Man, it sure is nice to have baseball back, and we’ve already been treated with fantastic performances from across the league. There have been the usual Aaron Judge home runs, the return of Jacob deGrom’s dominance, the stretch of surprising Marlins walk-offs, and so much more. But for the next few minutes, we’re going to focus on the elite defense on display so far this season.
Great defense can come about in so many ways. Sometimes, it’s a feat of raw athleticism, while other excellent plays are a testament to the fielder’s intuition and preparation. Aside from actually making the plays, fielders must consider a multitude of factors in an extremely limited amount of time; the best fielders are also the best real-time processors. The best way to explain this is by watching it in action.
Let’s start with none other than defensive wizard Matt Chapman:
Chapman Double Play
Chapman Lay Out
Chapman does it all on defense. He understands the runners, the situation, and his own physical skills. On the double-play chopper from Santiago Espinal, Chapman was in his typical deep position. There is no infielder in the league better than Chapman at charging groundballs, as is shown by all the outs above average he’s accumulated coming in on balls throughout his career. Because of that, he can afford to play as deep as he does, which gives him more room to range to his left and right.
Here, he’s able to see the entire development of the play. He knows how far the runner on second ends up after his secondary lead. Based on that and the pace of the grounder, Chapman is able to read that he can beat the runner to the spot for a tag and still have time to deliver a strike to first base. Since Espinal isn’t the speediest runner and Chapman has a rocket arm, he knows he has time to pull off this play. The double play perfectly juxtaposes with his highlight reel on the grounder from Blake Dunn. While the double play is about reading the situation, this one is about pure reaction time. The main piece of information to process is how quickly he needs to get rid of it, and judging by how quickly he slides and transfers, he knows it’s going to be bang bang. This is pure excellence from one of the best fielders in the game.
Bellinger’s Elite Deceleration
I can’t stress this enough: It takes a superlative level of proprioception and field awareness for an outfielder to judge where he is, where the wall is, and how that relates to catching the ball. Cody Bellinger has played plenty of center field in his career, but it’s not an easy task to adjust to the many different walls and park dimensions in the sport. On this play, Jackson Chourio hits an absolute seed to straightaway center field. For a 107-mph high line drive, an outfielder’s first response should be to turn and run. That’s not too tough, though. The difficult part is deciding how long to run at full speed before needing to ease onto the brakes.
Bellinger gets on his horse immediately, and then he starts to slow his sprint down right after taking a quick glance to see where he is relative to the warning track. Once he recognizes how much room he has, he begins to decelerate, then swings his head back to get his eyes on the ball again. While the entire point of the warning track is to literally warn the player the fence is near, outfielders should always slow down before the warning track unless they plan on jumping. It’s much easier to dig into the grass than it is to dig into the dirt of the track. Slowing down before the track allows them to be calm while approaching the wall and attempting the catch. Without that, they’d be ramming their upper body into the wall at a high speed, making for a dangerous play. Bellinger makes this whole process look very easy despite all those factors at play.
Swanson’s Awareness
Save the best for last, of course. This play from Dansby Swanson is reminiscent of one of the best defensive plays that I can remember, from Andrelton Simmons. Here’s a quick description of the situation: The Cubs are up one run with two outs in the ninth, and the Diamondbacks have runners on first and second. With Corbin Carroll at the plate, Swanson knows he’ll have to work quickly to throw out the speedster at first on a groundball. He’s shifted over behind the second base bag, so on most grounders, his best bet is probably to get the force out at second. Except, Carroll softly flares a ball that bounces between second and third, meaning Swanson is moving away from second base when he fields it and probably doesn’t have time to plant his right foot in the ground and throw across his body to first base before Carroll gets there.
Meanwhile, in this situation, the lead runner is taught to be very aggressive getting around third, so that he can score if the throw goes to first but the batter beats it out for an infield hit. Garrett Hampson, who is a 99th-percentile runner, begins the play at second, so he’s the perfect guy to push for the plate. The problem is, Swanson knows exactly what’s happening.
After fielding the jam shot, Swanson dekes the throw to first, giving Hampson the impression that he has a chance to score. Hampson aggressively rounds third, ready to score, especially when he sees that nobody is covering the bag; he does everything by the book — except what Swanson does next isn’t in the book. The shortstop’s instincts take over. Understanding that he has no chance to get Carroll at first, Swanson fields the ball and lets his momentum lead him on a direct path toward third base. He runs to the area just in front of the bag, but he keeps his body in a good position to throw home in the event that Hampson breaks for the plate. Instead, Hampson realizes he can’t score and tries to make it back to third. Swanson cuts him off, so Hampson makes a last dash attempt to avoid the tag by diving away from where Swanson’s momentum is taking him. Swanson overruns Hampson, but he adjusts, halting and leaping in the other direction just in time to tag Hampson for the final out of the game. The totality of Swanson’s perfect decisions here is what secures the Cubs the win.
You see what I mean? There are so many ways to go about making fantastic defensive plays, whether it’s outsmarting baserunners or just by flashing pure athleticism. The opening week of ball had it all for us, and I’m excited to see all the other magnificent plays in store for us the rest of the way.
Content Source: blogs.fangraphs.com