Spoken like someone who never watched his favorite team put Jose Guillen in right field.
The worst fielder I’ve ever seen live (that I can remember who made the bigs) was Jose Offerman. The number of times he overthrew the first baseman from shortstop in Albuquerque was amazing. I’m convinced he got called up to L.A. solely because he wasn’t a bad hitter and was really fast. I remember watching a Dodgers game on TV not long after he got called up and he overthrew first. Didn’t surprise me a bit.
I don’t have a cite for it, but I remember back in the mid 90s, one of the neatest things I heard about Barry Bonds was that one of the things he wanted to do on the field was throw a guy out at first, and not just a slow-running pitcher or catcher. It would take a lot of things to go right (not a slow rolling grounder; he’d have to be playing in; and probably a right-handed batter, among other things) for it to happen, but that’s a pretty cool goal, I thought. That’s one thing that always bothers me with criticism of Bonds- he was as good as, or maybe even better, than Griffey as an outfielder, and the home runs, walks, and PED talk has really overshadowed a great part of his game.
Ah, Jose Offerman, “spelled with two F’s and about 40 E’s,” as the saying goes. I vaguely remember the end of the Bill Russell era in L.A. and Offerman’s first years. Offerman really was that bad.
Though I grew up with a “Greg Luzinski” bat, I never saw him play. Pulling up his player card and seeing defensive numbers below Dunn, Lee, and Ramirez makes me shudder at how bad he truly must have been in the field. Of course at the plate, all of the above OFs more than made up for their miscues in the field. At least Lee used to, anyway…
I saw Andre Dawson do that once-much easier for a RFer to get someone at first. But I did see a LFer gun down Rusty Staub (one of the slowest players ever in the majors) on a forceout at 2nd.
I remember the same thing happening to the Yankee’s Chuck Knoblauch in the late 90’s and early 2000’s. He suddenly developed a complete inability to throw the ball to first and had to be moved to the outfield.
Soriano is currently leading the team in HR, RBI and AVG. Most fans are happy with a player who manages to hold the offensive triple crown for their team.
I’ll take him. Because you clearly want to offload him, I’ll give you some rookies.
Manny had two of the most, ummm, interesting plays I’ve ever seen.
His inexplicable cut off from Damon. He basically intercepted a ball intended for the second baseman.
His high-five to a fan after making a running catch at the wall. Then got the throw back into the infield to get a double play on the guy at first. video.
I wouldn’t be in a rush to acquire a 34-year-old corner outfielder who was really terrible last year, but I gotta agree, Soriano’s off to an excellent start this season and I’m not sure why anyone would be pissed at him.
I guess Soriano must be a frustrating player to watch because he’s sloppy in the field and impatient, but you could do a lot worse.
I seem to remember a joke that went something like: What do Bobby Fischer and Chuck Knoblauch have in common?
Answer–e4 all the time