IGT World Series Game 5 - Royals at Mets - 11/1/15

[Centerfield]

I think Duda makes that play 9 out of 10 times.

Did you see the replay? When the ball is whizzing by Hosmer is not even in the fucking picture.

Fuck the Royals.

[Frayed Knot]

Yeah, that all sounds like after the fact malarky. Duda's always thrown fine to 2B on potential GiDP balls and the like, usually accurate and with a quick release. Better than Ike even IMO even though it was Davis who had the better fielding rep and the pitcher's arm.

Yaqui fans (and sometimes their mgmt) have long been big on claiming that whenever an opposing player would have a bad series (particularly in post-season) it was the work of the great Yanqui scouting department who "figured him out" in advance. On the flip side any player having a good series against them was passed off as the guy being "a Yanqui killer", an all-purpose catch-all that reduced it to something with no logical explanation other than perhaps the player having made a deal with the devil.
Such thinking serves the dual purpose of giving your team credit when things go right and no blame when things go wrong. Kind of like the excuse making that went on when outside acquisitions like Pedro Feliciano (the Mets over-used him!!) or Jeff Weaver (how were we supposed to know he couldn't handle NYC?) didn't turn out to be what they thought.

[bmfc1]

Fangraphs has much, including GIFs, on Duda's arm:
http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/lets-build-a-scouting-report-for-lucas-dudas-arm/

[Zvon]

If KCs scouts had Duda as a bad first baseman then their reports were old and out of date. Duda has become a fine first baseman since Ike left. He is calm around the bag and has not displayed the poor footing we saw at first, at 1st. 9 out of 10? I'll go as far as to say he makes that throw 99 out of 100 times.

Duda's fielding around first base is no longer a concern, and that's what KCs scouting report should have reflected. So them and their scouts suck.

[Ceetar]

Zvon wrote: If KCs scouts had Duda as a bad first baseman then their reports were old and out of date. Duda has become a fine first baseman since Ike left. He is calm around the bag and has not displayed the poor footing we saw at first, at 1st. 9 out of 10? I'll go as far as to say he makes that throw 99 out of 100 times. Duda's fielding around first base is no longer a concern, and that's what KCs scouting report should have reflected. So them and their scouts suck.

The 'we scouted him' is cover for making an over-aggressive perhaps game-ending decision. And is also cover for Hosmer basically not trusting Gordon to come through.

In retrospect, I wonder if it would've been wiser for Duda to come in towards David and abandon first, saving a few split seconds on his throw home.

[Edgy MD]

I wondered that too. But it comes down to execution, and his throw was well off-line.

Would the few split seconds have allowed him to gather himself and make a less panicky throw? I dunno. Maybe more time to think doesn't help.

Whatever the Royals say about their scouting, most of our more-generous observations of Duda's impressive defense regard his fielding and this footwork. It's rare that he's had to make throws under pressure, and I'd've pleaded ignorance with regard to his aptitude in that department.

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

It's interesting. I never noticed how little Duda does with his feet before throwing-- it's a lot of arm with just a soupcon of hip, most times.

That said, d'Arnaud's pretty damn good at making quick tags, and Duda's " tendency" to sail throws didn't come into play at all-- he yanked it. So, yeah, even if scouting payed into the decision-making, it didn't have as much to do with the end result as luck did.

[batmagadanleadoff]

FWIW, all of the throws on fangraphs showing Duda throwing out a runner on his way to second were force plays. Duda didn't have to concern himself with putting the middle-infielder in a decent enough position to make a tag on those vids.

But again, I don't wanna sound like a broken record, but this is much much ado about just a single play. It's great to analyze the play within the context of the game, and then, the whole series. But to make sweeping statements about Duda's overall fielding chops from just that one play is overkill. But the writers gotta write about something, I guess. Jeez, the Royals were up three games to one. Hosmer wasn't taking nearly the risk that a Met woulda took if it was a Met in that position. It's easier to play any game when your back isn't against the wall and you have plenty of margins on any error.

[bmfc1]

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/01/sports/baseball/ny-mets-kansas-city-royals-opener.html?smid=tw-nytsports&smtyp=cur
Nicely done but George Brett's wife is a horrible human being.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

bmfc1 wrote: http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/04/01/sports/baseball/ny-mets-kansas-city-royals-opener.html?smid=tw-nytsports&smtyp=cur Nicely done but George Brett's wife is a horrible human being.

That ****.

No wonder her husband shits his pants at the Bellagio.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Somebody tweet a photo of her next to a photo of a supermodel!

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

"God, I hate when people get red-faced and obnoxious and yell at baseball players. It's just... untoward."

-The woman who chose George F*cking Brett as her life-partner