Home Cooking at Wrigley

[Prince James]

Geez! I was just watching the Astros/Cubs game at Wrigley and saw Fukudome hit a line shot to left that got by Carlos Lee. 2 runs scored and they gave him a 2 RBI double. The ball hit the ground in front of Lee and he should have had it, but it bounced past him to the wall allowing the second run to score. It really should have been an error. Didn't Fukudome also hit the double off of Braun which should have been an error on Braun? Is this normal to happen at a home park or do these things get modified later? None of this matters so long as the Brewers win, but I just wanted to know.

[pitchleague]

just by your description, it sounds like a double to me. Unless it clanked off the glove of Lee, it's a 2-bagger and 2 RBI. It's pretty much the ol' "if you didn't touch it, it's not an error" ruling by the official scorer. Kind of a judgment call, but I guarantee that had it been ruled an error, that Fukudome would appeal to the official scorer to change it and it probably would have been changed. Hitters will protest hits and RBI taken away from them like this, since those hits and RBI could mean big bucks in arbitration/new contract talks.

[dadofandrew]

Braun never touched the fly ball in question, so that's never going to ruled an error. Most parks tend to avoid an error being given on anything but a routine play, except Miller Park, which is the outlier out of the 30 MLB stadiums.

[Prince James]

I actually think it did hit his glove. It bounced in front of him and it skipped over his head.

 

Carlos Lee, that is.

[sbrylski]

I just watched it on Gameday. It was a tough play for sure, a hard liner that bounced right in front of him, but it definitely hit Carlos and got passed him. That's a tough call that could probably go either way.

[Ennder]

Errors are probably the silliest official stat kept in baseball. They should just do away with them. They don't tell you who is or isn't a good fielder and they are way too subjective.

[dadofandrew]

Lee had to slide or dive to come close to the ball. That's not anything close to an error, even at MP.

[sbrylski]

Lee had to slide or dive to come close to the ball. That's not anything close to an error, even at MP.

On second view on the bigger TV, I agree.

 

[Prince James]

Looking at this again, I agree with you guys. This was not an error by Lee.

I actually kind of agree with getting rid of the error stat completely. How could a guy like Fukudome get an error for that bang-bang play where Rickie levelled Soto and Gwynn came in behind the play to score.

[dadofandrew]

To me, they should have just said Gwynn scored on the throw to the plate, just like if he would have moved to 2B. The scorers have got in the habit that they have to give an E to describe how stuff happened.

[cubfan1126]

The solution is called the "Team Error" not assigned to an individual but to the team.

Example 1, Lead off batter on first, breaks, for second, niether SS or 2B cover, perfect throw, runner goes to third, catcher charged with an error when he made a perfect throw. Charging a team error is no reflection on the catcher but on the bonehead play of the middle infielders.

Example 2 pop fly in the short outfield, 3 guys surround the ball, none of them touch it, falls for a double as credited by the scorer. next guy singles. Earned run scores. Call it a team error and no era jump on the pitcher.

And BTW, all home teams get those calls.

 

[RightFieldCoder]

How about Fielder throwing the ball into the back of a runner? I believe it was called a SB and not an error by the scorer at MP. So it will count against Kendall's CS stat even though he didn't catch the ball and Parra picked the runner off. If Fielder does make the throw it goes down as a CS and help's Kendall's stats.

[dadofandrew]

One of a dozen reasons why CS stats are very flawed. 80-90% of the time, it's the pitcher who dictates whether the catcher has a chance to throw out the runner.