Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
April 24, 2002
More on Defense and Triples:

David de la Fuente has a different take on my triples comment concerning outfield throwing arms:


I enjoyed your Strat-O-Matic post, a game I played for several years in
HS and college. But I, along with most major league scouts (of which I
am not one, just a copy editor for a major metro daily), would disagree
with your assessment that throwing arms are stronger now than ever
before. I think there's only one guy out there, Vlad, who has a cannon;
you go back to past eras and there were always two or three guys like
that around at one time, maybe more. (Ellis Valentine, Dwight Evans,
Dave Parker in the era you mentioned, 1979.) I've heard scouts say that
there's nothing but lollipop arms out there because guys just don't
practice long heaves anymore, in the same way that nobody shoots free
throws either -- just not too interesting. Anyway, as far as a
defensive aspect to the triples trend you mentioned, I'd have to guess
that better scouting and outfield positioning against hitters is a much
bigger factor.

Good points. Thanks, David!


Posted by David Pinto at 09:09 PM | Baseball