The Mets don't try to break up double plays, a breakdown

this is a segment from my show called Jimm's three things over on the talking baseball Youtube channel I wanted to share it with you guys because it's wild it's one of the more interesting and fun deep Dives I've done and to let you know that I do these kind of things over there every Tuesday on the talking baseball Channel Jake and Trev do series Recaps we got a lot of in-depth baseball coverage on talking baseball Youtube channel so check it out this one though I think a lot of people would enjoy so I'm sharing it with you here and then you can catch the rest of the episode over there if you are so inclined thanks topic number one McNeil and reys Hoskins the fight I did a breakdown on it I was very interested in it uh in my breakdown this part kind of really made me think like wait what because they watched the replay and then mcneel turns after watching the replay and he says you think that's [ __ ] okay and you can see reys is like yeah so there's just a disconnect between what's a good slide what's a bad slide what's allowed what's not allowed what's dirty what what's not dirty what's aggressive and competitive and what's dirty and and McNeil seems to think that anything aggressive and competitive is dirty because a lot of MLB players that I I I reached out to Trevor plof who does talking baseball uh and then he reached out to other guys like that's not dirty it's aggressive it was late but he's trying to break up the double play Within the rules of the game and didn't get anyone injured uh Dallas bradden twe it out like dude learn to move your feet around the bag you just planted there so the first thing and the rabbit hole I'm just going to give you the rabbit hole that I went down in chronological order number one this picture was flying around the internet from Braves fans saying like oh MC Deal's done a dirty slide too look at this slide he's way offline out of the base path so I said all right let's go find that play I want to I want to see if that you know if this is just a screenshot or is that really a dirty play so I pulled up play and here it is ble back hits it to Second McNeil slides and they running each other it's not dirty he's he's really just sliding way early like if you want to say the cut off of the grass I don't know if my cursor on screen the cut off of the grass right there that's kind of like early or late just just an easy way to gauge if you slide after that it's a little late aggressive if you slide before that you're giving yourself up because he's not really trying to get to the bag there I think he didn't realize the the short stop was going to come into him so I didn't think that was dirty it it it ended up helping but I didn't think that was dirty on McNeil's part to his credit now where things got weird is I went and I was like well let's see if mcneel has any dirty slides so I went and I searched every time McNeil's been on first base and um there's uh less than two outs so the team is going to try and turn a double play and there's a ground ball to the infield and I wanted to see what that looks like and what I found kind of blew me away and I'll just show you all the videos that I found now and what you're looking for as this plays is McNeil's the runner on first and how he tries to break up double play there is a 643 Taylor hard to short Velasquez makes another good play starts in inning Hopper out to Adamas toow one first Altuve with the easy turn for the six4 ball right at Birdie the turn by Diaz Roos the flip to Castro off balance play ball right at eaus the turn by Alberto for the six Kim will go to Second for one on to first play ball right to Crawford the turn so as you can see he he doesn't try to break up the Double Play It's almost like it's not an option in his head uh I watched 160 instances in his career and um I had to cut a lot down because this this got too long uh a lot of them look like this for the play ball right at Barts and the turn by Gonzalez turn there's one on first double play that's why he did it you saw him move into the spot and it start to McMahon I mean he's not even he's being considerate he's being gentlemanly he's saying hey I don't want to get in the way of what you guys were doing you want to turn the D play go ahead and turn it who am I to try to stop it second and Donald on the back out at second and there's the grounder kamaro to Second for one for Harrison Garcia down to Third walls goes to Second for one L P Panic to Crawford two Al to right could be what was the Hat you know what was that one if I go backwards here uh when I was F when I was finding these there were some like that where he just runs straight through doesn't slide at all he never really tries to slide and get to the bag uh he's not really trying to get in the way so that was really weird to me and kind of eye opening like oh he's very respectful so he thinks that you shouldn't try to break up double plays uh and then I was like okay let's go watch what reys Hoskins does who's slower than mcneel and mcneel has this like uh reputation as like a blue collar Grinder like tough player so that kind of really surprised me to see all of that I went to re Hoskins who's slower I think 20% I think Hoskins is like I think McNeil's 50% in Sprint speed and Hoskins is like 25 uh so here's every time ree Hoskins has been on first base and there's a grounder to the infield less than two outs so the team is going to try and turn and double play and here's how he attacks it that's trying to turn two left side corworth will go to second base for one on to First it'll be off the mark Short Stop The Young has it goes to Second for one back over to First not andone to Second for one and they won turn the double so as you can see what Hoskins does is he gets his ass down the line quick when he gets to that cut off point that I was talking about he gets big like a bear like you're trying to scare a bear ah you know uh throws his hands up gets kind of upright with his chest and then drops down into the base and as you can see on these highlights he induces a lot of bad throws and breaks up the double play he's never injured someone at second that's a good example of what he does he's never injured uh the player you know there might be contact but within the rules and he's it's winning baseball I mean he's doing everything he can he's like hey I don't have speed so I'm not going to be safe here uh let me try and do everything I can to play winning baseball and that's what he's doing and this was again I had to cut this down I just there was just a lot of examples of this where he's inducing bad throws putting pressure on the Fielder and it's working uh mcneel was the complete opposite he was granting people double plays I was very confused I was like this is odd so I oh this I have so many more of these from mcneel see uh I colorcoded it pink was to the short stop yellow was to the third baseman and blue was to the second basem and yeah so Rees breaks up a lot of double plays by using his big body and getting to the bag down late again he's never hurt anyone um it's just that's it's still part of the game the rules didn't make make this not part of the game but I I'm beginning to think the Mets might think the rules made this not part of the game CU I kept digging right well first I wanted to compare Rees and mcneel again mcneel is faster here's the ball hit to the short stop and flipped to second base very similar play Rees is already in frame and he's sliding he's not going down until he hits that cut off point of the grass where mcneel is giving himself up way early has no interest in being part of the play and just says there you go go ahead turn it uh so that was wild and then I said okay let me find one in a close game because that's unfair if one game doesn't matter and the other game is really close so up top you have Phillies uh they are tied at zero in the bottom of the fourth inning base is loaded down below the Mets are up two in the sixth inning and I also wanted to find balls that were hit similar so if you see on my uh Premier timeline this blue marker that's when the ball hits the bat so ball hits the bat I snc that up uh and then the ball is hit to the short stop and as they flip it to the second basem you can see ree Hoskins is in frame and he's about to get big on him like a bear and then drop down to make it hard and mcneel just comes into frame now and is has no interest in in playing competitive baseball on this play just gives himself up and makes it easy and I was like that's crazy and then I wanted and then I wanted to make sure people didn't think I was was cherry-picking a bajillion so I put two ree Hoskins on the right and eight mcneel on the left and again this point uh where the blue marker is on my timeline is when the bat hits the ball and if you watch through to when ree gets to the bag he's by the cut on the two on the right already and mcneel is nowhere in frame on the bottom four and on the top four he's like going down already uh and not really trying to break it up so that blew me away man I like what's going on here is this just a mcneel thing is this a Mets thing and then I was I was is this around the league thing like what is this I again I sent videos to some players that I know and talk to and they were like what that is crazy what is going on they're like Reese looks normal that's like what you're supposed to do so then I had to dig deeper because I was watching the Mets game last night and Lindor on a double play ball ran through the bag and then the announcers kind of talked about the strategy to that but to be honest I forget and I couldn't figure out what they the strategy was so I'm going to have to go find that footage right now because I couldn't prep it let's go see if I can find it okay I found it it was a double play to end the first inning Lindor just runs through the bag and they explain why here again this is me hearing it for like the first time cuz I don't remember what they said play that ended the bottom of the first inning I'll be byas with the glove flip and you see that Lindor does not slide there this is something that is relatively new in the game where players are being instructed to do this yes and the idea is that if they don't get the out there they have to go tag and the running from third is going to score and also another thing too okay if they don't get the out if they don't get the out if they don't get the out they have to go tag him and the runner on third will score so if the if the if they don't get the out at second so if the Fielder what if the Fielder botches the the like misses the bag with his foot that's what they're preparing for there's a Runners on first and second so they're saying don't try to slide and make this what they okay standard strategy would be like hey it try to do a late slide and make this dude uncomfortable turning this double play Within the rules and without injuring him and if he throws the ball away the runner that was started on second that's at third rounding third right now will score on a bad throw right so force a bad throw or make him so uncomfortable he doesn't want to throw it away and he eats the play and doesn't turn to the they're saying they're Mets are instructing them to casually jog through the base in case this dude's foot isn't on the bag so then he would turn around and go tag Lindor and while he's doing that the runner on third will score that's crazy weird I think the Mets think you can't break up double place so I watched this last night I was like wait what what are you doing what's happening so then I went back into the deep Dives and I found all the other Mets players last year that kind of have speed and should be hustling and breaking up double plays and I I searched for in is when they would be tasked to like make the dude uncomfortable to throw it so uh here's what I found Urus to Second for one on to first one toward the middle and a great diving stop by Abrams the turn by middle right at Roos jles takes it they all do it to the the third s what is that there's not a runner on second that could be rounding third in this one so like that strategy doesn't even make sense even though it doesn't make sense already this is a tied game in the third inning and instead of trying to make break up the double play back to the third s play ball right at Franco LA with the turn and should be two Bal second for one over to First tied him up there you go dou down to third Hayes goes cross body to to the left side chance for two the turn by and Rivera High hop to Second catel for one all right here Pomo softly hit but Vach doesn't run well and it's a double play ball right to Seager the turn by semi double play ball right at Aria the turn by Ali to third ground on a hop Adamas nice play throw to second pick it2 Marte not running well and it's going to be third a chance for two Vargas to Shar one by Anderson the where was he where are they what is going on my only saving grace was and Mets fans if you're still watching I'm so sorry I was running this by Mets fans in the office being like guys what what's going on they said they never noticed this Alonzo and uh Cana last year they acted normal rounded slowly to third Durant with the sidearm toss that is the same as the Reese Hoskin slide you know good job by Pete he's at the cut of the grass he's getting down laid he's throwing his arms up he's trying to make them uncomfortable here's Alonzo again look at this nice so some guys I guess aren't listening to whoever's telling them to not do this uh here's Cana and yeah he's he's playing hard he he doesn't not want them to turn this look at that slide you know and he and he gets the player here Oswaldo and that's legal that's fair Waldo's got to move his feet you got to come through the bag you can't just stand on the bag uh so you know Alonzo and kind of great stuff and then I thought okay before I make this video I got to check around the league I got to make sure this isn't widespread and just because like the Yankees don't do it I've never noticed it or you know even Mets fans that I talked to they didn't even notice it so I checked around the league and I'm going to give you guys the link to check but yes not every team is doing sure there's slow guys that they don't get down the line they're not going to there's kind of guys that might be injured or hurting and you know or or the game's lopsided but in most cases when it's a close game and you have a double play ball guys are trying to break up the double play they're trying to slide late make that Fielder uncomfortable within the rules of the law and break up the double play so that at least saved my soul a little bit but I don't know what's going on in Queens it seems like they're instructed I think maybe they have the rule wrong so I I will post a link to this search that I did for you guys so you can go check it out and what I did was here's all the parameters so I did 2023 season okay um balls hit to the short stop in third baseman all right there's zero outs or one out so you need two um Runners not on second not on third runner on first so you're going to turn two batted ball type ground ball and then just to because you get like 200 uh options to find better ones or you know to even like limit it a little more I did uh batting score difference three runs so it's a three-run game and then I did the exit V on the ball 80 mph to 95 miles per hour because if it's over 95 they're going to turn that so fast that the Run doesn't really have time to get down there um but anywhere between 80 and 95 that's a double play ball where the runner has time with a lead to go make something happen break it up and then you can um all all you got to do is change the team so you can check out how your team does this uh the only warning I'll give is Mariners you guys were very similar to the Mets but I think it's mostly uh aeno Suarez from last year but like man go to the angels who last year were um you know well they were in it for a while and then in the last two months they weren't uh they like they had 17 instances because we really dwindled it down and if you just watch a bunch of theirs I'll pop them all out and we'll just watch so you so you guys can see like if you want to do this at home this is how you do it just hold option or command open new tab and then you know just skip ahead to the ball and got down through that hands up tried to break it up yep hands up at the cut trying to get down very normal here we go oh that was an error those will pop up you'll see those every now and then um okay here we go right there hands up sliding late trying to break it up so Angels fans if you tuned in you know you got other problems you you care about but this isn't one so this is what I did all last night I just checked every team to figure out I just didn't want to make a video about the Mets and have it be widespread around the league you know but if you do this same search and you find the Mets it's it's it's it hurts my baseball Soul you know Le look at this what are we doing what is going on okay that one guy botched what are we doing this is Nimo he's fast so yeah you can go to this search and I'll put the link in the YouTube and what are we doing and you can see if your team uh what the organization does do they tell people to break up the double play or do they tell people to run away and not try to make anyone un comfortable and just give up and say oh you guys want to turn two who am I to get in the way uh very bizarre behavior I don't really get it and like I said it kind of hurts my soul a little bit to watch because just because you can't slide past the bag all you have to do is slide in the vicinity of the bag maintain contact with the bag and you're fine like Reese's slide was a legal Slide the reason it looks dirty and I'll go back to the premiere uh video of it the reason it looks dirty is because mcneel bobbles this ball also mcneel just stands on top of the bag because I think he thinks you can't do this but you can you're supposed to like run through it a lot of times you see the second baseman run through the bag catch it and move their body forward with momentum now this throw wasn't great and then he drops the transfer so instead of watching out for the runner he's like you know worried about the ball maybe but he's just playing planted uh normally he throws that and that back leg comes up and that's what happens when ree goes down instead the back leg stays down because he didn't throw it you know think about a throwing motion that leg would swing forward and he'd be on the other side of the bag Reese doesn't know he's going to Bobble the ball he bobbles the ball uh a lot of people said that reys cleed him and I was like what do you mean like he spikes weren't that up they're like the same level as the foot spikes up like get them in the shin and some of videos like showed earlier they did have spikes up uh and then it is awkward that he lands on the other foot but again at the time ree goes down he doesn't know bat's going to Bobble this ball and stay planted with both legs he thinks he's going to throw the ball and end up on over here you know uh so it ends up it's bad and it doesn't look good but it's it's mostly incidental and it's a still a legal slide I just think the Mets have been told that those slides are illegal and that's why we had this confusion you think that's [ __ ] okay you're allowed to slide what's wrong with that all that was Jimmy's first thing and to be honest I like these videos to be around 20 minutes and that was a deep dive into a first thing so I'm going to speed up the next two things Oakland's committing errors like absolutely crazy and Blanco threw a no hitter I don't know if I'm going to be able to get into all of these that much so let's just speed through it I'm gonna maybe I'll dice it up I'm search around I'm gonna find some interesting stuff