Quote:
Originally Posted by DG
There are exceptions of course, but I will take a good catcher over a good F6 or F4 any day, and yet we allow them to be crashed and possibly lost for the season, or a career. Safety is no reason to give the neighborhood call, they can touch and get out of the way. When was last time one was lost for the season over a routine play at 2B?
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A good take out slide doesn't really take the fielder out, it makes him get nothing on the ball to first because he's trying to get out of the way via jump, step back, etc. There is never a collision the way we see at the plate. F4/F6 job on the play is to 1) catch and transfer, sometime touching the base 2) Get the hell out of the way 3) give the throw to first. On the takeout slide, you can't do 3 without doing 2 first, hence, no injuries.
Far different from the play at plate, where F2's responsibilities are 1) Catch 2) Block 3) Brace/Tag (different orgs. may teach 1 and 2 vice versa to eliminate the steamroll before the ball ever gets there, or dekeing the runner into slowing up).