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January 7, 2010

Like A Puma! Like A Leopard!

It's a highlight reel, but damn.


SoSHer Cumberland Blues:
I'm not really a fetish guy, but that video is serious leather porn.

18 comments:

  1. It will be so refreshing after 2009 to have a third baseman that doesn't look like he needs a Hoveround. I love Mike Lowell, but he was just painful to watch last season.

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  2. my favorite is the one that goes way up in the air, and he barehands it and throws him out at like 1:50

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  3. mmmmmmmmm, SO looking forward to this season!

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  4. On the play at 1:21 I have to keep reminding myself that it's Coco Crisp at the plate, not Bengie Molina. The ball bounces off Beltre; he recovers, picks it up, throws and *still* beats Coco to first. Sweet...

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  5. I agree. Lowell was an integral part of Boston's championship but they get a nice upgrade with Beltre. Fenway will certainly help a .260 average.

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  6. "Leather porn" - I love it! Great clips!

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  7. my favorite is the one that goes way up in the air, and he barehands it and throws him out at like 1:50

    Me, too. I didn't notice he had barehanded it until the replay.

    Plus the off-balance throw from one knee in foul territory is also pretty nice.

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  8. He makes so many barehanded plays that you wonder if he first learned to play without a glove, or if he played cricket for a while (the latter seems unlikely since not many people play it these days in the DR, although I read that it used to be very popular pre-baseball).

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  9. Gareth - really interesting comment. I was thinking the very same thing. Being a Brit, I've always wondered how good top class cricketers would be as baseball infielders, just for that very reason - ie they have spent their entire life barehanding it and would presumably be able to do it in their sleep. You would think they would be pretty good at hitting a baseball too.

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  10. I know that the purists and WBC-objectors would probably hate it, but I think it would be fun to see top-notch folks in both sports take each other on in some form of "compromise rules" format like the Gaelic football-Aussie rules series every couple of years.

    Plus it would be interesting to see how the baseball players dealt with something like this!

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  11. Silverman:

    [John Dewan, owner of Baseball Info Solutions and a creator of most of the best-known defensive metrics] sees no coincidence that three positions the Red Sox focused on fixing this offseason - shortstop, third base and center field - were their three worst positions in terms of runs saved last season.

    The dramatic turnaround: Adrian Beltre's plus-22 ranking is 40 runs (or four wins) higher than that of the player he will replace, Mike Lowell (minus-18 in 2009).

    In fact, the defense of those three positions alone should be worth about nine more wins for the Sox this season, according to Dewan.

    ***

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  12. With only a 1 year we should see some good things from him.

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  13. redsock said...
    Silverman:

    sees no coincidence that three positions the Red Sox focused on fixing this offseason - shortstop, third base and center field -




    That is why I don't like those "new" defensive stats, I thought and mentioned on more than one occasion that LBJ should win the gold glove for centerfield. I also beleive he was named the top web gem winner for cf last year , I know great plays don't make you a great player, but I thoughi he was fantastic in cf last year...

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  14. andy said...
    With only a 1 year we should see some good things from him.



    It is amazing to think if they gave him three years , you would be expecting something less.....

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  15. Ellsbury was quite good in 2008 and bad in 2009. The general feeling was that he was playing too deep -- why? we don't know, the team positioning him, his own comfort level re the wall, ?? -- and let a lot of balls fall in shallow. Plus he gets shitty jumps on balls, often breaking back on short pops, though he can often outrun his mistakes.

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  16. Balls aren't caught one-handed in cricket, so I doubt any experience would translate if he had some.

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  17. Plenty of catches are made one-handed in cricket (for evidence, see here, here, or here), but I think there's also a very different feel to having one hand in a large glove as opposed to both hands "free".

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