Riley Greene Catches

[Peter Welch]

2 more excellent catches by Riley Greene last night. 

https://www.mlb.com/video/riley-greene-s-strong-defensive-game?partnerId=web_video-game-index-page_video-share

Riley Greene's strong defensive game | 08/08/2025 | MLB.com Riley Greene makes two spectacular plays in left field during his strong defensive showing against the Angels www.mlb.com

I love Troy Melton's appreciative reaction.  He said "F—k yeah" after the first catch.

Riley's defense lately has been on point.  At least he's not letting his hitting woes affect his defense.

Peter

[Michael W]

I’m reminded of the old rec.sport.baseball mantra that diving catches aren’t generally a sign of good defense.  A player with limited range can make a diving catch at the edge of his range.  A player with better range, or a better route, just sprints over and catches it.  Parker Meadows, as one example, rarely dives.  

In particular, on the second play it looks like Greene first takes a circuitous route, and then didn’t really need to dive anyway.  He could have just run through it.  Greene seems to enjoy diving, which isn’t the best thing for an oft-injured slugger.

Michael 

[Paul Meloche]

I agree with you in a general sense, but wouldn’t guys with good range who take good routes on fly balls also dive for balls - ones that the poorer fielders wouldn’t dive for becuase they wouldn’t be close enough to do so?

Paul M.

On Aug 9, 2025, at 2:30 PM, Michael W <miw...@gmail.com> wrote:

I’m reminded of the old rec.sport.baseball mantra that diving catches aren’t generally a sign of good defense.  A player with limited range can make a diving catch at the edge of his range.  A player with better range, or a better route, just sprints over and catches it.  Parker Meadows, as one example, rarely dives.  

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[Michael W]

Sure.  Everybody dives, good, medium or bad.  But the best fielders need it less since then can cover the most ground toward their neighbors.

[Peter Welch]

Derek Jeter had an overrated defensive reputation because he made a lot of diving plays.  His range metrics were consistently below average.  Better shortstops with better reaction times wouldn’t need to dive so often.

Riley Greene was above average last year at LF in DRS and he’s a bit above average in DRS this year.  In think in general he’s a good defensive LF.  He’s not so good in CF. It’s possible some of those diving catches he’s made recently were from poor routes or poor reads of the ball, but I think Greene is an overall positive defensively. 

However, with all these diving catches you keep holding your breath that Riley doesn’t get hurt.

Peter

On Aug 9, 2025, at 6:01 PM, Paul Meloche <meloc...@gmail.com> wrote:

 I agree with you in a general sense, but wouldn’t guys with good range who take good routes on fly balls also dive for balls - ones that the poorer fielders wouldn’t dive for becuase they wouldn’t be close enough to do so?

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[Jeffrey Withey]

Riley is not playing tonight and Jones has looked pretty bad in LF. I think Riley would have made a couple of those plays. 

Jeff

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Subject: Re: Riley Greene Catches

 

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[Peter Welch]

Plus Jones has struck out twice.  Greene could have done that but at least played better defense.

Peter

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From: Jeffrey Withey <jwi...@med.wayne.edu>
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[David Panian]

I remember Austin Jackson almost never dove. It was kind of strange, but that's just how he played. He seemed to be able to run down most balls without diving.

To me, Jim Edmonds is the prime example of an outfielder who had a reputation as a good to great defensive player that seemed to be derived from all of his diving catches that made the SportsCenter highlights.

David

David

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[Peter Welch]

Jones goes 0-4 with 3 Ks and bad defense in LF.  So much for platooning Jones vs. a lefty and sitting Greene on the bench.

I think it's time to bring back Malloy and just let him play DH, at least against lefties (and maybe the occasional start in LF, RF or 1B).  Let's give Malloy another shot.  The guy keeps hitting well in AAA.  If he can't hit in the majors then he's probably just a AAAA player, but let's try him again.   We need to try to get some hitting help.

By the way, Malloy hit a homer against flamethrowing Hunter Greene (who is on rehab assignment with the Reds) last night.  It was on a high-90s fastball.

Jace Jung also homered against Greene on a fastball.

Peter

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[Peter Welch]

At his peak from age 23-25 A-Jax had very high DRS numbers.  He was probably the best defensive CF in baseball during that time.  Unfortunately his legs started breaking down and his defense declined a lot after age 26.  He was out of baseball by age 32.

I remember Edmonds kept crashing into outfield walls.  I think he had several trips to the injured list in his career.

Edmonds did have good defensive numbers for most of his career in CF.    He was still playing CF into his mid-30s and was still pretty good.  Not many players can play a decent CF into their mid/late-30s.

Peter

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Subject: Re: Riley Greene Catches

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