If you’re like me and you’ve been reading everything you can about the Royals and spring training, you might have come across some phrases and thought, “What’s that mean?” Danny Duffy is adding a “toe tap”, Chris Getz is changing his “swing path” and Ned Yost has the team working on “cutting the bases.” What the heck are they talking about? Wonder no longer, because what follows is a Spring Training Glossary.
“Toe tap”: Here’s what Duffy means: When a pitcher picks up his front foot and raises his knee to its highest point in his delivery, that pitcher is in “balancing position.” (Man, now I’ve got to explain that.) OK, balancing position means just that — the pitcher should be balanced. To do that, the toe on his front foot should be pointed down because if the toe is pointed up, he’ll lean back and be out of balance. If a pitcher wanted to stop and hold his position when his knee reached its highest point, he should be able to. If he tries to stop and falls over, he’s not balanced. (And having a pitcher stop in balancing position during a windup is one of the drills used to help a pitcher achieve good mechanics … try it yourself and you’ll see it’s not easy.)
If a pitcher is falling forward toward the plate when he should be balanced, he’s “rushing.” Both Aaron Crow and Mike Montgomery have recently talked about their problems with rushing their pitches, so it’s a fairly common problem. A pitcher that rushes comes out of proper mechanical sequence; it’s like throwing a baseball while falling out of a tree. You might have good mechanics, but it’s difficult. If the front side (Duffy’s right foot) gets headed toward the plate too soon, his back side (Duffy’s left arm) never catches up, the proper release point is missed and the ball stays high in the zone.
So what Duffy’s doing to keep from rushing toward the plate is lifting his front foot, hitting the balancing position, then bringing his foot straight back down, tapping his toe and then starting toward home plate. That toe tap keeps Duffy “over the rubber,” puts everything into proper sequence and allows him to throw a low strike.
“Getting over the front side”: This is related to rushing. As we just talked about, if the front side starts home too soon, the back side never catches up and the pitcher has a hard time following through “over the front side.” Try it yourself: Take a real long stride and try to finish over your front leg. Now take a shorter stride and see what happens. You’re going to find it’s easier to follow through with the shorter stride. The Royals want to make sure Montgomery finishes over his front side (lead leg). This helps create a good “downhill angle” on the pitch and that means the hitter is more likely to hit the top half of the ball and drive it into the ground.
“Team At-Bats”: As I recall (I’ve recently learned to say that when writing from memory) this came out of Johnny Giavotella‘s mouth. Team at-bats are pretty much the same as the “quality at-bats” I’ve written about before; you don’t necessarily have to get a hit to have a team at-bat. Walks, sacrifices, moving a runner over and seeing eight or more pitches also count. It’s a way to encourage players to think about the team instead of themselves.
“Swing path”: The Star’s Bob Dutton recently wrote that Giavotella is the favorite at second base as long as he hits, but that Chris Getz is complicating the decision by showing some new-found power. Getz attributed that power to adjusting his swing path. Here’s what Getz means: he’s starting with his feet closer together and then taking a longer stride. Getz is still ending up in the same position once his front foot hits down, but he’s generating more forward momentum to get there.
There is a danger in this.
It works great in BP, but once games start, pitchers change speeds. If Getz starts forward too soon, he’ll have no weight shift left by the time the ball arrives. Hitters that emphasize this kind of weight shift to generate power have to keep their hand back in order to hit off-speed pitches they weren’t anticipating. Using the hands to flip the ball the other way is an “emergency hack” and should only be used when the hitter’s in a hole. Hitters shouldn’t break out the emergency hack if they’re in a 2-0, 2-1, 3-1 type hitter’s count.
Getz is also changing his bat angle. Say a hitter in his stance holds the bat straight up: once the bat head starts to drop it generates a lot of energy and those hitters can golf the snot out of a low pitch, but might struggle with a pitch up in the zone. That pitch can find a hole in their swing path. (Picture Tiger Woods starting to hit a drive and the tee suddenly lifts the golf ball above the belt.) Contact hitters tend to have flatter bat angles, it helps them cover more of the zone, but that can mean they don’t generate as much pop.
Getz has used a very flat bat angle up until now. He’s now trying to keep his bat at 45 degrees, halfway between flat and straight up. This allows him to “drop the head” on the ball (keep the bat head above the ball until contact) which generates more energy and creates “rising backspin.” Hitting down on the ball results in those beautiful (unless you’re a pitcher) rising line drives.
“Funnel”: This is part of what Giavotella is working on. Infielders need to keep their hands away from their body and “funnel” groundballs back toward their midsections. (Imagine a giant funnel attached to your navel.) This motion softens a fielder’s hands. I’m under the impression that everybody thinks Johnny is eventually going to hit at the major-league level and it sounds like the Royals are going to give him that chance. But poor defenders have to hit better than good defenders, so the question becomes, how much does Gio have to hit to make up for his defense? Of course, if Giavotella improves defensively (and he intends to) that changes the equation.
“Cutting the bases”: I mentioned this in an earlier comment, but it’s worth mentioning again — what Ned Yost means by “cutting the bases” is the angle the runner uses when approaching a base. Watch a hitter come out of the box on a sure hit and you’ll see he doesn’t run directly toward first base. The runner will take a path about 12 feet to the right of first base. This has the runner making his turn before he reaches the bag. The runner tags the inside corner with either foot (some teams insist on the left foot, it sharpens the turn, but the Royals don’t want anyone shuffle stepping to get on the correct foot). By making the turn before he hits the bag, the runner is taking a much more direct path to the next base.
Here’s the advantage: When you make a decision to continue to the next base, would you like to have the turn out of the way first or decide to go to second and then make a giant turn that carries you toward the outfield? Cutting the bases correctly shortens the distance the runner has to cover and puts everybody in a better position to make a decision.
“Getting behind a throw”: Picture a fly ball headed toward the outfield. Now picture an imaginary “X” on the ground at the point where the ball will land. If an outfielder is standing on that “X” when the ball comes down, he’ll have no momentum toward the infield when he makes his throw. That’s fine if no base runner is attempting to advance. But let’s say there is a runner — if the outfielder gets behind that “X” and makes the catch while moving forward he’ll make a better throw. (He should also make the catch over his throwing side shoulder; it puts him in a better throwing position.)
As a fan, you should get upset when an outfielder “drifts” to the ball (jogs back and arrives at the “X” moving away from the infield) with runners on. Better effort might have allowed that outfielder to play “behind the ball.”
OK, I could keep going, but I’m running out of room. From now on if you hear a term and wonder what it means, post a comment. If I don’t know what it means, I’ll find out and bring that information back to the site (as long as it’s clean — some terms my editors wouldn’t want explained). As I’ve said before, the fact that the Royals are working on these details of the game should be encouraging to fans.
It’s what winning teams do.
P.S. If you want insight into how precise this stuff gets, check out the video below of Doug Sisson explaining how to take a lead at first. It’s mind-boggling. Doug has graciously agreed to make some videos for us showing the drills their doing in Surprise and what those drills accomplish. We’ll post them when they’re ready. While you’re at it, see the other videos on our Lee TV page.
Darrell Pierce
1 year, 3 months agoNice little review. Can’t wait for the games to start.
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoDarrell: Thanks, I hope it was helpful. Finding out what these guys are working on makes the games more interesting. You can look for their adjustment and see how it plays out.
They’ve already started intrasquad games and apparently Giavotella had a problem: sounds like he laid back on a Lorenzo Cain groundball, Cain beat it out and that led to a five-run inning.
It’s only one play and I assume Johnny learned a lesson. Veteran infielders pay attention to who’s at the plate, their speed and adjust their approach to the ball accordingly.
Fast guy=charge the ball.
Moments like that are part of what makes these early games worth watching. You can now watch to see if Gio makes an adjustment in future games…and I’d be very surprised if he doesn’t.
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoThis comment is a test. (Hey, we’ve got issues, what can I say?)
Jim Fetterolf
1 year, 3 months ago“he’s starting with his feet closer together and then taking a longer stride.”
This ties in with what Russ Mormon told you about the Twinkies’ approach to Bruce Chen in the last game last season, the wider stance enabling a better chance at contacting off-speed and breaking stuff, but sacrificing pop.
Also reminds me that I was watching some footage of Christian Colon over at PTP and noticed that he was using a wide stance, virtually no stride into the ball.
Chris Getz is bigger than Mickey Mantle was, so should be able to put a little charge into the ball, but something else might be sacrificed. Adjustment and counter-adjustment.
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoJim: I think this ying-yang stuff is fascinating: the stuff that helps a pitcher slow down a base runner hurts the quality of what he delivers to the plate, the stuff a hitter does to increase his power hurts his ability to make contact.
Finding the right balance is a struggle.
Jim Fetterolf
1 year, 3 months agoBest for Chris, since he probably won’t be in the top seven on the team in homers and ribbies, might be if he can dial up either approach depending on the situation. If a “team at bat” is needed, he’s got that down pat, if the situation calls for the deep fly, he has that possibility on the menu. Probably not as easy as it sounds, muscle memory being a funny thing, but the ability to sometimes drive a ball forces the outfield to play him more honestly and allows some more of the dying quail to settle to earth.
Devan Shopinski
1 year, 3 months agoLee
Welcome back. I’m glad you’re doing this again this year. I learn something everytime I come here.
Devan
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoJim: Interesting point and I’ll ask Getz when I get to Surprise: can he use either approach?
I would think yes, because when we talked about this I asked about his two-strike approach and we agreed that a lot of guys spread their feet out and just use their hand with two strikes.
The ability to drive the ball deep on occasion might result in the outfield playing deeper, but if they see him spread out his feet, they might move in.
It’s details like this that can make any at-bat entertaining.
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoDevan: Thank you very much. I’m in the same boat: every time I talk with a player or coach I hear something I’ve never heard before.
That’s part of why I keep doing this. That and the incredibly lousy pay.
Lenyn Escobar Pirela
1 year, 3 months agoque dios bendiga a mi primo alcides escobar, que todo le salga como el espera, y que tenga la mejor temporada
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoLenyn: Que? No hable espanol. I got “Alcides Escobar” and that’s about it. If we have any bilingual readers that can provide a translation, be my guest.
John Wilson
1 year, 3 months agoLee, I cheated and used Google Translate (http://translate.google.com) and got this for what Lenyn said…
“god bless my cousin Alcides Escobar, that everything comes out as expected, and having the best season”
Now how accurate that is I have no clue LOL I am only as bilingual as the translation pages let me be.
Steve Yeakel
1 year, 3 months agoLee- thanks so much for this. Please explain the term “he swung through the pitch” when used for a swinging strike. Last I knew, the bat is made of wood, and the ball from rawhide and whatever else, so that if you swing through it you make contact, instead of not making contact. Keep up the great work!
Larry Tindle
1 year, 3 months agoAlways learning something on this site. Never knew about google translate.
Ted Funk
1 year, 3 months agoLast years pitching coach Bob McClure, hammered the pitchers day and night with landing on there toe instead of heel. Frank White mentioned this numerous times on the broadcast. Hope the new guy is as insightful as Mr. White.
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoJohn: Thanks very much for acting as interpreter. I’m with Larry Tindle, I didn’t know google could also translate. Clearly, they’re taking over the world.
Also nice that Alcides’ cousin paid a visit to the site.
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoSteve: “Swinging through the pitch” is one of those phrases that’s counterintuitive (also known as screwed up). It just means swinging and missing. In my experience it’s most oftened used when someone swings and misses a pitch they think they should’ve hammered. As in; “It was right there and I swung through it.” Like the ball temporarily evaporated.
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoLarry: We’re in the same boat; I’m always learning something new on this site as well. Now if Google could make their translation function use voice recognition, that would be awesome.
If I had it do over again I’d have taken a lot of Spanish and actually paid attention in class. The language barrier is a real issue on teams and many coaches and managers feel like they need to speak at least some Spanish to communicate with their players.
Even if it’s minimal, as Clint Hurdle once told me, “The players appreciate the effort.”
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoTed: I hadn’t heard about landing on the toe vs. the heel, thanks for the insight. Hitting mechanics are complicated and pitching mechanics are even more complicated.
When I was running around in the minors, a pitcher in the Mets system, Mike Birkbeck, told me he hated the way I threw a baseball, so I invited him to fix it.
One of the many things Mike had me do was point the little toe on my front foot at the intended target. That helped me land slightly closed on the front side and gave my back side resistance to throw against.
Al Jackson, former Mets pitcher, showed me how to use my “power finger” (index finger on the throwing hand). If I increased the pressure on the ball with that finger when throwing, my hand would stay behind the ball and not rotate off to the side. The “power finger” tip immediately added distance and velocity to my throws.
I think I was getting all the way up to 65 MPH.
Anyway, those are just two of the hundreds of things I’ve heard about pitching. Now practice it until it’s all second-nature, throw in a hitter, baserunners, umpires and a crowd. This stuff is complicated, but the more we understand, the more we can appreciate it.
Jim Fetterolf
1 year, 3 months agoThis might be informative for some of our readers on width of stance, a video of both Lorenzo Cain and Billy Butler facing, I think, Luke Hochevar:
http://www.pinetarpress.com/video-lorenzo-cain-billy-butler-randy-meinholdt/
What I see from Cain is a stance that is a little too wide, looks like he’s trying to increase contact and cut down on his problematic strike-outs.
Billy shows why he’s such a good hitter. Count the pitches he faces and notice he makes a slight adjustment with stride when he gets two strikes and starts flicking pitches foul the opposite way. On one quick viewing he faced at least ten pitches and finished with a single.
One thing I noticed relative to last night’s discussion on Chris Getz’ footwork is that Billy starts with a fairly wide stance, then slides his lead foot back as a loading technique. That also suggests that Chris can start an at-bat with a wide, contact stance, then if the OF moves in, slide the foot back, crouch and load as the pitcher winds up. Something else for pitchers and defenders to have to think about.
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoJim: As you point out, once you get into hitting mechanics, you realize there’s more than one way to skin a cat.
You can start back and go forward, start even, go back and then forward, start even and stay even, the list goes on.
Seitzer teaches starting even, then loading and then getting back to even. But I dont think he’s adamant about everyone doing it his way. If a guy finds something that works for him, most hitting instructors will let it play out.
For some guys, changing their approach during an at-bat is hard. Tony Gwynn took every at-bat from the same place in the box his entire career. (He said he tried moving once and it messed up his timing). Other guys move around all the time.
Next time you see an at-bat check the catcher: he’ll look down at the hitter’s feet to make sure they’re in the same place. If not, they’ll change things up.
Which reminds me: I’ve been thinking about writing a piece about batting stances and how pitchers will attack each stance. It’s never 100 %, but there are generally accepted ways to go after hitters who hold the bat straight up or flat, etc..
I realize it’s not nearly as much fun as arguing about sabermetrics,but it’s pretty cool to sit in the stands, analyze the batter’s set up and then see how the pitcher attacks him.
Jim Fetterolf
1 year, 3 months ago“Which reminds me: I’ve been thinking about writing a piece about batting stances and how pitchers will attack each stance.”
That should be good. We can assume that hitters would also have adjustments to pitchers, like the Twinkies with Master Chen. Many games within a game.
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoJim: Absolutely. Everybody’s making adjustments.
Scott Boden
1 year, 3 months agoDoesn’t Billy have to tap his front toe at a particular point to get his bat through the zone properly? Thought I read something about that. Batting and Pitching mechanics are very interesting. I think of it like my terrible golf mechanics. I know what I need to do but I need to play a certain amount to actually get my body to do it. It is hard to repeat over and over correctly.
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoScott: You’re right. Billy picks his front foot up, brings it back, taps it, then goes forward again. (Although he’s not always consistent about getting the tap down…probably depends on the pitch and how much time he has.)
Bringing that foot back pushes his weight back also. Kevin Seitzer refers to this as the “load.” The load is the motion back in many sports actions (shooting a basket, throwing a ball, etc.) that “loads” energy and makes the move forward more powerful.
Chris Getz is accomplishing the same thing in a different way.
Part of what makes this stuff so interesting is the “ying-yang” aspect (if I used that reference correctly): the more stuff you do to add power, the more it tends to hurt average.
The more complicated the mechanics, the harder the motion is to repeat and the easier it is to have a mechanical problem.
Simple mechanics are easier to repeat. Tony Gywnn started close to where he wanted to end up, took a step and pushed his hands back to get in hitting position and that was it. He wanted a simple approach that he could repeat.
Once a hitter settles on a mechanical approach, they need to repeat the motion over and over to develop muscle memory.
Last year when he was slumping, Mike Moustakas took a couple days off to correct his swing. He told me to wish him luck because he was “going searching.” I asked if he was searching for something new or just trying to get back to where he was. He said he was trying to get back to his old swing.
Seitzer estimated that Moose took 700 swings in those two days. Pick up a bat and take a couple dozen cuts and you’ll have some idea of how much work he did.
This stuff ain’t easy.
Sean Fischbach
1 year, 3 months ago“It’s never 100 %, but there are generally accepted ways to go after hitters who hold the bat straight up or flat, etc..”
You should preface that with “As I recall” to be safe…
LOL ;)
Jim Fetterolf
1 year, 3 months agoA few thoughts on today’s game, based on the box score from:
http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/news/boxscore.jsp?gid=20120304kcamlbtexmlb1&cid=kc
All winter we’ve heard that Royals pitchers need to pound the ‘zone and keep the ball down. Luis Mendoza, last season’s PCL Pitcher of the Year and a sinker ball thrower, pitched two innings, one K, one BB, one H, threw 36 pitches, 21 of them were strikes, and his ground ball to fly ball ratio was 4-1, which is very good. 36 pitches is a bit high, preference being for 15 pitches or less per inning, which allows a starter to go the magic 7 innings per start. Luis Mendoza didn’t hurt himself today, but needs to watch the pitch count.
Vin Mazzaro pitched two innings, 0 K, 0 BB, 2 H, threw 18 pitches, 14 were strikes, and his ground ball to fly ball was 4-0, very good. Mazzaro is also a sinker baller and getting hitters to pound the ball into the ground in relatively few pitches is a good thing.
Nate Adcock, last year’s Rule 5 pick up, is also a sinking fastball pitcher. He also threw two innings, gave up one hit, got 2 Ks, 0 BBs, and 4 ground outs and 0 fly outs. He threw 33 pitches, 21 for strikes. A good performance, but pitching the 7th and 8th he was probably facing Rangers subs.
Way too early for predictions based on a small sample size, but the pitchers seem to be trying to keep the ball down and throw strikes the first game. Ned Yost mentioned that one thing required of the pitchers this year will be to be able to command the fastball low and away and Mendoza, Mazzaro, and Adcock seemed to listen. A good first game for guys who really need good games, especially Mendoza, out of options and part of a big crowd working for the #5 or long relief/spot starter slot. Been a very long time since we had real competition for roster spots. May take a little getting used to:)
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoSean: You are correct…as I recall.
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoJim: Good observations. This is some of the stuff the coaches will be looking at as well: throw strikes and, even better, low strikes.
Keep the ball on the ground and only hits down the lines will go for extra bases. Don’t walk anybody and it will take three singles to score a run. Make the other team earn what they get.
It was a good day for Royals pitchers yesterday and also a good day Dave Eiland. It’s his job to get these guys throwing strikes low in the zone and so far, so good.
Jim Fetterolf
1 year, 3 months agoDave Eiland was kind of the point of my little research activity, lot of curiosity about what he brings and, perhaps more importantly, what he allows in training. Without talking to him, next best thing is seeing what the pitchers do on the field. Low pitches suggest good mechanics and follow through and I saw somewhere that Luis Mendoza’s velocity has come up a little to the 91-94mph range. Signs of optimism.
Scott Boden
1 year, 3 months agoDo you think coach Eiland has an easier job with a young staff, harder job, or it is to dependent on individual personalities to make this determination based upon experience of the pitchers. Of course I’m asking this in a very general way and I’m just looking for opinions.
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoJim: What’s interesting is everybody wants the same thing: strikes down in the zone. Bob McClure was saying the exact same thing, but wasn’t getting the results the Royals wanted. When they hired Eiland, Ned Yost said it was because they needed a “new voice.”
Translated that means they hope Eiland has a way to communicate the same thing, but in a more effective manner.
And by the way, I haven’t seen a lot of Mendoza, but what I’ve seen has been outstanding.
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoScott: I’m going to go with “it depends.” Working with a young pitcher could be easier, if they were receptive to what a veteran has to say. It could be harder if they think they know it all and haven’t been around long enough to realize they don’t.
A veteran pitcher could be stubborn because he knows what’s worked for him in the past or mature enough to listen for anything that can help.
Bottom line is always results. If what you’re doing isn’t working, better ask for help.
And let me muddy the waters further: as a hitter, I was “too coachable” which is an actual problem in baseball. The guys who were teaching me (George Brett, Clint Hurdle, Russ Morman, Kevin Seitzer, etc.) didn’t all take the same approach, but I listened to them all and tried everything they threw at me. As a result, I was all over the place. I’d have four at-bats and use different mechanics in all of them.
At some point players have to figure out who they are. Then, if you hear something new that sounds helpful, you incorporate it into your existing approach.
I hope there’s an answer to your question in there somewhere.
Phil Worden
1 year, 3 months agoLee, this is why the 13-year old catcher and I read you posts - for information we don’t get anywhere else. And the video with Doug Sisson was one of our favorites from last season. One request: the other videos don’t seem to work; they are just pictures. How can we access the old videos for review?
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoPhil:
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoOne more time…
Phil: I’m not sure what’s up with the videos. Right now they’re working fine (at least for me) and you can get there from the home page by clicking on “All video” or “Lee TV” at the top of the page (and don’t blame me, I didn’t come up with the “Lee TV” name.)
We made some adjustments to the site this week and since then we’ve had some problems; I’ve been getting error messages all week. We’ll keep working on it.
And I agree with you: the best thing about the site is the inside information from the players. They’re explaining the game and how it’s played at a really high level.
I think the problem starts when one of them says something that contradicts what other believe about the game. Then I make it worse by agreeing with the player and we’re off to the races.
I’ve done more than I should to throw fuel on that particular fire. I’ll try to concentrate on bringing that inside information to the site that you and the 13-year old catcher can use on the field.
MattandJulie Herbster
1 year, 3 months agoThanks for the information, Lee. I knew a lot of these things already, but it was good to learn some new things too. I appreciate your work. It is never easy to explain a physical movement with words on a page.
A side benefit to your video with Doug Sisson was the World Series video playing on the big screen in the background! I enjoyed that too!
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoMatt (and possibly Julie): You’re welcome. When I was introduced to hitting and throwing mechanics, I was thrilled.
When I was a kid if you sucked at baseball, they just sent you home. To find out that you could make a mechanical adjustment and get better was eye-opening. I wanted fans to get a glimpse of what these guys work on.
Good eye on the ‘85 Series video in the background of the Sisson piece. Jeff Francoeur, Mike Moustakas and I sat in the dugout and watched it for 20 minutes or so before Doug was ready to shoot his video.
I told Franchy and Moose I’d been in the stadium when the Royals won game seven and they had a lot of questions about what it was like.
Pretty awesome, as I recall.
Jim Fetterolf
1 year, 3 months agoJust a thought, but the picture of Danny Duffy above inspires a “hunch” prediction based on his stuff, his intelligence, and the “Ace Face” in the shot: DD is going to rack up real solid #2 or better starter numbers this year, around fWAR 3.0. He looks to have the focus to take his physical gifts to their natural limits. I’m an optimist:)
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoJim: Everybody I’ve talked to thinks Duffy has a chance to be the real deal. Sounds like it’s a matter of “when” more than “if.”
Nice kid, too.
Jeffry L Jack
1 year, 3 months agoLee, Google Tranlate does have voice recognition on the phone app. Mine is a droid, but I assume it is on the iPhone also.
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoJeffry: Geez, now the pressure’s on to buy an iPhone. Think they’ll let me put it on the expense account?
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoInteresting article on Yuniesky Betancourt this morning. (It’s posted on this site’s home page.)
Yuni talks about being a utility player and says he played a lot of second base in Cuba. To me, that was always a big question: could he handle second? Conventional wisdom says a player who can handle short can handle any position…physically.
But last year we saw Mike Aviles struggle to make the shift to second base. Getting used to having the runner approach from behind on the double play is difficult. Developing that alarm clock in your head that tells you when you’re OK or when you need to get out of there takes time.
If Yuni’s already got that, so much the better.
Gaines Arnold
1 year, 3 months agoLee,
I really enjoy the site. That is, I enjoy it when you direct it, as you say in an earlier comment, at learning inside information that the rest of us do not have access to. Last weeks post is over. Is it possible the side comments could be over to, and we just get back to what makes this a great site?
Lee Judge
1 year, 3 months agoGaines: Thank you…and you’re right. I agree,I find the constant sniping back and forth unproductive as well. I’ll do my best not to add to it.
Keep in mind that if a player says something interesting, even if it contradicts what others believe, I’ll still bring it to the site. That doesn’t make it true and we can discuss that here. Although I think we can all do a better job of disagreeing without being disagreeable.
(By the way: I’m thinking about this because next week’s column is about ex-Royals catcher, Mike Macfarlane. He had intersting things to say about performance in the clutch.)
And thanks for continuing to be a reader of the site.