The Baseball Desert

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

Night and day

If you're looking for the polar opposite of Coco's great defensive play (see below), then look no further than the Portland Beavers, whose ineptitude in the field was kindly pointed out by Paul at Nice Guys Finish Third:
Speaking of defensive inefficiency and knowing your job, Bucky [Jacobsen]'s got nothing on the Portland Beavers, after last night. Baseball Fundamentals Quiz time, kids: As a defensive unit, how should you handle a routine ground ball? Not, I would posit, like this:

"... Jeremy Reed's soft single up the middle tied it 2-2 with two outs in the third, and that was only the start of the damage. Reed proceeded to embarrass the Beavers infielders, trotting into an unoccupied second base as the ball was lobbed in from center field. And while the crowd was in mid-groan, Reed then took third,
which also was left vacant by Portland infielders. Fortunately for the Beavers, catcher Yamid Haad was standing near home plate.
"