Red Sox Defensive Gifs

mwonow

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 4, 2005
7,095
JBJ steals a would-be walkoff homerun to keep the Sox in a game they would end up winning



Full clip with replays (watch the facial expression of the O's reliever when JBJ makes the catch)
Thanks for this! I was so hoping that this thread would be updated with that catch. Might be the best I've ever seen - awesome in every way
 

SouthernBoSox

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 23, 2005
12,084
He made it look so.... routine.

Then when you look at it... it should have cleared by like 4 feet.

Give the situation, truly unreal
 

Import78

Member
SoSH Member
May 29, 2007
2,091
West Lebanon, NH
I love how smooth he is tracking the ball, I don't think he hits top gear because he knows he needs momentum to get there, even slows down some more as he gets close. It's a pleasure to watch that sort of play, especially when it's done almost nonchalantly. That play is basically impossible for most humans.
 

joe dokes

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
30,236
Padded walls are awesome because players wont get killed running into them, but also because a baseball spike can dig in and get some leverage for plays like that. Its amazing to me that he can time his jump into the wall to turn his forward speed into vertical AND track the ball.
 

DanoooME

above replacement level
SoSH Member
Mar 16, 2008
19,831
Henderson, NV
Did Brasier hurt himself on that pitch? It sure looked like he grimaced after taking a little hop at the end of the follow through.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2008
42,271
AZ
Did Brasier hurt himself on that pitch? It sure looked like he grimaced after taking a little hop at the end of the follow through.
He stayed in. I thought the grimace was because he had just given up a walk off home run. Except ...
 

amRadio

New Member
Feb 7, 2019
798
When you see that replay it really does look like something was bothering Brasiers leg. Weird hop after the pitch for sure. We can't really afford to lose any high leverage options right now so lets hope it's nothing.
 

Dewey'sCannon

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 18, 2005
869
Maryland
Off the bat, I thought it was gone, but then i saw Jackie tracking it. When he got closer, I thought it would be one of those "jump and wave at it" numbers, but when I saw him go up waist high on the wall my hopes were raised as well. I loved how he nonchalantly flipped the ball from his glove to his hand as he walked away from the wall. as if to say, "no biggie." Nothing Mancini could do but tip his cap - he was crushed, but classy.

Our OF last night:
Betts: HR
Beni: GW HR
JBJ: Game-saving HR robbery

They are the bestest.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2008
42,271
AZ
Padded walls are awesome because players wont get killed running into them, but also because a baseball spike can dig in and get some leverage for plays like that. Its amazing to me that he can time his jump into the wall to turn his forward speed into vertical AND track the ball.
But how does he know where the wall is? That's the part of the play that just makes no sense. If he's a little bit short then he plants into nothing. If he's a little long he bangs his leg into the wall before he plants the foot.

I'm sure he felt when he was off grass and on the track but he's running backwards diagonally and watching something in the sky. He plants his foot into the wall at the top of his jump and then propels himself even higher. The degree of difficulty seems off the charts.
 

teddywingman

Looks like Zach Galifianakis
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2009
11,168
a basement on the hill
Might be the single best homerun theft ever? Considering it would have been a walkoff.

Where do you go for the defensive #s suggesting the % of times that play is made? I bet it's like 50%.
 

mwonow

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 4, 2005
7,095
Might be the single best homerun theft ever? Considering it would have been a walkoff.

Where do you go for the defensive #s suggesting the % of times that play is made? I bet it's like 50%.
50 five-zero? I've been watching baseball my whole life, and that's a one-in-my-whole-lifer
 

teddywingman

Looks like Zach Galifianakis
SoSH Member
Jul 31, 2009
11,168
a basement on the hill
50 five-zero? I've been watching baseball my whole life, and that's a one-in-my-whole-lifer
I should have been clear that I was making fun of defensive metrics. One of Bradley's best catches at Fenway last year was deemed catchable 70% of the time, when it was obvious that even JBJ wasn't likely to make that play 70% of the time.

Edit: Catch I was thinking of is in post #466 of this thread. And I was wrong on the probability, only 42%.
 
Last edited:

mwonow

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 4, 2005
7,095
I should have been clear that I was making fun of defensive metrics. One of Bradley's best catches at Fenway last year was deemed catchable 70% of the time, when it was obvious that even JBJ wasn't likely to make that play 70% of the time.

Edit: Catch I was thinking of is in post #466 of this thread. And I was wrong on the probability, only 42%.
Got it, and yes, 42% for the catch at #466 is an order of magnitude plus high.
 

Pitt the Elder

Member
SoSH Member
Sep 7, 2013
4,417
The xBA on that ball was .730 but that's just based on distance and velocity. At 401 feet, a ball with that profile is probably caught on the track with that profile.
 

williams_482

Member
SoSH Member
Jul 1, 2011
391
Looking at JBJ's Statcast fielding page, the dot most likely to be this catch is given a 40% catch rate, requiring that Bradley cover 98 feet in 5.5 seconds. I think it's pretty clear that this is an amazing play because there was a wall in the way, not because of the distance Bradley had to cover, and that's something that Statcast still doesn't account for perfectly.
 

Saints Rest

Well-Known Member
Lifetime Member
SoSH Member
Has anyone figured out how high Bradley reached to get that ball? I figured that the fence looks to be about 7'-6" to 8' high and his waist was on the top with his arm out-stretched (and a glove on, obviously). I'm 6'-2" and can almost touch 8'-0" flat footed with my waist about 3' above the floor. So maybe 8' (fence) + 5' (reach measured from waist) = 13'. Wow.
 

DennyDoyle'sBoil

Found no thrill on Blueberry Hill
SoSH Member
Sep 9, 2008
42,271
AZ
I would guess he caught it about 11.5 feet above the ground. I think the wall at Camden Yards is uniformly 7' except the 21' wall in right field. He actually doesn't even catch it at the top of his jump. It looks to me as though his belt is about half a foot to a foot under the top of the wall at the moment he catches it, and then he actually continues upward for another almost foot. If you figure his torso to the tip of his glove is about 4.5 to 5 feet in length and that his belt is about 6.5 feet above the ground when he touches the ball, that makes it between 11 and 12 feet, though he gets higher before he starts to come down.