NEWSLETTER
We’ve been talking about Jason Heyward’s recent offensive hot-streak quite a bit here lately (here, here, and here), but defense is still his bread and butter. In fact, even in his best offensive seasons – some of which were quite good – he was arguably still better-known for his elite glove than anything else.
And despite some early defensive metrics suggesting otherwise, that excellent defense has indeed carried over into 2018. In fact, even the advanced defensive metrics have caught back up to reality, but we’ll get into that in a second.
Because first, I want re-live this freakin’ fantastic outfield assist from last night, when Heyward nailed Corey Dickerson at the plate with a an absolute rocket!
Yeah, no. pic.twitter.com/gh6V7ZvGqH
— Chicago Cubs (@Cubs) May 31, 2018
That ball basically got to Contreras on a fly and, according to the Statcast version of the highlight, that makes sense, considering that Heyward threw that ball at … 96.1 MPH! WHAT?! I guess you can’t run on either of the Cubs corner outfielders.
As for those advanced metrics, I’d like to point out that Heyard’s Defensive Runs Saved is up to 3, which ranks 20th among all MLB outfielders and tied for 39th among all players in general. Meanwhile, his 3.4 ARM rating ranks 3rd among all outfielders, and his 1.8 UZR ranks 24th. I have absolutely no doubt in my mind that by the end of the year, he will reclaim his place among the leaders in almost every defensive category – and he’s already well on his way.
But he wasn’t the only one flashing leather last night.
With the bases loaded and two outs in the fifth inning, Josh Bell hit a 91 MPH grounder just slow enough for Javy Baez to make a diving stop (as he does) on the outfield grass. But when it came time for the exchange, his throw went wide.
Fortunately, Anthony Rizzo is a phenomenal defensive first baseman and made a diving grab of his own, while staying on the base to get the inning-ending out:
I know it didn’t ultimately matter, but at the time, that preserved a one-run deficit for the Cubs. Had that ball sailed past Rizzo, the Pirates could’ve gotten two or more runs and the inning would still be going, likely with at least one runner in scoring position. So that was actually a huge play.
It also gave us this weird look:
Funny/weird screen shot from last night's Baez-Rizzo defensive highlight: pic.twitter.com/145oitYJHA
— Michael Cerami (@Michael_Cerami) May 31, 2018
And that’s fun.
