March 19, 2007
Learning Experience
When you watch spring training games, it's sometimes difficult to know what parts of the game a team is experimenting with that day. On Saturday, the Indians were practicing base running. The team swiped four bases, was caught twice and picked off once. But that was all part of the plan:
"We want to get a feel for their instincts on the bases," manager Eric Wedge said.
Instincts are a necessary, if less tangible, complement to pure speed. In recent seasons, the Indians have been short on each.
So the Indians have been working on training their runners, and now they're using game situations to see who's learned the lessons, and for the players to learn when they can and can't run. That's why there's spring training; it's a chance to fix weaknesses.
As a big fan of Jhonny Peralta (perhaps the least rangy young SS out there), I'm glad to see that he has a couple of SBs this spring.
Diane,
He should be better now that he decided to get glasses!
Er, contacts I should say :-)
I was under the impression that, beyond the late season trial run of contacts, he had Lasik surgery during the off-season.
Have you read that anywhere .... or am I dreaming?