OnlyBucs

3E39283B2879744D0 wrote: Difo is an awful baserunner

I coached kids in little league that had more base running instincts than Difo exhibited on that play. He should have scored standing up. You can't teach a guy he needs to take 3 steps toward home plate . If the ball is caught he just returns to the bag and still has time to tag. Even if that was not the case , there are 2 outs and the "preference" would be to score if the ball was not caught. I coached baseball from 8 year olds to 25 year olds and for the most part players that are bad baserunners will never be good baserunners.

It's worrisome when MLB players fail to exhibit what should be routine base running skills. They should be thinking about what they are going to do in different scenarios before the ball is hit. With Difo on 2B and 1 out, it should be common sense to be in position to score on a hit. Instead of doing that, he was standing on the bag until the ball went off the RFer's glove. But if it's caught and he doesn't tag up, he can go back to the bag and should still score on a 2-out hit since he will then be running on contact. It's scary that a professional ball player can be that clueless.

And where was Cora? He should have been yelling to go halfway when he saw Difo was standing on the bag until the ball deflected of the RFer's glove. The replay showed the entire field with Cora standing like a statue with hands on knees calmly watching Difo standing on the bag the whole time. He then walked a few steps toward the coaching box and only waved Difo to come on when the ball was off the RFer's glove. That replay looks like Cora thought Difo was doing the right thing instead of screaming and waving for him to get off the bag and go half way. Cora has always been an incompetent 3B coach. He needs to go.

567B76676071662625140 wrote: Difo is an awful baserunner

I coached kids in little league that had more base running instincts than Difo exhibited on that play. He should have scored standing up. You can't teach a guy he needs to take 3 steps toward home plate . If the ball is caught he just returns to the bag and still has time to tag. Even if that was not the case , there are 2 outs and the "preference" would be to score if the ball was not caught. I coached baseball from 8 year olds to 25 year olds and for the most part players that are bad baserunners will never be good baserunners.

It's worrisome when MLB players fail to exhibit what should be routine base running skills. They should be thinking about what they are going to do in different scenarios before the ball is hit. With Difo on 2B and 1 out, it should be common sense to be in position to score on a hit. Instead of doing that, he was standing on the bag until the ball went off the RFer's glove. But if it's caught and he doesn't tag up, he can go back to the bag and should still score on a 2-out hit since he will then be running on contact. It's scary that a professional ball player can be that clueless.

And where was Cora? He should have been yelling to go halfway when he saw Difo was standing on the bag until the ball deflected of the RFer's glove. The replay showed the entire field with Cora standing like a statue with hands on knees calmly watching Difo standing on the bag the whole time. He then walked a few steps toward the coaching box and only waved Difo to come on when the ball was off the RFer's glove. That replay looks like Cora thought Difo was doing the right thing instead of screaming and waving for him to get off the bag and go half way. Cora has always been an incompetent 3B coach. He needs to go.   


Don't you have to really wonder about this and past coaching staffs ? Just the fact that they had Glasnow pounding the bottom of the strike zone with sinkers is enough for me. Watch Musgrave ...

Taillon v. Orioles 4.2 IP 3 H 2 ER 0 BB 7 K

I foolishly watched some of yesterday's debacle when I got home late last night, mostly because of the amount of comment about the Diffo play.

I was stunned to actually see the play. It is considerably worse than I imagined when I actually saw it.

I add another observation or two:

1) The Reds rightfielder, after retrieving the ball, appeared to assume that Diffo would/have scored and fairly nonchalantly made a short throw to the 2nd baseman.

2) The second baseman, appeared to have a much better sense of what was going on and quickly made a great relay to the catcher.

3) Diffo made a 'heroic' slide to try and atone for his lousy baserunning; both hanging onto the bag at second for dear life, and then when he did finally start running, slowing down as he turned 3rd as Cora was then windmilling his arm for him to go home. Naturally, Diffo's slide was not quite enough to avoid or beat the catcher's tag.

4) The capper for me was seeing Cora at 3rd clap his hands together after he was tagged out in that 'aw shucks, that doing quite work out' kind of way.

Cora has been a bad 3rd base coach now for way too long. There are a lot of problems with the lack of talent on the team, but this problem does not need to be exacerbated by a coach who frequently makes glaring mistakes.

Lastly, this kind of inexcusably bad base running (which I am guessing at this point will be repeated by him and others before the end of the season) should now simply be known as 'Diffoing' the play.

And --- also good to see that more of the relievers have come down with a case of the ridiculously high ERA disease.

All-in-all, a very sad