Post by Rog on Mar 22, 2014 12:44:31 GMT -5
You probably remember the play. It came in Juan Perez's third game with the Giants. He caught a ball in medium-deep straightaway center field and made a terrific throw to third base to nail the Pirates' runner trying to advance to third after the catch. It is now being shown in a collage with with other major league clips. Viewed live, from several angles and in both regular speed and slow motion, the play is very exciting, as I recall its being while watching it on TV at the time.
I was surprised at how watching it again brought up so many intriguing points:
. Buster Posey leaps up from his crouch to catch the ball as if he were crossed up by Barry Zito's pitch. It is a very unusual shot.
. Perez's throw not only hits cutoff man Brandon Crawford, his one-hop throw is strong enough that it comes in right at Brandon's knees before almost perfectly one-hopping to third baseman Joaquin Arias.
. The runner made a pop up slide, which may have cost him just enough time to enable Arias to successfully make a nice backhanded sweep tag.
. The runner times his break off second base just perfectly and has already taken five steps before even Perez's quick release of the throw.
. Zito backed up the throw nicely and after taking the ball back from Arias gave a quick glance toward Perez in which he verbally seemed to be saying, "Wow! I didn't know you had THAT kind of arm." I doubt Barry was thinking, Wow, he throws the ball harder than I do, although it would have been an appropriate thought.
. When the camera gets back to Perez, he seems to be giving an Angel Pagan-like salute back toward the infield.
. Despite Perez's cutting down a runner in scoring position, Zito gave up 8 earned runs in 4.2 innings.
The throw was extremely impressive, but Buster's jumping up (perhaps he was planning to try to pick the runner off second base) was even more unusual. The jump the runner got off second base was extremely impressive, even though he negated a big of his advantage with a mediocre slide.
A question I have for others here: Did anyone else set up for the tag play by placing your non-push off foot BEHIND the base so that when the fielder caught the ball, you were actually moving forward with your body when the ball was caught, even though your push-off foot was still on the bag? I used to feel it gave me just the tiniest edge (maybe a foot by the time I reached the next base. Maybe an inch, I don't know). Did you line up with your foot at the edge of the bag AWAY from where the throw was coming in order to have just the tiniest advantage in when a sweep tag would touch you and also making it a tiny bit easier to slide away from the throw?
I don't know how much advantage those two things gave me. I would think a foot if I timed it perfectly; at least six inches. On Perez's throw, when coupled with the runner's near-perfectly timed break off second base, that might just have made the difference between safe and out.
The two possible negatives to the strategies as I have described them are:
. It made timing the tag push off a little trickier, and an ill-timed break would take away all the momentum advantage.
. If the throw required a slide to the unexpected side of the bag, it would take an instant longer.
On balance though, I felt the play was rarely less than a wash and at best, it might been worth a foot or slightly more.
So I guess I have two questions actually. Did you use it, and how much advantage did you feel it gave you on average?
I was surprised at how watching it again brought up so many intriguing points:
. Buster Posey leaps up from his crouch to catch the ball as if he were crossed up by Barry Zito's pitch. It is a very unusual shot.
. Perez's throw not only hits cutoff man Brandon Crawford, his one-hop throw is strong enough that it comes in right at Brandon's knees before almost perfectly one-hopping to third baseman Joaquin Arias.
. The runner made a pop up slide, which may have cost him just enough time to enable Arias to successfully make a nice backhanded sweep tag.
. The runner times his break off second base just perfectly and has already taken five steps before even Perez's quick release of the throw.
. Zito backed up the throw nicely and after taking the ball back from Arias gave a quick glance toward Perez in which he verbally seemed to be saying, "Wow! I didn't know you had THAT kind of arm." I doubt Barry was thinking, Wow, he throws the ball harder than I do, although it would have been an appropriate thought.
. When the camera gets back to Perez, he seems to be giving an Angel Pagan-like salute back toward the infield.
. Despite Perez's cutting down a runner in scoring position, Zito gave up 8 earned runs in 4.2 innings.
The throw was extremely impressive, but Buster's jumping up (perhaps he was planning to try to pick the runner off second base) was even more unusual. The jump the runner got off second base was extremely impressive, even though he negated a big of his advantage with a mediocre slide.
A question I have for others here: Did anyone else set up for the tag play by placing your non-push off foot BEHIND the base so that when the fielder caught the ball, you were actually moving forward with your body when the ball was caught, even though your push-off foot was still on the bag? I used to feel it gave me just the tiniest edge (maybe a foot by the time I reached the next base. Maybe an inch, I don't know). Did you line up with your foot at the edge of the bag AWAY from where the throw was coming in order to have just the tiniest advantage in when a sweep tag would touch you and also making it a tiny bit easier to slide away from the throw?
I don't know how much advantage those two things gave me. I would think a foot if I timed it perfectly; at least six inches. On Perez's throw, when coupled with the runner's near-perfectly timed break off second base, that might just have made the difference between safe and out.
The two possible negatives to the strategies as I have described them are:
. It made timing the tag push off a little trickier, and an ill-timed break would take away all the momentum advantage.
. If the throw required a slide to the unexpected side of the bag, it would take an instant longer.
On balance though, I felt the play was rarely less than a wash and at best, it might been worth a foot or slightly more.
So I guess I have two questions actually. Did you use it, and how much advantage did you feel it gave you on average?