The Jet Stole Home

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Time has come today.

A while back at BallNine I proposed it is time to beat the Nerds at their own game. Make smart, daring baseball plays, especially on the base paths, to counter the Nerd lunacy that has taken over the game. I’m proud to say it looks like some players and teams are looking to gain that edge.

Beat them at their own game – and that is why this week Phillies slugger Bryce Harper earns the Heads Up Award. That’s my award given out to a player who makes a basic baseball play to counter a Nerd move.

On Tuesday in the first inning of the Phillies 4-1 win over the Red Sox in Philadelphia, Harper stole home with two outs for the second run of the inning.

Because the Nerds have pitchers so locked into velocity, spin and shape, they forget about baseball – and that is exactly what happened to Red Sox starter Richard Fitts, putting his team in an immediate hole. But he had help. The third baseman Alex Bregman with the left-handed Brandon Marsh at the plate, was stationed 20 feet off the bag so Harper – a highly intelligent ballplayer – knew he could get a huge jump.

Fitts, a right-hander with a 1-4 record and 4.86 ERA, was pitching from the windup. Harper beat the throw and was safe. On the play catcher Carlos Narvaez jumped out in front of the plate to receive the ball and was called for catcher’s interference, the second straight game – in fact, the second straight inning – he was hit with catcher’s interference because the night before the game ended with a walkoff-catcher’s interference call.

Move closer to the batter and you are in much more dangerous territory for committing catcher’s interference, but the Nerds have decided it’s worth the risk to steal strikes.

Technically, Harper was not awarded a stolen base because of the catcher’s interference, amazingly, the eighth catcher’s interference of the year for the Red Sox – but it was Harper’s heady play that made the whole crazy run possible and that is why he wins the Heads Up Award,

And so much more of this could be done if only players would put in the time and effort to make more baseball plays in a Sea of Nerds.

Fitts was in no position to deliver the ball to home quickly. He was locked in on the pitch. Bregman, after reading his Nerd cue card, was in no position to hold Harper close to the bag, and Narvaez admitted after the game that he had no clue he committed catcher’s interference by jumping out in front of the plate and Red Sox fans were aghast.

Think of it this way folks, in what baseball world can the catcher jump in front of the plate and the hitter to catch the ball? Marsh backed out but that did not matter. Usually, catcher’s interference is like the previous night’s catcher’s interference where Phillies hitter Edmundo Sosa, another extremely heady player, delivered a walk-off catcher’s interference win for the Phillies when his bat hit Narvaez’ mitt with two strikes. The Phillies won that game without putting the ball in play that inning, another example of beating the Nerds at their own game.

The Red Sox, following the lead of the Yankees, have moved their catchers six to eight inches closer to the plate in an effort to steal strikes via framing, reinventing the wheel.

Move closer to the batter and you are in much more dangerous territory for committing catcher’s interference, but the Nerds have decided it’s worth the risk to steal strikes.

That’s some Weird Science, if you ask me.

“Just one dumbass play after another,’’ is what one top talent evaluator told BallNine on Wednesday. “Every night you see something stupid, and you say, what the heck were they thinking?’’

The players, for the most part, aren’t thinking baseball anymore, it’s all cue cards and analytics and the Nerds in Charge don’t think of the baseball implications in what they are pushing.

I’ve been told by scouts that certain hitters are now attempting to hit the catcher’s mitt on occasion with the bat to get the catcher’s interference call because many catchers have moved too close to the hitters.

The real lesson here was delivered by Harper. And it was hilarious during the long delay where the umpires had to check with the instant replay mothership to see if the call was correct, seeing Harper calmly sitting on the bench in the Phillies dugout, seated next to a stone-faced Kyle Schwarber, as if to say, “Hey, even if you don’t call catcher’s interference, I just stole home. I beat you at your own game.’’

Earlier in the inning, Nick Castellanos stole second base, so the Phillies definitely picked up something on the Red Sox who are all about the analytics under the reign of Craig Breslow.

There are so many stolen bases out there to be had, if only baserunners would make the effort to take the base. There are so many hits to be had if hitters only made the effort to find the green spaces in today’s game because there is still too much shifting.

This is just the tip of the iceberg. If the really heady players looked to take advantage of countless situations that don’t make baseball sense, there would be an explosion of activity, stolen bases, taking the extra base because outfielders so often are in poor position to throw and also so many infielders are still out of position because of the Nerd cue cards.

Out of position infielders cannot beat the baserunner to the bag, but teams are not taking full advantage of that fatal flaw in the cue card, analytical system.

Bryce Harper did with his dash home.

Twice I watched the Cubs bungle easy double plays the other day because their middle infielders were not in double play position. It’s crazy. And with the limited number of disengagements, teams should be stealing even more bases. Plus, a new trend has developed where catchers try to tailspin their throws into second so fielders can tag the headfirst sliding baserunner, and those throws are way off the mark if you go directly into the bag.

It is a galaxy of stolen bases waiting to happen, but the Nerds are still hesitant to allow their runners to steal bases, and they are not allowing their propeller head coaches who have taken over for baseball-smart coaches to coach proper technique. And some players are just too lazy to take advantage of the new ball of wax.

Bryce Harper though, showed exactly how easy it was to steal a run with two outs. It was as easy as in The Sandlot.

“I don’t believe it, the Jet stole home! The Jet stole home!’’

There could be a lot more Jets with these defensive setups. Put the pressure on the Nerds. And again, the propeller heads are not teaching baseball. As I said, Narvaez, had no clue that jumping out in front of the plate was catcher’s interference. I guess in all their instruction of framing pitches no one bothered to tell him that jumping out in front of the plate does indeed constitute catcher’s interference.

Maybe the Nerds didn’t know the rule.

Considering Narvaez came from the Yankees development system that is really no surprise because the Yankees are at the head of the pack when it comes to teaching One Knee Down, too close to the plate framing techniques instead of baseball techniques catchers had been taught for 100 years.

I’d love to hear what former Red Sox catcher Gary (Muggsy) Allenson and former Yankee and Red Sox catching coach Gary Tuck have to say about that.

Here is a tip to the Nerds, bring back people who actually know the game and can teach the game at a high level in a commonsense way. Challenge the players to play smart baseball, not sloppy baseball.

This is a key statement.

“Because nobody stole bases for years, there is a whole generation of kids and infielders that don’t know how to hold runners,’’ the evaluator, a former pitcher, said. “They don’t know how to identify a lead, how to identify a tell, that the guy is going to be going, everybody has different things that they do when they are going. They don’t hold the runner properly.’’

Pitchers have no awareness.

“They are trying to maximize something digitally created on the next pitch as opposed to holding the runner,’’ he explained.

Baserunners should be more aggressive, too, but they no longer have the base-running instincts of earlier generations. Harper has the instincts.

There are so many areas where you can take advantage of this era of player who no longer has to work on the fundamentals, something as simple as an outfielder getting behind the ball to make a throw. Same goes for catchers because of their bizarre positioning.

“I can’t stomach the tail throws to the first base side of second, there is no arm strength,’’ the evaluator said. “Catchers used to throw a BB on the bag and the old saying was you can hang your laundry on it because it was straight as an arrow. Thurman Munson was the only guy who could play the tail, and it worked. Munson would throw it to the third base side of the bag, and it would come back and be right on the bag.

“If these baserunners got a better jump and go in feet first, they would have more success stealing bases, instead of the oven mitt slides of today,’’ the scout said. “The fielder can dance around now because he has two oven mitts coming at him instead of two spikes coming at him. It also would help to have guys who know how to slide again. The sliding is horrible. You see how many guys bounce their face off the dirt. It’s just not very good. We are talking about basic fundamentals that aren’t being taught.’’

Bryce Harper got the big jump and went straight into home, spikes first. That is how you beat the propeller heads. Said Harper: “I don’t think anybody thought I was going to do it. I just thought, what a good opportunity with two outs right there. I got a pretty good running lead. I thought I was going to be safe either way.’’

And he was, a heads up baseball play.