Royals 3, Twins 2: Duran Command Derails Twins in 9th

I don't get all the fuss about Polanco not running out of the box, this looks like textbook hindsight bias to me. When he hit the ball it was barreled at 108 mph with a 23 degree launch angle off the bat. That is a home run almost all the time, so obviously guys aren't gonna be sprinting out of the box as hard as they can. This idea that you should be running hard on every batted ball until you know it's out/homer/safe is just pure fantasy, nobody is gonna accept that kind of injury risk. That the ball happened to be just 10cm too close to the field and stayed in play is just bad luck, nothing you can do about that.
I don't know if its fair to blame Polanco for not being aware that the ball didn't go out, but seems more reasonable than him not sprinting out of the box. Even if he was paying attention (which I don't think he was) how the would you tell that it stayed fair, and didn't go out but bounce back into the field of play, from the base pathes? To me it just seems like extreme bad luck that the ball wasn't a homer. Also for those calling for Rocco to publicly call out Polanco, I'd suggest you read up on the tyler o'niel situation in St Louis and see if that's the kind of culture you want to be created by the twins.
Though I can't say I'm surprised the twins lost this game given how god awful the bullpen was in the previous game. If they didn't have the umpire as their 10th player they probably would have lost that too, or at least taken it into extras. Big differences was the 8 runs scored vs the 0-11 with risp, but I would consider that pair of performances standard procedure from this line up.
But look on the bright side folks, at least we ain't white sox or athletics fans.

Twins have played pretty poorly across the board the last two games. Time to turn that around.

On 4/30/2023 at 7:10 PM, h2oface said:

I noticed Polanco calculating the speed and degree as he loped, Very talented. He can do it in his head. Seemed to affect his running speed, though.

To my knowledge Polanco still has nerves in his hands so he can feel how he hit the ball, which I think he's done a few times before, so I'd wager he has a pretty good feeling for whether or not he made ideal contact with it. He again to my knowledge, feel free to correct me, has eyes and 20/20 vision so he can see in what general angel the ball is traveling. Based on these two pieces of information he can make a pretty solid judgement on what kind of batted ball he has hit. But I'm sure all the armchair major leaguers here would be able to give him a few useful tips on how to play his game.

On 4/30/2023 at 10:40 PM, USAFChief said:

Holy cow. 

Pretty bad take. 

Pretty, pretty, pretty bad take.

No arguments 🤷‍♀️

On 5/4/2023 at 6:52 PM, h2oface said:

I don't know that an angel was involved 😇 . However obdurate the take, I am not interested in disputatious dialogue here. Many on the site will engage you. In the end, whether he was calulating or going on feelings, he was wrong, and embarrassingly out at second, and from the look on his face, personally embarrassed as well. I bet he even apologized to his teammates, and will be changing his behavior in upcoming games. I will never be advocating a player should just hustle selectively. Too much unexpected can happen on each and every ball in play, as we saw on this one.

Well I'm glad we've got the armchair coach and psychologist on the scene. As I explained in my previous post, which part was curiously ignored, guys aren't going to hustle on each batted ball event principally because of the injury risk, I would guess. Would have to see what the literature looks like, but if you increase the amount of 0 to 100 sprints you make it stands to reason that it increases the probability of injury. Since most major leaguers can reliably discern when to sprint and when to jog out of the box there is little reward for the risk.
But I'm sure even if I did consult the medical literature on injuries caused by burst activity in sports, there is nothing that would convince you otherwise. I am arguing against dogma here, an exercise in futility.     

16 hours ago, USAFChief said:

You're arguing baseball players shouldn't hustle out every batted ball.

That's not something most people would agree with. 

In fact, it defies belief.

Concur. You run as though it matters until the umpire tells you it doesn't.