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Yes, the Bae play was more difficult to make and I do agree that a good left fielder could have taken a much better route and been in a position to camp under the Meadows ball to catch it. That’s the point I’ve been making. I don’t think even a good LF could have made the catch flat-footed, though. The ball hit off the wall about nine feet up. Maybe Chuck Nevis could have made the catch flat footed. Anyone in baseball would have had to jump. I made the comparison because the angle both Bae and Meadows were taking upon arriving at the ball were about the same. Bae is a younger, far more athletic OF so he cold leap much higher up. Meadows has limitations that wouldn’t allow him to make his own play, let alone the Bae play.

This is the catch people wanted Austin Meadows to make last night.

I agree, but I will punt on that part of it in exchange for smart takes.

So C-Mo has a ball. 😏

“Easy throw to first” …, hey, Schoopy, a little too easy! But hey, this is a series win! Who’da thunk it!

Good on Dan for calling what Schoop threw “a bad throw”, immediately in the moment. This is what I love about Dan. He ain't gonna bullshit you.

How did Vierling keep that to a single!

Get a VPN. 😎

I believe WAR already takes into account base-out state, which is a necessarily component because WAR is based largely on estimated run value of plays. So if your guy is failing in rally situations at the top of the order, WAR should be reflecting that. What WAR won’t take into account is the change in approach the hitter after your guy has to take because, for instance, it’s now still man on first with two outs, instead of first and third with one out.

RBI and runs scored do not factor into the calculation of WAR. It’s a linear weights system: how much is this situation worth in expected run value, and did the player exceed, match, or fall short of that value with his outcome? The player is then credited or debited with the difference. WAR is not designed to take into account the psychological effects on players by other players, situations, etc. It’s designed only to credit or debit the player based on performance against expected run value on each play. Rinse and repeat for 500 or more plate appearances for regulars. In that way, WAR isolates individual performance across the season well.

I suspect this Spencer kid is gonna be OK after all.

The way WAR is structured, A presumably won three extra games all by himself in April and again in July, while B won one extra game all by himself each month, and at the end of the season, they both won six games all on their own, which makes them equal. What I don’t know is whether there is a diminishing return, a marginal utility, at the top end of a player’s overachievement that’s baked into the WAR calculation. I’ve never seen anything on that topic.

That was the Kreidler inning.

That was a super graceful turn by Kreidler. He made a difficult play look very smooth.

Manning was not very good tonight but he kept us close. You could see after that last walk how totally out of gas he was.

Vierling has to commit to that foul ball over TORK!

Now that was a five-star catch by Riley!

He’s very streaky, and when he’s going good, which he can do for a couple months at a stretch, he’s a legitimate All-Star.

lol black mayor is a "thug"

They're not? Since when?

I've played outfield all through my adulthood—not that I'm a professional or anything—but I would say that as a result of my experience I can judge a high fly ball hit right to me almost perfectly, meaning I can tell almost right away whether I have to go in or back. The second most fun I have in the outfield—aside from busting after a ball and making an acrobatic catch—is when I judge a fly ball so perfectly I don't have move more than a single step from my starting position. Makes me feel like a genius for a few seconds. What's super hard is a line drive hit right to me, especially in hardball (and especially after having played softball exclusively for a couple decades before taking up hardball again). Many were the times a line drive was hit to me, I instinctively froze trying to figure out whether it's shallow or deep, and it flies way way over my head to the wall for a triple. And I'm a guy who plays deep already, to the ongoing consternation of the captains of my various teams. (You know, guys who think being a team captain makes them a coach you're supposed to listen to about how to play your position that he knows practically nothing about.) Anyhow, nothing makes an outfielder feel stupider than having to chase a ball he misjudged that went over his head. That's why I hate Eddie Vedder.

If you look at the video frame by frame (by dragging the progress bar), you can see the ball changes trajectory after hitting the board between where it says "TOR" and "KC", which has got to be some nine or so feet up, then the ball rides the top of Meadows' glove coming down for a few frames before separating and hitting the ground. It was not an easy play any left fielder could have gotten, is my point. I don't blame Meadows at all for not coming up with it.

I don't know, looking at replays again, the ball hit really high up on the wall, ten or so feet up. I'm not exactly sure whether he got his glove on it, but it looks like it might have bounced off the wall first and hit the back of his outstretched glove and fell. I think someone would have had to read the ball right, take a direct route, camp under the ball, and leap up to snag it before it hit the wall. A plus left fielder could probably do that more often than not. Average fielders or less, I'm thinking maybe not so much. https://www.mlb.com/video/jose-abreu-double-ties-the-game

They’re not going to give him or the red hats the perverse maso satisfaction of an aggressive perp walk. But yeah, this makes sense. He’s not going to physically run away so they don’t need to cuff him. He’s one of the most recognizable men in the world so they don’t need a mug shot. As for flight risk, we joke about him fleeing to Russia, but that would be off brand for anyone who is adored by a hundred million people, believes they are Teflon, and for whom historically everything has always come up roses for him. Besides, we definitely don’t want to Mein Kampf the guy.