There really is a worse defensive RF than Hart!!!

[chickinbrickin]

Did you see Nelson Cruz play that ball last night on that David Freese triple. That is an out 99% of the time. They were playing no doubles defense, and Cruz was about 10 feet off the warning track where that ball landed. I guess that makes sense though no doubles probably doesn't stop triples.

 

That game showcased horrible defense all around. Looked like a Brewers game.

[jjfanec]

I missed the play and watched it today. That is one of the worst plays I have seen considering time of the game, magnitude of the play, lack of hustle shown, lack of proper positioning shown, and lack of field awareness shown. I still dont know how Cruz missed that badly

[chickinbrickin]

I know. I could see during a meaningless game in the middle innings to get caught by surprise on an opposite field line drive like that, but we are talking the final out to clinch a World Series title. Every single player on defense should have been at maximum focus and ready for anything there.

[GamelToe]

Didn't he have an injured groin?

[jjfanec]

Didn't he have an injured groin?

If it was injured enough to make him field like that Washington should be fired for not putting a defensive replacement for him

[Thundercat32]

fwiw, washington has been quoted as saying it was a misread, and harold reynolds said last night on the mlbnetwork he was sitting right above the right field wall here it was hit (and they showed him on tv to back it up) and there was no way anyone could of gotten to it. i believe his exact statement was "i don't care what it looked like on tv i was watching it come right at me and that ball was smoked! nobody gets to that ball."

edit: i guess i should say, i personally think cruz mis-played the ball and harold reynolds tends to overstate things (a lot). at the same time, that was a difficult play and easily could have been more difficult than it looked on tv. i tend to think ichiro comes up with that ball, but it's not like you can give cruz an error on the play. also, cruz is an up and down fielder (with an absolute cannon for an arm see here: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=19892427), but hart is more of a down and up fielder if you know what i mean.

this is pretty interesting too: http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=19899037

[jason21nl]

I don't really see that being that tough of a play. He was already playing deep and didn't have all that far to go. He was scared of the wall and flat out air balled the catch. I just don't understand how you don't go all out on a play like that. Run through the wall, do whatever you have to do, but catch the ball.

[brewmann04]

then he should have stoped and played it off the wall,but there were a lot of Cruz lovers on this board.

[RockCoCougars]

Looked like alligator arms to me. I have to say the Cardinals have been getting very lucky on balls hit to right this postseason.

[Raw Biz]

Looked like alligator arms to me. I have to say the Cardinals have been getting very lucky on balls hit to right this postseason.

I thought they've been incredibly lucky all postseason. It just seems like everything goes their way. Yeah some of it is their own talent/execution but look at the sac bunt last night. The bunt was popped up but since Beltre was charging, it went over his head. I don't think they were trying to bunt it in the air either. So if Beltre holds, the bunt is caught and a likely double, if not triple play. If Beltre charges and the bunt is on the ground, he gets an out at 3rd. But he charged and it went over his head and the Rangers were lucky to just get the out at 1st. Obviously that wasn't the game-winner but the Cardinals always seem to have the breaks fall to them.

[MNBrew]

It sure seemed like Cruz misjudged where he was relative to the track & the wall, pulling up short on the ball b/c he thought he was closer to the wall than he was. Watching his gait going after it, he sure had time to cover the extra 4 feet he needed to get that ball into his glove.

 

It actually struck me as being much like Morgan's costly misjudged play at the wall in one of those games in AZ.

[RockCoCougars]

It sure seemed like Cruz misjudged where he was relative to the track & the wall, pulling up short on the ball b/c he thought he was closer to the wall than he was. Watching his gait going after it, he sure had time to cover the extra 4 feet he needed to get that ball into his glove.

 

It actually struck me as being much like Morgan's costly misjudged play at the wall in one of those games in AZ.

In the end, despite what the pundits say, that ball should have been caught. We are going to be hearing Bill Buckner's name a lot over the next few weeks. In my opinion, Cruz's misplay was 'worse' than Buckner's.

 

Bottom line, either LaRussa sold his soul to the devil or someone had a lucky horseshoe in the Pujols. The Cardinals have just capped the most incredible long term stretch of luck that I've ever seen. What has it been, eight weeks?

[brewmann04]

said form the time they started on this run taking 5-6 from the crew in september and were on a major role and got lucky too all which was needed to win the WS

[Thurston Fluff]

I thought they've been incredibly lucky all postseason.

 

They made their own luck. AS much as I hate them they won by outplaying everyone. That despite the manager doing everything he could to sabotage the run. Things like running out of pinch hitters before extra innings even started and not having the right pitchers warmed up n the bullpen or over managing in general. They won because that is a flat out great offense that was playing well at the right time.

 

The bunt was popped up but since Beltre was charging, it went over his head.

 

Just pointing out more than one manager keeps the bunt on when they know corners are going to crash in? In the RRR thread that was treated as something only in idiot would do. Then again I thought TLR was less than stellar in the series.

[SconnieKid]

It cracked me up because when Corey missed the two balls he missed (both were tougher plays) a bunch of people stepped in voicing dismay that we could have had Cruz instead. It was beyond terrible. He was lined up insanely deep and could easily have gotten to the ball. OR, he could have just played it off the wall. There is NO WAY Berkman scores from first if he does that. Instead he made that pathetic attempt that ultimately cost Texas the WS.

[hawing]

RockCoCougars wrote:

 

Bottom line, either LaRussa sold his soul to the devil or someone had a lucky horseshoe in the Pujols. The Cardinals have just capped the most incredible long term stretch of luck that I've ever seen. What has it been, eight weeks?

I've said for some time that he's got a contract with Satan. When you view STL through that prism, a LOT makes sense.

[TooLiveBrew]

It cracked me up because when Corey missed the two balls he missed (both were tougher plays) a bunch of people stepped in voicing dismay that we could have had Cruz instead.

 

I don't think there's any debate that a healthy Cruz is a better defender than Hart. A strained groin definitely would impact a guy's ability to hustle back on a ball accurately. Yes, he should've just played the ball off the wall, but no one was clamoring for a groin-pulled Cruz over Hart.

[Flood Pants]

It's too bad to see Cruz get flack for that play. Without his bat, Texas wouldn't have even been in that game.

[chickinbrickin]

It cracked me up because when Corey missed the two balls he missed (both were tougher plays) a bunch of people stepped in voicing dismay that we could have had Cruz instead.

 

I don't think there's any debate that a healthy Cruz is a better defender than Hart. A strained groin definitely would impact a guy's ability to hustle back on a ball accurately. Yes, he should've just played the ball off the wall, but no one was clamoring for a groin-pulled Cruz over Hart.

 

So Texas had no one on the bench who was a better option than an injured Cruz? If they did Washington should be fired as an earlier OP stated.

[TooLiveBrew]

Washington looked like he had no clue when it came to in-game management, I wouldn't argue that http://forum.brewerfan.net/images/smilies/smile.gif

That really has nothing to do with this thread topic, though, & certainly wasn't what I was addressing in the response you quoted.

[chickinbrickin]

It cracked me up because when Corey missed the two balls he missed (both were tougher plays) a bunch of people stepped in voicing dismay that we could have had Cruz instead.

 

I don't think there's any debate that a healthy Cruz is a better defender than Hart. A strained groin definitely would impact a guy's ability to hustle back on a ball accurately. Yes, he should've just played the ball off the wall, but no one was clamoring for a groin-pulled Cruz over Hart.

 

So Texas had no one on the bench who was a better option than an injured Cruz? If they did Washington should be fired as an earlier OP stated.

[rluzinski]

I don't think Hart is even an average defender but he is not among the worst either.