posted on Tuesday, June 20, 2006 12:45 AM by Jim

Pod-awful defense

Last week, Ozzie made a few small waves in the media by speaking openly against using Scott Podsednik, as well as Rob Mackowiak, in center field on more than just a spot start basis. 

Today, he addressed the matter more directly:

"He [Podsednik] should be better.  He should be better because he was playing center field for three years. I don't know if it's concentration, but he should be better. It comes from work.   Sometimes you go to different ballparks and you can't read the ball well, but do we expect him to do better? We wish he would.''

Preach it, Oz!

At first, I thought it might've been the fact that Pods didn't get a full spring training to hone his ball-recognition skills, but as the article states, Pods has looked downright goofy in left field all year long.  Not only does Pods lead all AL outfielders in errors, but he has two more than Juan Uribe has in less than half as many chances that are far easier than the variety of batted balls that Uribe has to handle at short. 

The misread against the Reds that cost Jose Contreras the lead was just the latest of the numerous misplays Podsednik has committed across the season.  Going through the State of the Sox archives, here's as complete of a list as I can form:

  • June 17:  Freezes on an Austin Kearns flare, lets it drop in front of him.
  • June 13:  Drops a flyball against the wall; ruled a triple
  • June 9: Drops a flyball on the warning track to load bases; called an error
  • May 28:  Misplays Vernon Wells flyball; ruled an error
  • May 18: Drops two-out foul ball into stands; not an error
  • May 6:  Pods makes flailing attempt, ruins Vazquez's no-hit bid
  • May 1: Botches Victor Martinez line drive; error, leads to run
  • April 29:  Bad read on flyball, not ruled an error
  • April 13:  Bobble lets runner into scoring position
  • April 10:  Bad jump on ball in front of him
  • April 10:  Bad jump on ball over his head
  • April 10:  Overruns single down the line; ruled an error
And I'm sure that list is missing a few, as I haven't been able to watch every ballgame.  If anybody else has one that I missed, let me know.

The thing is, Pods is a lot better than he's shown as of late.  While going through the SOTS library, I came across a 9-1 victory over the Angels where he raced back to the wall at the crack of the bat and got there in plenty of time, leapt straight up and robbed Tim Salmon of a homer.  The wind was whipping and it wreaked havoc with several players trying to catch high flies/pop-ups, but Pods couldn't have played it better. 

That's the kind of left field Pods is capable of playing, and played most of last year.  Here's hoping some of Ozzie's words light a fire under his ass.

Comments

# re: Pod-awful defense

Wednesday, June 21, 2006 1:09 AM by eric
I know it's hard to tell sometimes, but it seems Pods actually plays better than average defense, or at least has in the past. I often complained about his defense last year yet he was ranked 3rd among all MLB LF in John Dewan's Plus/Minus system of evaluating fielding (only behind Crawford and Crisp). This came as a surprise to me, and I think Pods often gets a bad rap because he looks pretty bad when he's bad, and in the meanwhile many of his really nice plays go unnoticed. Maybe it's just me.

# re: Pod-awful defense

Wednesday, June 21, 2006 10:29 AM by Jim Margalus
It could be, but I do think that he was a good outfielder last year. It's hard to look good next to Aaron Rowand, who got to just about everything, but I thought Pods featured above-average range, and had no complaints about his play aside from the occasional misread.

I don't think I'm predisposed to rail on Pods' defense. Maybe his arm, but not his defense. It's just hard to think that with some different scoring decisions, he could have a near-.900 fielding percentage. That stat isn't something to base opinion on entirely, but that's almost dead-ball era bad.