nd inning of the second game. It was not a wild pitch. Wynns dropped strike three, the ball dribbled in front of him a few inches, he picked it up and fired a strike to second base. Unfortunately, no one else could think of a reason why they should be covering second base so the ball went into center field. Wynns must have lost track of the count or the outs. Either way, not what you really want to see from your catcher. Later in the inning, Cashner called Wynns out to the mound for a Bull Durham-esque mound visit talking to (Cashner assuming the Costner role). Brocail joined them on the mound with a box of popcorn to enjoy the show.

[Legend_Of_Joey]

6 minutes ago, Chavez Ravine said:

The official scoring does no justice to the surreal awfulness of Wynn's play in the 2nd inning of the second game. It was not a wild pitch. Wynns dropped strike three, the ball dribbled in front of him a few inches, he picked it up and fired a strike to second base. Unfortunately, no one else could think of a reason why they should be covering second base so the ball went into center field. Wynns must have lost track of the count or the outs. Either way, not what you really want to see from your catcher. Later in the inning, Cashner called Wynns out to the mound for a Bull Durham-esque mound visit talking to (Cashner assuming the Costner role). Brocail joined them on the mound with a box of popcorn to enjoy the show.

Watching the replay of Game 2, he was obviously thinking....

*Bob Uecker pause*

I don't know what the hell he was thinking!

Awful, awful game for him all around. That play, 0-4, and a wild pitch when he tried to back hand a ball instead of sliding infront of it. 

Mental error, mentally bad game. Hope he bounces back.

Also, Wilkerson with a mental error that inning too, not getting the force at second to end the inning. Not sure what he was thinking. 

[TGO]

Almost sounds like two bad teams had to play two games in one day. 

[webbrick2010]

Right now the O's have a full roster of weak arms

They have improved the team speed slightly from last year, but they can't throw.

Need to make arm strength a real priority in draft/development.

No more wasted picks on DJ Stewart types in the first round.

[Frobby]

1 hour ago, webbrick2010 said:

Right now the O's have a full roster of weak arms

They have improved the team speed slightly from last year, but they can't throw.

Need to make arm strength a real priority in draft/development.

No more wasted picks on DJ Stewart types in the first round.

If we ever get Hays and Díaz up here, we’ll have two above average arms in our OF.   But we may not see them any time soon, with Hays still hurt and Díaz struggling at AA and now on the IL as well.

 

[Going Underground]

3 hours ago, TGO said:

Almost sounds like two bad teams had to play two games in one day. 

Also very quick games . First game : 3:48 . Second game: 3:22. Shortest game in the series was 3:18. 13 of the Orioles first  32 games have gone over 3:15 minutes. So much for speeding up the games. i guess with so many 3-2 counts and sloppy baseball it takes time . Did not see either game but my friend said it was ugly,ugly baseball. Pitchers throwing pitches right over the plate,otherwise going 3-2 on many hitters and missing the plate by wide margins. Missing cut off men and both teams terrible fundamentals. 

[interloper]

We gotta stop playing Nunez at 1B. There are 2 actual 1B on this roster. I get the doubleheader played a role here, but staaahpppp. 

[webbrick2010]

10 minutes ago, interloper said:

We gotta stop playing Nunez at 1B. There are 2 actual 1B on this roster. I get the doubleheader played a role here, but staaahpppp. 

I am amazed that a guy can presumably play baseball for a large part of his life and have absolutely no defensive skills.

He can't even play catch.

I like watching him hit, but he may be even worse than Mark Trumbo with the leather.

[DrungoHazewood]

1 hour ago, webbrick2010 said:

I am amazed that a guy can presumably play baseball for a large part of his life and have absolutely no defensive skills.

He can't even play catch.

I like watching him hit, but he may be even worse than Mark Trumbo with the leather.

There's nothing that inherently ties playing defense with hitting, any more than there's a very vague relationship between hitting and pitching (i.e. at lower levels the two often coincide, but at higher levels they have almost an inverse correlation).  Baseball players practice multiple disciplines, but they're not necessarily good at more than one.