Foundation for next year?

Plympton91

bubble burster
SoSH Member
Oct 19, 2008
12,408
Yes, statcast accounts for the wall in their outs above average which he is one of the the worst outfielders in baseball. the other metrics are based on stringers watching every play so that accounts for the wall now as well. for whatever reason benintinedi's speed has been getting worse every year.
That is described as the “cumulative catch probability that fielders have been credited or debited with. So it’s a counting stat based on total number of fly balls that were in a catchable range. This, by definition, the left fielder in Fenway is at a disadvantage to almost every other left fielder in the game.

If the ball falls into the fourth row of the bleachers in foul territory in LF in Fenway, OAA pretends the play didn’t exist. By contrast the left fielder in Oakland or Anaheim could be credited with a sliding catch against the wall on the same fly ball trajectory.

Also, “outs above average” would not account for the effect of Jackie Bradley’s tremendous range in CF on the number of balls caught by Benintendi.
 

Martin and Woods

New Member
Dec 8, 2017
81
That reason is aging. Everyone's speed gets worse every year.
If I remember correctly, Benintendi cracked an inordinate number of foul balls off his shins/knees/ankles/feet at the start of the season this year. It was painful to watch. That HAD to affect his speed and range for a good chunk of time. Hopefully some off-season rest and then conditioning will be Beni-ficial for him.

And, yeah, sorry for that last bit.
 

Green Monster

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 29, 2000
2,277
CT
If I remember correctly, Benintendi cracked an inordinate number of foul balls off his shins/knees/ankles/feet at the start of the season this year. It was painful to watch. That HAD to affect his speed and range for a good chunk of time. Hopefully some off-season rest and then conditioning will be Beni-ficial for him.

And, yeah, sorry for that last bit.
Just my 2 cents....I went to an early March spring training game and it was very obvious that Benny reported to camp out of shape. No way of knowing if it was his doing or had been instructed to "rest" over the winter, but he appeared to be a good 15-20 pounds over his playing weight. Most noticeably in his lower half and not "added muscle over the winter" I think he eventually lost that weight as the season progressed. Would be interesting if the slower data was skewed towards the first half.

For the record, I would love to be in the shape he was in back then.... The difference is I work a desk job and he is a professional athlete.