Running 2011 Baseball Thread, Vol. I: Dedicated to spnited

Does it show that, though? If Cruz was positioned right, why is it still a tough play? The number shows that the ball is rarely caught. I need to know how often it is caught when a player is positioned like Cruz was, just for starters.

I'm open to the argument that the catch was tougher for Cruz than it looked. I just think that the numbers you presented - while interesting and, again, a data point - aren't as illuminating as watching the play itself in this case (which you already know, as well). And I'm a proponent of that kind of objective analysis, for the record.

(For the record, this is a good-sports-discussion-in-a-bar tone by me, not a hostile one at all.)

 

That exact play -- weather conditions, players involved, situation, ballpark, tendencies, etc. -- had never happened before. On that point, put me in the Leonard Koppett camp.

 

I knew a kid who went to Leonard Koppett Camp. He still has his shirt pocket protector.

 

I have mine!

 

Whispers out of St. Louis that La Russchebag is retiring.

 

No doubt to join Emmitt Smith, Randy Johnson and Keith Hernandez as a spokesman for Just For Men.

 

It shows what it shows: 17 balls were hit this year and only three were caught. Those balls — provably, demonstrably — are not caught very often. That's all.

Why is it still a tough play? Two immediate factors come to mind.

1) Speed. Freese's ball was hit hard and stayed in the air for approximately four seconds. That's not much time, even for major league right fielders.

That said, I would guess Cruz was playing deeper than most (all?) right fielders would have been on similar hits. Obviously, the FB numbers don't show positioning. So he did have that extra advantage. But he screwed himself by drifting instead of getting back to the wall faster.

2) Slice. Any ball hit to deep right field off a right-hander's bat is going to be tailing away from the fielder. Other than a low line drive hit right at you, those are the hardest balls to judge. Major league outfielders often make it look easier than it is. That doesn't make it easy.

Cruz took a bad route, then drifted when he should have sprinted, then jumped in the wrong spot when the ball was nowhere near his glove. He played it horribly wrong, in just about every way you can play it.

But saying it was a tough play that most major league right fielders don't make and saying Cruz still probably should have caught that ball are not mutually exclusive.

 

She's obviously a woman of class and distinction.

 

LaRussa is a good place to start. He acts like he invented the game -- particularly all its "unwritten rules." Then he and Carpenter preach about "not showing the other guy up" and then Carpenter yells "You piece of shit!" at Napoli after Napoli flies out with the bases loaded in Game 5. Then you add in Pujols, who thinks any pitch inside to him is the greatest affront in the history of the game and then top it off with the self-named "best fans in the world" -- many of which left early in Game 6. I think you should easily understand the hatred for the Cardinals.

 

There were plenty of national writers and TV guys who spent the day after G6 talking about how stunned they were when they saw the exodus.

 

Name them. I call bullshit.

 

And while you're at it, provide links. Crank it. I'm sure you'll provide some. Plenty? An over exaggeration. How many of those writers were actually sitting in Busch Stadium?

I get it. There are several fanbois on this site. You don't like the St. Louis Cardinals. Sometimes, this place is worse than a newspaper's on-line comments.