The Rays Aren't Just Good...They're Smart

So we have really heads up base running here by the Tampa Bay Rays. They've been great this year offensively on the mound, but they're also a really, really smart team. So we have runners at first and third with one out and we get a high pop up here to the infield. Both middle infielders go back. Center fielder comes in. Ball is caught. We see the runner at third starting to get off. A Rosa Reyna tags up at first, slides in safe, and the runner scores. So let's watch it here from this angle, because I want to talk about this from an offensive and defensive perspective, what they do offensively, and then what could have been done different defensively to protect themselves against this play. OK, so here's the pop up. Now, immediately the ball goes up. You're going to see both base runners start to head back to the bag. So we have a Rosa Reyna going back to first. We have Diaz going back to third to tag up. Now you have the pitcher coming back to back up home plate in case there is a tag situation, a catch and throw home. You have the first baseman starting to head over here to be the cutoff man home. So as he starts to head over this way, now a Rosa Reyna looks and says, OK, nobody is at second base because both middle infielders went out. So now Diaz starts to inch off the bag and a Rosa Reyna is going to take off for second. Now, once this throw is made here, once the ball is released, Diaz, who is inching off, inching up, he now knows that he can just take off for home because there's no way we're going to catch this ball, turn around and make the throw here. The only thing that could keep this from happening is if we get a quick catch and a tag here before this runner scores, the run would not count. But we don't get that. A Rosa Reyna beats it there and Diaz beats the ball to the plate. And here's another good look. You can see Diaz start to tag. He's going to inch off, inch off, inch off. He sees the throw and he takes off for home. So what could have been done differently? The first thing is, as both infielders go out for the ball, once this guy says, I've got it, I've got it, and the shortstop knows that he is not going to catch the ball, he can turn and sprint back to second base. But instead, he just starts to move away from the second baseman and essentially isn't doing anything. He's just sitting there and spectating. Now, another thing that could have happened was instead of having the first baseman go to be a cutoff man, once he got to this point right here and realized that no one was covering second, all he had to do is move this way. There's really no sense of having a cutoff man here. Look at how short of a throw that is. So if he realized that the shortstop wasn't going to get there, he could have quickly just moved this way. We catch the ball, we throw it into him. That stops a Rosa Reyna from going to second. And it also doesn't allow the runner from third to tag up. And again, we get a good view here. You can see the first baseman starting to jog over to be the cutoff man. And again, if he had his head up and saw this, he could have moved this way. So really, I think it's the shortstop of being aware that he's not going to make the play and getting here. And then it's the first baseman being aware that no one is there and starting to move his way to second base. Now, this is definitely one of those weird plays that isn't really practiced. And I will say I played for five different major league organizations. And the one team I played for that practiced these really weird plays was the Baltimore Orioles. I always felt like Buck Showalter was one of the most prepared managers out of anyone I ever played for. And we would watch film. Think about how an NFL team watches film. We would do that with the Orioles, and he would put up different situations up on the board. And we would talk about how we would defend those situations. And that was actually the only team I played for that did that. And we would work on these weird plays that you almost never see. We would talk about foul balls down the line that the second baseman, right fielder and first baseman would go to with runners on first and third. And we would talk about how we want the pitcher to get to the bag so we can quickly hit him for a cutoff, because if you don't do that in both runners tag, pretty much the same situation. If this guy takes off and you make that long throw to second, well, now this guy is going to take off. And so we would talk and practice those things. The play actually never came up in a game, but if it ever did, we were prepared for that. And again, that was the only team I played for that actually talked about these strange plays that might happen once a year. And some plays like this might not even happen once a year. So really heads up base running by the Rays. Not very good defense here by the White Sox. And hopefully that gives you some insight into how teams prepare for these type of situations. So that's all we have. Subscribe to the channel, hit the notification bell, give it a thumbs up, all that good stuff. And we'll talk to you later.