I was confident that Austin Hedges was going to troll us all and smoke a 3 run go ahead homer. It would have been so typical with our trolling of what. But the thing is, Austin Hedges can't hit. He has a worse career OPS than Martin Maldonado.
Hmmmm.... SS C 2B CF 3B RF 1B LF I just made that list up off of the top of my head, how am I wrong? Also, with the shifts and whatnot, the idea of traditional defensive positions are a bit antiquated, right? 3B plays SS, SS plays up the middle like a 2B, etc...?
That list feels right to me in traditional lineups, but with shifts I would have 3B ahead of 2B as 3B has to cover the whole left side much of the time while 2B catches lazy flies. But those days are coming to an end soon. BTW, I think Tucker still ends more valuable than Bregman by the end of the year, but I am agreeing with your point that all the hate for the one and love for the other is odd. It comes down to certain people’s obsession with the salary more than the player (and ironically in this case his salary is still a deal every MLB team would be happy with!)
Yep, RF defense is underappreciated. If you can keep a guy from going 1st to 3rd on a single, or scoring from 2B.... Tucker doesn't have the strongest arm but he's accurate with it and his reputation keeps guys from testing him too often. Rfers with a cannon arm are some of my favorite players ever, Dave Parker, Glenn Wilson, Vlad, Ichiro....
Wow, I had no idea Dave Parker and his family were dealing with Parkinsons. I only made it through about 15 minutes before my eyes got watery.
Being "a good person" is a big part of managing, though. In this sense, connecting with players, having their backs and building their confidence has been critical for this team when they just as easily could have cratered with some of the injuries, free agent losses and fallout they have faced since he took the helm.
Let's say a team sort of shifts, maybe a little shift, how the hell do they enforce that? What's the penalty?
C should be top easily and 1st bottom. Edit: With the shifts, I'd have 2B beneath the 3B, but still not much difference between 3B, CF, and 2B. I don't think the differences in the corner OF spots is that different. RF has harder plays, but LF (in most parks) has a lot more plays. The bloopers in front of slow LFs add up.
They will work out the details, but what I've heard second and third hand from articles, they will require two infielders left of a line from home plate to second base and extended through the infield and two players right of that line. Shifting within those parameters would still occur. Penalties would likely be like interference and they would award a base to the aggrieved party. No details on whether four outfielders would now be considered an illegal shift and whether the infield will be further defined to accomplish this. They just can't stand the thought of hitting it where they ain't like has been done for 150 years to beat shifts any more than players having to hit as well as play defense. I thought they were trying to implement it somewhere in the minors for a look-see where you could probably get more details on how it may be implemented.
The first Astros game I ever went to as a kid was against Cincinnati and Glenn Wilson hit a walkoff homerun. The place went nuts. It was a good introduction into baseball.
