Playing game within game
S.F. outfielders vying for ‘least probable catch’
Sensational outfield catches guarantee highlights, make a pitching staff happy and help save and win games. See: Tauchman, Mike.
Great grabs also mean moving up the ranks in the team’s internal competition: The Giants are trying to top each other when it comes to outlandish outfield play.
“We’re pretty competitive about it,” outfielder Austin Slater said in an inperson interview. “We have a running bet on the season to see who can make the least probable catch.”
Astonishingly, Tauchman is not in the lead despite his jawdropping catch to rob Albert Pujols of a gamewinning homer with two outs in the ninth
Friday. The Giants won it in the 10th, so it certainly was the most significant catch of the season. And one of the most painful: Tauchman crunched into the fence hard while making the play.
“That doesn’t feel good, that’s for sure,” Slater said. “That’s an incredibly tough play, to have awareness of the wall and try to time your jump and still catch the ball. I was 0for2 on those kind of plays the day before. The concentration level to do that is impressive.”
“One of the best catches I’ve ever seen, given the situation,” right fielder Mike Yastrzemski said on The Chronicle’s “Giants Splash” podcast. “We’ve probably seen more acrobatic catches, but we’re not going to see a catch that matters more in a situation. That was absolutely incredible, perfect timing with everything. Hats off for giving us a chance to win, which we ended up doing.”
Despite that flashy play that silenced the crowd at Dodger Stadium entirely, Tauchman is not leading the pack when it comes to difficult catches, according to the top statistical measuring tools.
“Unfortunately, it’s not really up to us to decide what’s a tough catch and what’s not, because that would be No. 1 right there,” Yastrzemski said of Tauchman’s play. “The numbers dictate that all from TrackMan, so we’re just kind of going by what that says.
“It’s definitely competitive. Everybody wants to outdo the other guy, and I think that creates like a really good atmosphere for us.”
The one downside is that allout defensive play can lead to injuries; plenty of excellent outfielders have seen their careers shortened by repeated collisions and hard dives. Yastrzemski sprained his right thumb trying to catch Max Stassi’s fourthinning double Tuesday night and could miss some time.
Who leads the Giants’ lowprobability catch competition? Steven Duggar, despite less playing time than the others.
“He’s had a 15% catch probability, one that was even lower than then Mike’s, which is crazy,” Slater said. “The system’s not perfect. A lot of it is based on where you start, how hard the ball is hit and how much ground you have to cover. But the systems they use apparently have trouble with picking up where the wall actually is, so the one I missed that was a triple was only an 89% catch probability even though it hit like the top of the wall. The analytics aren’t perfect.”
But wait: There are many systems attempting to qualify outfield plays, and they don’t
produce identical answers.
Statcast shows Tauchman as having the highest percentage of difficult catches among the Giants’ outfielders and has him seventh overall in the majors in that area, with Yastrzemski second on the team and 13th in the majors. Duggar is in MLB’s top 10 in Success Rate Added.
FanGraphs shows Yastrzemski tied for sixth in the majors in Out of Zone plays, with 33. Slater is second with 21, Tauchman third with 19 despite being acquired April 27. And Duggar, who has played in the fewest games of the bunch, already has 12. The Giants are fourth in these plays overall, behind the A’s, Diamondbacks and Rays.
Then there is Sports Info Solutions, which puts out the annual Fielding Bible and charts “Good Fielding Plays.” According to analyst Mark Simon, the system uses something everyone can appreciate: “the eye test says that you’ve recorded an unlikely out, almost the same as charting Web Gems.”
Slater tops those rankings with four Good Fielding Plays, Tauchman has two (including the Pujols theft), and Mauricio Dubón (yet another center fielder) and Alex Dickerson each have one.
The fact that each outfielder appears on at least one list and that the team leader in great catches is so difficult to determine is a good thing when it comes to evaluating the overall defense, showing that the Giants have a wealth of excellent outfielders. Another helpful development: Yastrzemski said the team has greatly simplified its system of outfield positioning, allowing for more individual input based on factors such as the swings the hitter has been taking, the pitcher, the situation, how the park is playing and more.
“That may be what’s helping us out there a lot more, so that we can make our own reads, and we can really just stay athletic and make sure that we can go make as many plays as possible,” Yastrzemski said.
With a huge outfield such as Oracle Park’s, a topnotch defense is paramount. When assessing the Giants’ surprising rise into first place, don’t overlook the outfielders. The pitching staff sure won’t.
“The most important thing is really instilling confidence in the pitchers that we are going to do everything we can to go make a play, so they don’t have to be so perfect with their pitches,” Yastrzemski said. “They can just really feel comfortable attacking hitters, because there’s a lot of space out there. ... What it comes down to is making sure those guys know that we’re going to give everything we have.”