Friday, August 16, 2013

Outfield Mastery

I remember watching the A's somewhere around 1989-1992 with an outfield that included Rickey Henderson in LF and Jose Canseco in RF. I'm not sure who the CF was (Dave Henderson maybe?), but I remember watching balls hit to the outfield and the CF would track them down. After he would make the catch, you could look at Rickey and Canseco, and they'd both be standing right where they were when the pitch was thrown. The CF was on his own on any ball hit between straight away right and straight away left. Those two guys had stopped giving a damn about defense a long time ago.

Tonight at the Ranger game, the Mariners are fielding an outfield of Raul Ibanez, Dustin Ackley, and Michael Morse. Is this currently the worst outfield in baseball? Could it be the worst of all time? I'd love to hear your thoughts: What is the worst defensive outfield ever?

5 comments:

DVs said...

"Joggin'" George Hendrick was a statue in RF for the Cardinals, and it seemed it was after Bake McBride left - and as I recall they were pretty bad on defense.

terry said...

I did see that Ackley has a heck of an arm on a throw home on Saturday night. if he learns the outfield, he might be decent.
but you are right on all the others, kinda like Terry Miller was
always the additional hitter in softball.

Norm said...

I guess I should stick up for my guys. Eggs and The Beast are defensive mainstays for the Tweeners. And I would also welcome Ibanez into the fold, although probably not for his glove.

The HEAD INMATE said...

I can't speak too much for the major leagues, but the Inmate outfield of J. Pierre, B. Giles, and E. Durazo in the early 2000s was an extra base hit waiting to happen.

Norm said...

How about this for the 2009 Nationals: http://bleacherreport.com/articles/189056-the-worst-defensive-outfield-ever-with-a-rookie-flyball-pitcher-starting

And while doing a quick google I found this interesting thesis about the most overrated defenders in baseball history:
http://bleacherreport.com/articles/881922-10-most-overrated-defenders-in-baseball-history#/articles/881922-10-most-overrated-defenders-in-baseball-history