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Post by jonnygrouville on Aug 11, 2010 21:26:42 GMT -5
Might seem obvious to everyone else, but I am only slowly working out the rules and have a couple of questions.
Now. Foul balls. A ball you hit that will land behind the line is a foul. Okay. You can be caught out behind the line though, provided it is not in the crowd, right? And the fielder can reach right over into the crowd, yes?
Does this count for balls that are just nicked back to the catcher? Does this ever happen? It certainly does in cricket, but it might happen more because of the shape of the bat.
Can runners run a base when someone is caught out? Weird that I haven't seen this so far, but I have only seen the pop-ups when there is nobody in the field or on the last out.
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Post by Richie3Jack on Aug 11, 2010 22:43:58 GMT -5
Might seem obvious to everyone else, but I am only slowly working out the rules and have a couple of questions. Now. Foul balls. A ball you hit that will land behind the line is a foul. Yes. Unless you hit a ball that lands fair past first or third base and then rolls foul...that's a fair ball. You can catch a foul ball anywhere as long as you can reach it. You could go up in the 12th row of the stands and catch it and it's still an out. [quoteDoes this count for balls that are just nicked back to the catcher? Does this ever happen? It certainly does in cricket, but it might happen more because of the shape of the bat.[/quote] Yes, but it's not really called a foul ball. If a batter swings, nicks it, and the catcher still catches it, that's a strike. That's important to note because if there's two strikes on a batter, it's nicked by the batter, but the catcher still catches it..that's a strikeout. If the catcher drops it and it's nicked, it's just a foul ball. Important to note that because if it's 2 strikes, ball is nicked and the catcher drops the ball, that's just a foul ball and the at bat continues. No and Yes. They have to wait for the ball to be caught first, then they can 'tag up' and run if they please. For example, say a runner is at 3rd and there is 1 out. The batter gets up and hits a fly ball to the right fielder who catches it. The runner that was on 3rd has to stay on the third base bag until the right fielder catches the ball. Then once it's caught, the runner can go off the bag and run towards home if they want to. That's usually where the 'tagging up' comes into play...when a runner is at 3rd, a fly ball is hit, and the runner has to tag up in order to score a run. What sometimes happens is the runner won't expect a defensive player to catch the ball. For instance, runner on 2nd and somebody hits a low, line drive and the shortstop catches it. The runner has to get back to 2nd base before the ball does. But in this case they were already taking off for 3rd base, but didn't expect the shortstop to catch the ball and the shortstop got the ball back to 2nd base before the runner could return to 2nd base. Great game, some funky rules, but watch about 1 week of baseball and you can pretty much figure out everything as far as the rules go...except for the 'infield fly rule.' 3JACK
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Post by secondary on Aug 11, 2010 22:52:48 GMT -5
I was typing at the same time as Richie, but his was better so I deleted!
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Post by jonnygrouville on Aug 12, 2010 0:25:03 GMT -5
Thanks. Very helpful! I hadn't seen some of those situations yet, but that has helped with my curiosity. If anyone has any questions about cricket ("What's the point of a game that lasts five days and the weather wins?" for example), let me know... Whilst I'm here, there was a great Dave Marr quote from the matchplay at Wentworth a few years back. Els was on the last tee and as he was setting up, a car appeared on the road that crosses the fairway (only a little track around the posh houses hiding in the trees around the course). The car pops out, stutters, then decides to go and steams off. Els step back and starts again. Dave Marr goes, "He must be late for a cricket match. There are only two days left."
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Post by Richie3Jack on Aug 12, 2010 7:28:02 GMT -5
Baseball has a very unique dynamic of being a team oriented sport that is also very individualistic. American football on the other hands is ultimate team sport. If one player screws up in American football, that can very likely screw up the entire play for the team and that could be the difference between winning and losing. In fact, most football coaches will say that '80% of the games are lost', meaning that it's a game of minimizing mistakes. In baseball, if one player screws up or sucks, it's a factor, but certainly a team can get around it if they have other good players.
Baseball is also very reliant on statistics, like which player hits a certain pitcher well and doesn't hit other pitchers well. Other stats are a bit more advanced like OPS+. In fact, it was baseball and its fans that started the entire fantasy sports deal because baseball is so statistically driven.
American Football is just getting into a revolution of statistics. So many of the old, standard football statistics were vague and didn't really represent a player's ability well. Now with places like FootballOutsiders.com and KC Joyner, they have people actually watching every play slowly and charting what happened on the play and assigning statistics to players of that play.
I grew up on baseball in particular, but now I watch it about once every other week. The big issue to me is the length of today's games. Back when I was growing up, games used to take about 2 hours and 10 minutes. Now they take about 3 hours. And the postseason games take 4-5 hours. They also made the game more based around the offense and the home run, with shorter ballparks, less elevated pitching mounds, etc. Of course, they'll say 'that's what the fans want, offense and home runs', but the game is nowhere near as popular as it was in the 80's and earlier. Not even close.
3JACK
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Post by jonnygrouville on Aug 12, 2010 9:17:30 GMT -5
The statistics and numbers do appeal to me!
Cricket has been through a similar process. The world cup is one-day matches, not test matches that can be five days. There is now also twenty-twenty which is only 120 balls per innings and they bring in the boundaries. Exciting as there are a lot of boundaries being hit and the ball changing isn't as big a deal. Is nice to have different formats of the same game as long as they still keep playing test matches for the die-hard fans.
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Post by Richie3Jack on Aug 12, 2010 11:31:15 GMT -5
A little tutorial on the game of baseball for you.
Batting Average = the percentage of hits a batter gets per times at bat. If the batter gets a walk, that doesn’t count as anything in the batting average….meaning it doesn’t count as a hit or as an at bat. So let’s say a batter gets to the plate 10 times and out of those appearances at the plate he has 3 hits, 2 walks and 5 outs…his batting average would be 3 for 8 (10 plate appearance – 2 walks is 8 at bats) and his batting average would be .375
There’s more advance statistics in baseball these days that can show a better idea of the batter’s skill, but the general public goes on batting average. Typically a .300 batting average is considered very good. Ted Williams, considered by many the greatest pure hitter of all time, hit .406 one year back in the 50’s and it hasn’t been beaten since. Anything below .260 is pretty poor. Some good players are below that, but they hit for a lot of power, so teams view it as a trade off.
On Base Percentage is the percentage of times the batter gets on base. Whereas batting average only accounts for *hits*, batting average accounts for hits AND walks (and errors). On base percentage cannot mathematically be lower than batting average.
So what happens is that sometimes you get a player X who hits well at .320 and another player Y that hits at .280. But player X has a .340 On Base Percentage while Player Y has a .380 On Base Percentage. If both players are hitting for equal power (which can also be measured by Slugging Percentage), then you would take Player Y because he gets on base more which means he puts the team in a better position to score more runs.
The lineups have 9 players. You want you best hitters towards the top of the lineup because they will get more times at the plate in the end and thus gives the team a better chance to score. Here’s a very basic way of looking at a lineup.
#1 batter – Usually the fastest guy on the club with a pretty good on base percentage. They usually don’t hit for a lot of power, but draw a lot of walks and singles. His job is to get on base and then steal a base if he can and disrupt the pitcher. Ricky Henderson should go down as the greatest ‘lead off’ hitter of all time. He has the record for most stolen bases in a season, he had a great OBP (on base percentage), he drove pitchers nuts when he was on the base paths and had really good power so if a pitcher made a mistake, he could make them pay.
#2 Batter – Very much like the #1 batter with a good on base percentage. It’s good to have this hitter to not strike out very often because he’ll be asked to be the batter when they do a ‘hit and run’ which is when the baserunner takes off as fast as they can when the pitch is thrown. The ‘hit and run’ works well when the runner is on first base because if the batter hits a single, the runner can score if the hit and run is in play. If there was no hit and run, a single will probably just move the runner to 3rd base. However, if the hit and run is in play and the batter whiffs or strikes out, there’s a good chance the runner will get thrown out going to whatever base he’s going to (usually 2nd base). So you need a guy that doesn’t swing and whiff very often.
#3- Typically your best hitter. He hits for a high average and for high power.
#4 – Can be your best hitter, but usually the guy who hits the most home runs. The line of thinking is your #1, 2 and 3 hitters should get on base and then your #4 hitter should ‘clean up’ the bases by hitting a home run and driving everybody in to score. The #4 hitter is often referred to as your ‘cleanup hitter.’
#5 – Typically your 2nd best home run hitter on the team
#6 - #9 – These are typically your weaker hitters on the team. A lot of this is dependent upon where these guys just happen to hit best in the lineup. Sometimes it’s pure luck, a guy for whatever reason hits best as the 7th guy in the lineup. The #9 hitter is either the pitcher (if they are playing in the National League because the NL requires the pitcher to hit) or they are the 2nd best ‘leadoff hitter’ (#1 hitter). Sometimes the thought is that if you have a good #9 hitter, that will get a guy on base for the #3 hitter (your best overall hitter) to drive in a run. And sometimes the #9 hitter is just the worst hitter in the lineup. Traditionally it’s that way, but the philosophy of the game has changed a bit over the years.
3JACK
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Post by jonnygrouville on Aug 14, 2010 22:55:30 GMT -5
Like it! I had definitely worked out the gist, but it is like working in a bank; lots of TLAs (Three Letter Abbreviations - the irony!).
I had wondered about the pitcher hitting or not. I like it. Some of the most exciting moments in cricket are when you end up with a couple of bowlers batting at the bottom of the order needing the last few runs with an old ball against the speediest guys on the other team after four days of bowling pace. Great stuff.
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Post by Richie3Jack on Aug 15, 2010 8:39:32 GMT -5
The National League makes the pitcher hit. The American League has the 'Designated Hitter' who takes a spot in the lineup and the pitcher doesn't hit. The 'DH' is a guy that only hits the entire game. Some guys, like Harold Baines, where DH their entire career. They NEVER took the field. All they did was hit. Pretty smooth job if you ask me The fans of the NL like the NL because with the pitcher hitting there's more strategy. If a team needs a run and there is a guy on 2nd base and the pitcher is up to hit, they'll have to decide if they want to have a 'pinch hitter.' A pinch hitter is basically a substitution. Let's say you have a weak hitting shortstop up at the plate and you want to get a run. You can take a guy who has been on the bench and make him the 'pinch hitter.' But once that happens, the shortstop has to be removed from the game and either the pinch hitter or somebody else has to take the shortstop's position for the rest of the game. So, if the pitcher is up to hit and the team calls for a pinch hitter, the pitcher can no longer pitch in the game. So either the pinch hitter has to pitch after their at bat is up (which almost never happens because the pinch hitter is a player on the field, not a pitcher) or they'll have the pinch hitter get his at bat and then they'll bring in a relief pitcher to hit. But of course, the relief pitcher becomes that batter at the spot where the first pitcher and pinch hitter were at. So let's say you have Tom at the starting pitcher. He's up in the lineup and you don't want him hitting, so you have Steve pinch hit for him. Steve gets a hit. The inning is over and Tom is done for the night. You *can* have Steve pitch, but he usually plays centerfield and has never pitched before. So instead, you have the relief pitcher Ray pitch. Because Ray is pitching, now Steve the centerfielder and Tom the starting pitcher are done for the night. And now Ray, the relief pitcher is the 9th hitter in the batting lineup. Where it gets tricky is in high school or Little League baseball where players are not nearly as specialized in their position. You'll get kids that can play 4 different positions. Like your starting Centerfielder can also be your 2nd best pitcher on the team. The main thing to keep in mind with baseball is that once a player is taken out of the game, they can no longer get back into the game. It's not like other sports where players sub in and out the entire time. Years ago NY Mets manager Davey Johnson did something that was pretty brilliant IMO and actually worked. He had a right handed throwing relief pitcher in Roger McDowell who was really good at getting right handed batters out. He also had a left handed throwing pitcher named Jesse Orosco who was really good at getting left handed batters out. The lineup they were facing late in the game had some really good LH and RH batters. But he knew that the RH batters couldn't hit McDowell and te LH batters couldn't hit Orosco. The problem was you can't sub players in and out. Typically managers would have McDowell throw to a RH batter and then when that was over, take McDowell out of the game and put Orosco in to face the LH batters (and McDowell would be done for the night). So what Davey Johnson did is that he started off putting Orosco in right field. McDowell would pitch to his batters and then he would move to right field and Orosco would pitch. Then Orosco would be done facing his batters and go back to right field. The opposing manager threw a shit fit over it, but it was well within the rules. My dad coached baseball for us and used to watch me also play basketball. Our basketball coach sucked and he would basically never sub players in and out, we would get tired and lose in the end. My dad's biggest rant was that one of the big advantages you have in basketball is you can sub players in and out and you can't do that in baseball...so make full use of it. I completely agree. 3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Aug 20, 2010 8:36:16 GMT -5
Here I’ll discuss some aspects of pitching.
Generally a major league baseball team will have 5 starting pitchers, a few ‘set up men’ and a ‘closer.’ Obviously, they’ll have an ‘ace pitcher’, who is their best pitcher and the #2 pitcher is the 2nd best and so on and so forth.
The ‘set up men’ are guys who will pitch between the starter and the closer. The set up men are considered ‘relievers.’ The starting pitcher may pitch 6 or 7 innings. The setup men will pitch 1 or 2 innings. And usually the closer will pitch the last inning (or the rest of the game).
Setup men are often there for when the starter get tired and they don’t want the closer to pitch too much. Usually the closer is no more than 1 inning. Typically the ‘pitch count’ for starters is 100 pitches. Meaning that once the starter throws 100 pitches, even if he’s pitching extremely well, the manager is starting to think about pulling the starter because he doesn’t want to hurt their arm.
Back in the 1980’s and before, ‘setup men’ really didn’t exist. So if you ever look at stats of the players of the past (www.baseball-reference.com), you’ll see that old time pitchers threw a ton more innings than today’s pitchers. It wasn’t uncommon to see pitchers back then throw for 300 innings. Now, you are lucky to get 200 innings out of a pitcher. Teams are much more protective of pitcher’s arms these days and I think today’s pitchers have resorted to nastier looking pitches along with the pitching mounds being smaller (the higher the pitching mound, the easier it is to pitch) have hurt more arms these days. I also think that too many pitchers favor breaking balls (which I will get to later) over the fastball and are probably too coddled. The Texas Rangers are being ran by Nolan Ryan, one of the greatest pitchers of all time who threw the ball at 100+ mph and logged in a lot of innings when he pitched. He’s forcing his pitchers to be able to throw more innings and it’s worked so far.
Anyway, sometimes the setup men are just a pretty good pitcher who can give the team a few innings. But many times they are a pitcher who has a very sidearm or underhand throwing motion. Why? Because stats show that left handed batters do not hit left handed pitchers very well compared to how well they hit right handed pitchers. And vice versa.
So let’s say it’s the 7th inning and big hitter David Ortiz (left handed batter) is up and it’s a close game and your starter is getting tired. The manager will likely try to use a left handed pitcher that throws sidearm well, if he has one. These guys are great at getting left handed batters out. They often will pitch to ONE left handed batter, get the guy out, and then they are done for the night. This is particularly a job for left handed pitchers because there are not a lot of left handed pitchers in the world that can pitch decent enough to make the Major Leagues.
In fact, it’s often joked about that if you want a child of yours to play in professional sports, just get him to throw 90 mph, left handed. Even if they are not that good and can’t do anything but throw it 90 mph left handed, usually the Major Leagues will take a look at him and he could find his way on a team.
The closer is also considered a reliever. Like the starter, ‘back in the day’ closers logged a lot more innings because ‘setup men’ were practically non-existent. Back then it wasn’t uncommon to see a closer throw 2 or 3 innings in relief. These days it’s rare to see a closer throw more than 1 inning in relief. Mariano Rivera will go down as the greatest closer ever and he can throw more than 1 inning and usually does in the big games. He can do it because he essentially throws 1 pitch, a fastball, and that doesn’t put as much wear and tear on the arms. Most closers are the team’s hardest throwing pitcher and usually just throw fastballs. They keep them for 1 inning because while they won’t hurt their arm as much, after 1 inning of throwing pitches, they usually lose some zip on their fastball and are not nearly as effective.
Statistically, pitchers are usually judged by ERA and WHIP. ERA stands for ‘Earned Runs Average.’ This is based on 9 innings. Let’s say a pitcher throws 3 innings and gives up 1 earned run. That pitcher would have a 3.00 ERA (9 innings / 3 = 3. 3 * 1 Earned Run = 3.00 ERA). If the pitcher gave up 1 earned run in 1 inning pitched, that would be a 9.00 ERA.
WHIP stands for Walks & Hits per Inning Pitched. This is particularly helpful because it accounts for the ballpark the pitcher played in. For instance, Pitcher A may have a ERA of 3.00. Pitcher B may have a ERA of 3.50. But if you look at the WHIP, you may see that Pitcher A has a WHIP of 1.6 (on average, he gives up 1.6 hits or walks per inning pitched). Pitcher B may have a WHIP of 1.2. Typically teams would value Pitcher B as the better pitcher than Pitcher A because his WHIP is lower. He may have an ERA higher because he pitches in a ‘hitters ballpark.’ He also may just not give up a lot of hits or walks, but when he does it’s a homerun. Former pitcher Bert Blyleven was like that. He didn’t give up a lot of stuff, but when he did it often wound up being a home run.
Typically pitchers have 2 pitches. Fastball is always 1 of the pitches. The others can be slider, curveball, changeup, screwball, splitter, knuckleball. There’s probably some more, but I can’t think of them off the top of my head.
Most major league pitchers have a fastball of 90+ mph. Usually the ones that don’t are either left handed (like I mentioned before) or they throw another amazing pitch. But these guys are few and far between.
The slider and curveball are ‘breaking pitches’ in that they curve away from where the pitcher’s throwing arm. As a right handed pitcher, it would have a ‘right to left break.’ The curveball usually goes about 70-80 mph in the majors and curves quite a bit. It can also drop. If a right handed pitcher is throwing a curveball to a right handed batter, it will look like it’s coming right at the batter’s head, then it curves down into the strike zone.
I remember when I was 16 I was a very accomplished baseball pitcher. I knew I had a very good curveball, but nobody else in our league threw that great of a curveball. One game I finally got to hit against a pitcher who threw a good curveball and it came right at my head and at the last second it dived into the strike zone. I ducked and fell to the ground and remarked at how good the curveball was and how it really fooled me. The catcher told me that my curveball was even better. One of the things you find with good baseball prospects that never make it in the Majors is that they were great hitting fastballs, but in the majors the breaking stuff is just too brutal for them and then pitchers will just throw breaking stuff at them all day.
The slider is just a faster curve. The curve tends to drop, the slider will just curve, but may go 80-85 mph. The screwball actually curves the opposite direction of the curveball. The screwball is almost never used anymore because it usually ruins pitcher’s arms. But, if one can throw a good curveball and a good screwball, they’ll be an awesome pitcher since you won’t be able to decipher how the ball is going to break. Fernando Valenzuela was unbelievable when he first came to the majors because he had a pretty decent fastball and then a decent curve, but an excellent screwball. He then hurt his arm and couldn’t throw it very well anymore. But when he was healthy, he was about as good as it got.
The changeup and the splitter are often called ‘off speed stuff.’ With the curveball, slider and screwball, the pitcher’s throwing motion is different and that can tip batters off as to what is coming. But with the changeup and the splitter, it’s the same throwing motion as a fastball, but the ball isn’t thrown as fast.
Roger Clemens is a great example. He would throw his fastball at 95 mph which was hard for batters to catch up to. Once the batter started to catch up to his fastball, he’d throw a splitter and it would come out at 86 mph. The batter wouldn’t know that it was coming and they would swing well before the ball reaches home plate. That 9 mph difference between his fastball and splitter made it almost *impossible* for batters to hit. A 5 mph difference can throw off batters quite a bit.
The knuckleball is a ‘speciality’ pitch. This is usually thrown by pitchers who came into the majors playing a different position or they were ‘fireballers’ who hurt their arm and decided to take the knuckleball on.
The knuckleball goes about 50 – 70 mph. The batters will know it’s coming. The ball is thrown without any spin and that causes the ball to dip and curve all over the place and at the last second. The problem with the knuckleball is it’s hard to control and if you get some spin on it and it doesn’t curve a major league hitter will have a 60 mph pitch to hit. Lastly, it’s very hard for catchers to handle since it curves so much and isn’t easy to control. However, I think the positives outweigh the negatives because knuckleballers can log a ton of innings (which keeps the rest of the pitching staff’s arms rested) and opposing teams can go into hitting slumps because the knuckleball is do weird to hit and then the next few games when they face a ‘normal’ pitcher who throws fastballs and curves, that will be the exact opposite of what they were hitting against the knuckleballer.
As far as arm health, the knuckleball is probably the safest pitch for a pitcher to throw. Then a fastball. Then the changeup and splitter, then the slider and curve.
Most pitchers usually have a slider or a curve though. These pitches really torque the arm and that’s why pitchers get injured. However, they are usually easier for pitchers to throw than to perfect a changeup or a splitter. Plus, if you can throw a great slider, you’ll likely be a Hall of Famer. Steve Carlton was a left handed pitcher with a decent fastball. That’s enough to make one a Major League pitcher. But he also had arguably the greatest slider ever and will go down as one of the all time greats. The pitchers that usually throw an effective curveball are usually guys who have a great fastball. Nolan Ryan had an awesome curveball. Combine that with his 100 mph fastball, it’s no wonder why he had 7 no-hitters (the most ever, by far). Sandy Koufax also had a big time fastball and curveball and that’s why he’s considered the greatest left handed pitcher ever.
3JACK
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Post by secondary on Aug 20, 2010 22:59:58 GMT -5
I have watched the White Sox my whole life and they have kept Charlie Hough (sp?) on as a pitching consultant for several years just so he could try and develop some minor leauge guys to be knuckleballers. Only two have made it up to the show in the last decade that I can think of, but neither really stuck around too long. Why do you think Richie (or anyone) that more Tommy Johns victims and ex screwballers don't go that route? Even though big leaugers usually figure them out pretty quickly it still seems like a good investment for a major leauge club. They eat innings and rarley get hurt. Wouldn't have to pay them like a left handed prospect either.
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Post by Richie3Jack on Aug 21, 2010 10:23:24 GMT -5
That's a good question. The knuckleball is tough to master. I had a friend of mine who I grew up playing ball with and eventually he played some minor league ball for the Padres and Expos (now Nationals) minor league farm system. He was amazing because he could throw just about any pitch you wanted almost perfectly. The only reason why he never made it higher than AA ball is his fastball topped out at 85 mph and he was right handed. Anyway, he threw me a knuckleball from 2nd base to home plate a few times, which was incredible and the thing had zero rotation to it. But, it didn't hop around either. The thing with Tommy John surgery is now these guys are coming back stronger from the surgery in about 1 year. I agree that the knuckleballers are great. I particularly like the fact that they can throw an opposing team's batters off for a few days because they can't figure out how to hit the knuckleball and then struggle when a normal pitcher comes in. I do think that if I was a manager I would probably favor more speedy, slap hitters against a knuckleballer and instruct them to work the count and try to get walks. Then I would be aggressive on the bases and force the knuckler to throw more fastballs. I spent many of hours yelling at my Yankees to do that against Wakefield 3JACK
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Post by Richie3Jack on Aug 22, 2010 11:22:20 GMT -5
The fielders in baseball do have a typical 'profile' that they fit, but with today's game the emphasis is more on being able to have a great hitting lineup much more than having a good defense. In the past, if a manager had to choose between Player A (great hitter and poor fielder) and Player B (poor hitter, great fielder) he would probably try to move Player A around to somewhere that their poor fielding wouldn't be noticed. These days managers are more likely to move Player B out of the lineup and are not afraid to have a very poor defensive team that hits the ball great.
Typically, your best hitters are your first baseman, left fielder and right fielder. That's because those positions usually don't see a team's performance improve regardless of the defensive skill of the player. Meaning, you're not likely to win more games because your left fielder is great defensively vs. having a poor defensive left fielder. So you want to focus on having a good hitter at those positions.
However, if your team is pretty loaded offensively and say you have good hitting 1st baseman, right fielder, 3rd baseman and catcher, you may just keep an adequate hitting but good fielding left fielder because you're getting good hitting from other positions.
The position that is usually the worst hitting is the catcher. Simply because a good fielding catcher is a major asset to have. Plus, the catcher usually calls the pitches (gives a hand signal telling the pitcher what pitch to throw). Sometimes the managers will signal to the catcher what pitch to throw and then the catcher will signal to the batter. Lastly, being a baseball catcher is a brutal position on the knees and such so you're just not very likely to see a great hitting catcher that often.
Mike Piazza will go down as the greatest hitting catcher ever, but he was also about as bad as it gets at defense. Personally, I thought it was a huge mistake having him at catcher because baserunners could steal bases against him with ease. That's makes the pitcher's job more difficult. Plus scouting reports were that he 'called a poor game', meaning that the pitches he told the pitcher to throw were not very smart. Of course, the pitcher can call off the signal, but catchers don't like that and the manager typically sides with the catcher on what pitch is called.
The catcher can also help make 'balls' look like strikes by pulling the pitch back into the strike zone. Bob Boone and Jim Sundberg were great at this and helped out their pitchers a ton.
As far as throwing baserunners out, these days the Majors don't steal nearly as many bases as they used to. Back in the 80's and earlier it was quite common to see a lot of stolen bases. In fact, Rickey Henderson has the all-time single season mark in stolen bases with 130. Now you might see the leader get 60 stolen bases that season. The thought is that the stats say play a power game and have runs driven in instead of chancing a guy getting thrown out. But I say that great stolen base players reek havoc on the pitcher because nobody wants a guy to get on second base. Why? Because a simple single will likely score the runner from 2nd base. If they are on 1st base, then we'll likely need a double or better or well execute hit-n-run (which I'm not a fan of because it's hard to do).
Anyway, throwing base runners out effectively usually requires either a super strong arm or cat-like reflexes to get out of the crouch and into throwing position. Johnny Bench had a super strong arm and could throw runners out with ease. Benito Santiago did as well and could throw guys out while still into his crouch. Ivan Rodriquez was one of the best....he had a good arm, but his ability to go from the crouch to the throwing position in a split second was incredible.
The first baseman usually will be tall so they can stretch out further to get close plays better. They also usually have a weak arm because they rarely throw that much. Back in the day most 1st basemen were left handed. That was because it was easier for them to turn a double play if the ball was hit to them. Also, it was a little easier for them to tag a runner on a pick off move (when the pitcher throws the ball to first base when a runner is on first) because their glove hand was closer to the runner. But those things rarely happen so the thought today is that if you have a good fit at 1st base and the player is right handed, put him at 1st and don't worry about it. I think the thing I'd want from a 1st baseman is a guy that is really good at scooping up bad throws.
The 2nd baseman is usually a bit on the smaller side. They often will lead off in the batting order, have good speed, etc. Since they have a lot of ground to cover defensively and have to make double plays, quickness is usually needed. Bill Mazeroski was by far, the all-time leader in double plays made and just had a knack for doing it. Despite being a very average to mediocre hitter, he made the Hall of Fame because his defense was so superior.
Shortstops used to have a similar profile as 2nd basemen as they used to all be short and cover a ton of ground. These days shortstops are usually the best athletes on the field and are usually pretty big as well and often hit the ball well. The shortstops also have a ton of ground to cover. A big reason why they are bigger than 2nd baseman is that they need a better arm because they have a longer throw. Ozzie Smith will go down as the best fielding SS of all time and the guy was incredible at that. Tony Fernandez probably covered more ground in his prime than any SS I've ever seen. Omar Vizquel and Rey Ordonez were masterful defensive SS as well.
3rd basemen used to be completely a defensive position. Mainly because most balls hit to them are hit the hardest, it is a long throw to first, they need to cover bunts which is not easy and they have to be quick enough to not all hits past them because that can turn into a double easily. There's less emphasis on defense now and if you can get a guy that can make accurate throws and hits really well, that's usually good enough. The big reason why Alex Rodriguez is so coveted is that he was a great defensive shortstop AND 3rd baseman. Plus, he was a great hitter as well. His critics can say what they want, but he is about the rarest baseball player ever to do that. Brooks Robinson will go down as the greatest fielding 3rd basemen though.
Right Fielder usually has the strongest arm on the team (besides pitchers). This is because if there is a runner at 2nd base a batter will try to hit the ball towards the right fielder's side in order to get the runner to 3rd. So if there's a fly ball to RF and the runner at 2nd tries to tag and advance to 3rd, it's a long throw and that's why you need a strong arm at RF. Dave Winfield was one of the best fielding RF's ever.
Centerfield is usually a guy that also can lead off. They tend to be the fastest player on the team because they have so much room to cover. What made Willie Mays so great, besides being an awesome hitter, is that he would 'play shallow' at centerfield (meaning that he would play up towards 2nd base). He did this because if a ball was hit short of him he could get it quickly and if there was a runner heading for home, it would be a short throw to home and he could easily get the runner out. However, if the ball was hit over his head, he was so fast that he could just run and still catch the ball.
Left fielder usually doesn't have much of an arm and is usually your worst fielding player on the team. Reason being is that no runner will be crazy enough to run from 2nd to 3rd on a ball hit at the left fielder and the throw from LF to home plate isn't very long either.
Typically a good defensive left field will be very smart and have an accurate arm. Barry Bonds was like that before the roids took over. Hideki Matsui was like that as well before he got too old. Rickey Henderson was smart and had a ton of range, but not much of an arm.
3JACK'S ALL-DEFENSIVE PLAYER ROSTER
Catcher - Johnny Bench 1st Base - Keith Hernandez 2nd Base - Bill Mazeroski Short Stop - Ozzie Smith 3rd Base - Brooks Robinson Right Fielder - Roberto Clemente Center Fielder - Willie Mays Left Fielder - Shoeless Joe Jackson Pitcher - Greg Maddux (Atlanta, Chicago, San Diego Maddux)
3JACK
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Post by jonnygrouville on Aug 22, 2010 21:59:58 GMT -5
Wow. Seriously. That is going to take me a while to get through. Thanks!
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Post by Richie3Jack on Aug 23, 2010 7:12:59 GMT -5
Baseball is a bit of a complicated game. I've got something fun planned for this folder though in regards to baseball. Hopefully it works out as well as I think it will.
3JACK
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