June 28, 2007
Positioning as Range
The Twins came up in the bottom of the ninth inning last night trailing 5-4 with Joe Mauer leading off the inning. Joe smacked a hard grounder up the middle, and off the bat I thought, "There's a hit." But as the camera turned to show the field, Royce Clayton was crouching in front of the ball, and made an easy play for an out. Clayton played Mauer perfectly, and what would be a single in many cases started a 1-2-3 inning for a Toronto victory.
The Blue Jays obviously did their homework. And of course, it's so easy to do today. Mauer seldom hits ground balls to the right of where Clayton was stationed. By positioning himself correctly, Royce Clayton is increasing his range without having to move a long distance for a ball. That's why, at some point, I'd love to get positioning information for players, so we can separate those player who can move long distances to get to balls vs. players who know where to stand before a ball is put in play.
With the win, the Blue Jays move over .500 and to 9 games behind Boston.
Posted by David Pinto at
07:37 AM
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Defense
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Bill James discussed this in his 2000 Historical Baseball Abstract. In his entry for Bill Mazeroski, who he rightly rates as the best defensive secondbaseman of all time, he notes that Jackie Robinson's is right up there with him. Robinson's defensive range was spectacular at pretty much every position he played on the diamond (except for first base, oddly enough). He theorized that Robinson's superior intelligence enabled him to anticipate where the ball would be hit based on his knowledge of the hitter and pitcher. I believe that he called it "invisible range", where a smart player analyzes the situation to position himself correctly, rather than having to make a last second dive for the ball. It's not sexy, and it won't show up on the Baseball Tonight highlights, but smart positioning will win you a lot of ballgames.
Cal Ripken Jr. was great at this, making him a better defensive SS than he was given credit for.
Mauer hits the vast majority of ground balls in the right side, but the vast majority of fly balls to the left side.
Anyone have a theory that explains this?
