Todd Hundley in Left

[Edgy MD]

Researching for my dWAR quiz, I was led into the dark corner of defensive history that is Todd Hundley's tenure as the Mets' leftfielder.

Interesting facts:
[list:fu6g7sy2][*:fu6g7sy2]He started 34 games out there. If you asked me this time yesterday, I'd say that he started seven or eight. It's amazing the experiment went on for so long, as he wasn't hitting a lick either. How bad the alternatives must've been! How quickly the Bernard Gilkey contract went bad!

[/*:m:fu6g7sy2]
[*:fu6g7sy2]Of 34 appearances in left, all were starts. (Because who gets a notion mid-game, "Man, what this game needs is some hot, sexy, Hundley-in-left action."?) But onlty four were complete games. I'd have to say that completing 11.8% of your starts as a leftfielder has to be some sort of all-time number.

[/*:m:fu6g7sy2]
[*:fu6g7sy2]You get bad fielders out if you have a lead in the ninth. You get terrible fielders out if you have a lead in the eighth. Hundley? He left in the seventh. AND WHO NEEDED A LEAD?! In his 34 appearances (again, all starts), he managed 216.67 innings, an average 6.37 innings per game/start.

[/*:m:fu6g7sy2]
[*:fu6g7sy2]Thirty-four games isn't a season, but neither is it a meaningless sample size. And yet, Hundley threw up (almost literally) an .898 fielding percentage. Butch Hobson in 1978, the year he was crippled by his bone chips but still able to hit some, posted an .899 fielding percentage, the only post-1900 player, I believe, to field below .900 over the standard for a full season. And that's at third, where fielding percentages are lowest. Keep in mind that you don't get credited with an error in left if a ball eludes you, only if it passes through you. If you break in and it goes over your head, your error isn't scored an error at all, but a double for the batter. This means that Hundley was historically bad.

[/*:m:fu6g7sy2]
[*:fu6g7sy2]And finally, this all represents a failure to... catch the ball. You might figure that, putting a catcher in left, you'd be hurt by (a) his lack of speed, and ( his inexperience in judging fly balls. You might figure that, if he's in position as a ball arrives, his hands would be the one thing you could count on. I mean, catchers... catch. They catch balls coming in at 95 +miles-per-hour, they catch balls with un-natural breaks, and they catch balls fouled off by hitters. Sometimes all at once. You'd figure... but you would wrong. Todd Hundley was a catcher who was historically bad at catching. At least catching any ball recently struck by wood.

[/*:m:fu6g7sy2]
[*:fu6g7sy2]He did, nonethless, despite coming off the DL with an elbow still recovering, manage two outfield assists. On July 21, he nailed Tony Womack at third trying to stretch a double into a triple, ending the fifth inning. Bobby Valentine rewarded him by sending Bernard Gilkey out to protect the 4-0 lead in left to start the sixth, making Todd baseball's first five-and-fly leftfielder. Later, on August 4, in a rather exciting game, he nailed Rich Aurilia trying to stretch an RBI single into a double, erasing a runner in the sixth in a game the Mets would take 7-6 in the 10th, on a bases-loaded walk to Lenny F. Harris.[/*:m:fu6g7sy2][/list:u:fu6g7sy2]

It's just that... it was a disaster. I knew it and you knew it. But that it was perhaps a disaster of historic dimensions, I hadn't really pondered.

[G-Fafif]

Nice research. I figured the experiment was a tad more short-lived than it really was. Bobby really wanted him in that lineup (and Fred really wanted his WS ring back).

Please change "April 21" to July 21, though. It was Todd's April, but the season was in midseason form for the rest of the club by the time he emerged.

[Edgy MD]

Fixed. I knew I couldn't make it through that post without dropping a few easy ones of my own.

[G-Fafif]

Still lapping Butch Hobson, however.

[MFS62]

G-Fafif wrote: Still lapping Butch Hobson, however.

And Butch (as in Butcher) Huskey.

I didn't know the data at the time, but seeing Todd play the outfield still inspired me.
Remember this?
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REO Speedwagon and I liked Todd Hundley when he was a catcher. But when he was moved to the outfield? Well, I �Can�t Fight This Feeling� anymore.

I can't watch Todd Hundley any longer
And I can�t wait for him to go
Since he came up, he�s kept on looking stronger
But then we learned that those new muscles were just for show.

I told myself that watching him would be a pleasure
I thought there was no reason for us to fear
And Mets fans could root together
A good left fielder would be an exception
Compared those of prior years.

And then we saw him playing
It was not a pretty sight
His same indifferent chasing
Fly balls through Shea�s dark night
Never getting closer than we even hoped he�d might

And I can't watch Todd Hundley anymore
I can�t remember what we ever moved him for
It's time to find out who we can trade him for
Or release him and pay his contract, forever

Cause I just can't watch Todd Hundley anymore
He doesn�t know the meaning of ball four
And if I have to crawl the GM�s floor
Come crashing through his door
I�d tell him I can�t watch Todd Hundley anymore

My team�s been in turmoil since we moved him
He�s swung at pitches like he�s blind
And he can�t take advantage of his talents
There�s nothing I can say that�s kind

As we watch him stumble through the night
Turning every fly ball into a fight
We know only a trade would set things right

And I can't watch Todd Hundley anymore
I can�t remember what we ever moved him for
It's time to find out who we can trade him for
Or release him and pay his contract, forever

Cause I just can't watch Todd Hundley anymore
He doesn�t know the meaning of ball four
And if I have to crawl the GM�s floor
Come crashing through his door
I�d tell him I can�t watch Todd Hundley anymore

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Later