San Diego Union-Tribune (Sunday)
TATIS WORKING ON WAYWARD THROWS
Fernando Tatis Jr.’s penchant for throwing balls errantly from shortstop is something the Padres have been and will continue to work to remedy.
However, it has long been something that neither altogether surprises nor overly worries them.
It is clear Tatis is getting the message, that he knows the consequence of faulty defense but also knows who he is and what he can do.
“It’s definitely something you can learn,” he said Friday. “It’s definitely an area that is so important for the game. It’s definitely something we’ve got to keep working on and get better. Sometimes I have to slow down. That’s my blessing and my curse.”
Many in the organization have asserted that defense overall, and throwing accuracy in particular, is the easiest facet of a player’s game to improve. Somewhat paradoxically, it might also be the one that takes the longest for a player to reach his potential.
Hitting, hitting for power, arm strength and running can be refined and enhanced to some extent, but they are essentially inherent abilities. Tatis, who is now tied for the National League lead with 15 home runs and tops in the league with 12 stolen bases, has all five tools in abundance.
What the 22-year-old shortstop is struggling with — what has been the basis for most of his major leagueleading 14 errors this season and the 35 he has committed in 157 big-league games in the field — is harnessing his throws from shortstop.
“It’s a work in progress,” infield coach Bobby Dickerson said this week. “We had it in a great place last year. He got off to a slow start offensively, missing a lot of spring training. He’s rushing. He’s coming up out of his legs. … We’ve talked about it, continue to work on it.”
Applying Dickerson’s analysis to watching Tatis, you can almost predict when a throw is going to sail off course. When he is on target, he is fluid and compact. For many of his bounced throws, he is every bit of 6-foot-4 (yes, he measured an inch taller this spring) as he lets the ball go. There have also been a few plays where he seems to wait a tick on a few throws and try to rely on his arm, as he consistently measures among the game’s hardestthrowing infielders
“It’s just doing it consistently right now,” Dickerson said. “He’s had some moments that I thought, ‘OK he’s back, his clock is good again.’ But he’s got a curse, man, he’s got a great arm. He’s got a great cannon over there and that’s something as an infield coach that you try to get him to understand — that I’d rather have a 6 arm with 7 accuracy than an 8 arm with 3 accuracy. He likes to show that cannon off and some of the modern metrics that the industry has created give him points for throwing the ball across there at 100 mph.
“I just think he tries to get too much, he comes up out of his legs, he doesn’t stay in his legs, and then he tries to hold up. … Sometimes he speeds up. He tries to keep himself under control, he looks up and maybe the runner is closer than he thought it was going to be. His clock’s a little bit off. He’s coming up out of his legs. There’s a whole lot of things going on. More than anything I want to keep his rhythm right, stay in his legs, throw the slow people out by 10 steps, throw the fast people out by a step.”
According to Inside Edge, Tatis has blown seven of the 78 plays that would be considered virtually certain to be made this season. That success rate of 91 percent ranks 28th among major league shortstops.
One example of a sensational shortstop who took time to develop into a reliable shortstop is two-time Gold Glove winner Francisco Lindor. He made just 96.6 of routine plays in 2015, his rookie season. The Astros’ Carlos Correa made just 96.7 percent of his routine plays his first two seasons.
Tatis made 98 percent of the routine plays last season after 95.7 percent his rookie year.
“I’ll keep working,” he said. “I love who I am and will keep rolling with it.”
kevin.acee@sduniontribune.com
Padres 10, Astros 3 (11)