#infielders

[introvertedperson16]

They always have the problem of “not having enough space for all the infielders and outfielders”, it’s practically the front office’s specialty at this point 🤪

[hetapti]

A ver, que pasó nena? 🤣 . . . . . . . #fieldhockey #hsinthefield #fieldhockeyislife #esposainfiel #infielders #fieldjacket #fieldroast #exponiendoinfieles #fieltromania #fiel #fieldtofork #infieldcoach #infielderdesign #mujeresinfieles #fieltorcedor #fieldsports #baseballfield #infieltlmd #fieldofflowers #fieldofdreams #fieldnotes #infieldcoffeestand #mujerinfiel #fieltorcida #fieltro #field #infiel #infieles #fieltroagujado #hombresinfieles https://www.instagram.com/p/CnY-Tokukwx/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

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Mid-Season Report Card: Infielders

Jay Bruce: F

Not to speak ill of the recently departed, but man Bruce was terrible. He was a disaster at the plate, and worse at first base.

Mike Ford: D-

Ford also stunk at the plate, but he was at least a good defensive first baseman and has been killing it in Triple A this season, so maybe he’ll get another call up with Tampa or with another team in the future.

Chris Gittens: F

Gittens was the apple of the fans eyes’ when the Yankees were having major issues at first base, and he was called up and looked like a AAAA hitter. He’s been good in the minors this year, but Chris has been “Not So Hard Hittin’” in the majors—only three of his 28 at bats have featured a hard hit ball.

Kyle Higashioka: B-

Higgy had taken away Gary’s starting spot (again) after a hot start to the season, but after putting up 22 total bases in April (in 37 plate appearances), he’s put up only 21 since (in 67 plate appearances.) He’s been Cole’s personal catcher (and was Kluber’s before the injury), and despite his struggles at the plate, he’s still clearly the better defensive choice behind the plate- he’s sixth in extra runs saved with his framing (-3 runs better than the average catcher) and fifth in strike rate (51.9% of chase pitches are framed as strikes.) He also has the 8th best pop time in baseball at catching runners stealing bases. Here’s his framing chart by zone, and you can see why pitchers love throwing to Higgy:

At the plate, Higgy is a mixed bag. He’s got major platoon splits—.162/.240/.353 against righties, and .276/.364/.621 against lefties. He’s crushed fastballs this year again—.250 BAA and .571 SLG against fastballs, and can take fastballs up and in yard with ease, but he’s 3-36 against breaking pitches this year. Overall I’d say this has been a positive season however for Higgy—he’s clearly proven he can be at the very least a backup catcher on a good team.

DJ LeMahieu: C-

DJ (at the time of this writing) is currently on a 30 game on base streak, which is obviously nice. Not so nice however, is the massive drop off in slugging. DJ has the second biggest drop off in SLG% from 2020 to 2021, and unlike some of the other guys near the bottom (like Juan Soto for example), it doesn’t really feel like it’s a fluke that it’s dropped off this much. Obviously being able to play three positions really well defensively and being able to stay healthy is a huge boost to the team, and even if DJ is under contract for a while, his contract isn’t anything that will necessarily hold the team back, but a .363 slugging is really bad. Also really bad:

Even when DJ was a MVP candidate, his numbers on pitches in the heart of the plate weren’t amazing or anything but DJ is tied for fourth worst in baseball at pitches right down main street. Another huge issue for DJ has been the fact that despite being someone who’s going the opposite way a lot, he’s been miserable on outside pitches:

The inability to actually drive anything the opposite way and the inability to take advantage of meatballs and high pitches to do damage is really shocking. He’s had thirteen extra base hits in 290 plate appearances since May. I’m pretty sympathetic to DJ having to move all over the place defensively, and I do think he’ll rebound, but I think he’s more likely to rebound to a .300 or .310 batting average than a .450 or .500 slugging percentage. At this point he might be what he is, which is someone who gets a lot of singles and plays good defense, but if he can’t drive the ball and continues to be mediocre on the base paths, then I think he would be better suited to be dropped in the lineup.

Rougned Odor: B+

For someone the Yankees got for cheap and don’t have to pay his contract for, I think he’s been a lot better than anyone could have ever hoped? I’m not sure he’s actually good, but at this point he’s been one of the best hitters on the team (which I think says more about the rest of the team than Roogie) and he plays pretty good defense at second base and has stayed healthy. He has a tendency to come through in tough spots, and he’s actually had crazy reverse splits this year (despite being a traditional splits guy before this year.) Roogie is slashing .206/.281/.373 against righties, but an incredible .271/.352/.625 against lefties, mainly because he is crushing breaking balls away, and stuff low and inside, against lefties. He’s been worth +6 runs against sliders so far this year! Here is his xwOBA on balls he makes contact against lefties:

Obviously he’s still striking out a lot, but his strikeout rate is down 5% this year and his walk rate is up 3%. He’s also drastically increased his pull rate (56.6% is 11% higher than his previous high) which helps to increase power, especially when there’s a short porch in right.

To be honest, it’s hard not to be impressed by Odor’s comeback this season.

Gary Sanchez: B+

I wish I could break this down as something more like “Gary Sanchez from the end of May through June: A+, the rest of Gary’s first half: F”, but overall I’ll give him a B+. Last year was such a dumpster fire that the Yankees weren’t sure if they were going to tender him a contract this year, and then the start of the season was just a continuation of that trend and Gary lost his starting job again. June however, was a different story—the Kraken slashed .289/.372/.663 as Gary was Scary again, and back to the All Star level player at the plate we’d seen before.

It’s just hard to know if that was “Gary is back!” or if it was “Gary had a really hot five weeks”, because outside of that stretch, he’s looked pedestrian again at the plate. In positive news, his walk percentage has increased (his 13.3% BB rate is in the 90th percentile), his strikeout rate has dropped 9%, and his overall numbers have increased year over year. He’s done this by barreling the ball less and hitting the ball slightly less hard on average, but if you look at his percentile rankings, he’s essentially been the same player this year as he was in 2018:

Defensively, Gary’s been awful again, and at this point I’m not sure why they keep switching catching coordinators on him because I don’t think there’s anything he can do to change his ineptitude behind the plate. He’s 51st in framing (out of 59 qualified catchers), he’s 108th in Total Zone Catcher Runs Above Average (out of 109 qualified catchers), has the 9th most passed balls allowed (a major improvement unfortunately), and despite having the 7th best pop time of any catcher, he’s only caught 8% of baserunners (80th.)

Gleyber Torres: D+

Earlier I talked about how DJ’s numbers don’t feel fluky—he looks and has been playing like someone who shouldn’t be getting a ton of extra base hits and doesn’t seem to have any mechanical issues going on, Gleyber is the opposite of that. He’s very clearly had some mechanical issues, and they’ve really sapped him of his power—.328 slugging is downright atrocious, and having a lower slugging than on base percentage is terrible. He’s been tied for the second worst player against four seam fastballs this year:

This is a guy who in 2019 was +14 runs against four seamers when he hit 24 bombs off them. That said, I do think there’s a couple issues at play here: obviously the mechanics are a big problem, and it sounds like he’s gotten them fixed. He’s been off balance a lot, and his hips have been moving way too much on his swings, both of which will really sap your power and cause you to mishit the ball (hence Gleyber being in the 8th percentile for average exit velocity). The other issue is that after getting criticism for swinging at too much, he’s become too patient at the plate- his walk rate continues to increase, his strikeout rate continues to decrease, but he’s not driving the ball in the heart of the plate anymore (which is seemingly a problem amongst all the Yankees hitters.)

Defensively, he’s bad at shortstop, but we all knew that. He’s been especially bad at getting to balls that he has to move forward on, and balls hit to the third base side of the field- fourth worst at balls in (-3 runs) and fifth worst at balls hit to third base (-7 runs), but actually second best (+5 runs) against balls hit towards second base. He just doesn’t have the speed or range to cover balls hit in, and doesn’t have the range to get to balls that he has to dive to his non-glove side. It’s not disastrous to the point that you have to move him off shortstop yet, but it is getting close.

Overall I still have hope in Gleyber—I think he’s shown some signs of life the last couple weeks, and if he can start to drive the ball again, then you have someone who is a Top 25 player in baseball. If he can’t figure it out, then the Yankees future is in big trouble.

Gio Urshela: A-

Another ho-hum season for Gio, his overall numbers are down but he has been playing through a leg injury for almost two months now. This year he is once again crushing fastballs—.327 BAA and .566 SLG against, but has really struggled against breaking balls—.186 BAA and .245 SLG against. Leg injuries can really impact your ability to get to outside pitches and to create hard contact, both of which have been issues for Gio this year—his strikeout rate has doubled and his walk rate has been cut in half, and his average exit velocity is down 2mph. He’s also been chasing at a lot of pitches (34.6% chase rate is 9% higher). I think if he was healthy you wouldn’t be seeing those issues, and the fact that he’s playing on one leg and has been our second best position player is nuts.

Defensively, he’s a monster despite the injuries. He’s in the 79th percentile in OAA, and despite not being a shortstop and being injured, he’s been worth +2 runs at shortstop:

We should all be thankful for the fact that we have Gio on this team, because he’s been one of the few bright spots in the lineup.

Luke Voit: F

Is this harsh? Maybe. But the fact of the matter is that Voit, the little amount of time he’s actually been healthy, has not been good, and he is currently on the IL for the third time this season—two of which are knee injuries, the first of which he got being stupid for no reason in a Spring Training game. Would he have gotten that injury if he wasn’t being dumb? Maybe, but the other Yankees first basemen have been disasters and he’s not been much better.

Tyler Wade: F

Wade can’t hit, he doesn’t walk, he’s only attempted six steals and been caught twice, outside of being fast I’m not sure why he’s on the team.

Yes, it’s nice that he can play six positions defensively, but he’s average at all six. He can’t hit. Take him out to pasture and move on.

[conlasbasesllenas]

Estos infielders mejoraron su calidad defensiva

Estos infielders mejoraron su calidad defensiva

Es importante la calidad defensiva de los infielders en las Grandes Ligas, podemos ver qué tan lejos tuvo que ir el jugador de cuadro, cuánto tiempo tuvo para llegar allí, cuánto tiempo fue el lanzamiento, todo eso es crucial. Y Aquí en Con Las Bases Llenas les mostraremos estos jugadores de cuadro algo infravalorados en sus movimientos defensivos. Estos infielders mejoraron su calidad defensiva:

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Infield 👁-Webs 📲 Apollosports.com @apollosports.inc #ApolloSports .. #Infield #Infielder #Infielders #Iweb #⚾️ #Rawlings #UnderArmour #Wilson #Mizuno #GloveLove #A2000 #HeartoftheHide #ProSelect #GenuinePro (at Apollosports.com) https://www.instagram.com/p/BqQeXkbAz_A/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=1w50j9ueacqkd

[bryanthomas007]

#softball #padres #team #infielders

[rkstrength]

We are back in business. You put my Baseball ⚾️ Position Player In Season video back head over to you tube and check it out. Link is in the bio. #baseball #baseballseason #positionplayers #outfielders #infielders #travelbaseball #travelbaseballlife #catchers #atlanta #alpharetta #rkstrengthtraining

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Donn Clendenon