[Highlight] Luis Arraez drives in Ronald Acuña Jr. to give Venezuela an early lead
Quick everyone get in here
The Iron Dome has some holes
Luis “Ruhollah” Arraez
Israel defense … not so good
The iron dome is no match for Ronald Acuña Jr.
Bader is actually pretty solid on defense, but he is not fast enough to be CF. He’s a pretty good choice for LF on any MLB team.
His sprint speed was 85th percentile last year and his range (OAA) was 92th percentile. Not sure what the lack of speed you cited was.
This play certainly didn’t display that though lol
That bat is booty cheeks tho
He had a 117 ops+ last year
He was one of the better hitters in the league last year. I’m not sure you guys know who Harrison Bader is
Which is surprising since they are in a dome.
Inject this into my veins all season long
Edit: aside from the part where Harrison Bader looked like shit on defense
I see Modesto Nuts flair, I upvote
I always thought his dives looked super awkward
That should not have been a hit lol
Awful defense
I am a defender from israel and this is my defense
If Arraez swung then it’s a hit
Well, it was 🤷♂️
Bader… that better not be a trend heading into the season.
Arraez… that can be something that is welcoming heading into the season.
i saw some hate for having arraez batting third but i honestly think he’s perfect for this tournament. better than having him hit leadoff which real life major league managers have done for years now (or second which is also pretty bad)
So Israel can throw bombs, just not on the field.
WTAF was that angle from the CF
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I mean that center fielder is an american who won a gold glove
There’s just something so weird about having an Israeli team in this tournament and it literally has nothing to do with politics. They dont have a roster if Israelis, it’s literally 95% Americans. If a team cant even put together a handful of players that are actually from their country, they shouldn’t be participating in a world tournament. And on top of that, the players they can scrape together AREN’T EVEN THAT GOOD!
Why go through the effort of putting together this bad team from an extremely small country that doesn’t care at all about baseball, where none of their players are even from the country. It just ends up feeling like a weird nondescript political statement that they’re there at all. At least with GB and Italy, we’re talking a very large population of people to pull into the sport.
It’s because anyone of jewish descent gets Israeli Citizenship. And if you are a citizen of a country then you rightfully should get to play for it.
Great Britain and Italy are the same way. Crazy number of Americans
Let’s…having some fun?
Haviñg
That throw was a tad off line
Israel gonna demand the rules be changed until it’s in their favor
Right after Simon was feeling himself after a strikeout
Hey that’s not a worthless single
Shouldn’t have even been a hit. Horrible route by Bader.
MORE
The hell was he aiming for with that throw?
My boy!!
Was that Bader that missed that? 😂
Defense of all time
Bader, bubeleh…..oy gevalt
According to Reddit, most overrated player in MLB
I mean…he is? No other player that’s this mediocre gets talked about so much and praised
It’s cause he has a tool (contact) that was at times far above anyone in the league. It’s like how people gush over speedsters who lack other tools. Totally valid to get talked about a lot.
I love watching him hit. It’s prime time baseball. He hits how my dad thought I was supposed to hit back in the day. Only difference is, Arraez is one of the best bat to ball hitters in decades, and I was just a sniveling little wimp.
You can enjoy watching someone play, but still comprehend that they’re not good.
Well yeah, there’s nothing wrong with liking him or how he plays. He’s just not very productive and objectively not very good overall.
How about he’s not very productive, but he’s a very good hitter?
He’s as good as it gets at making contact with the ball, but that is just one component of a good hitter. When you combine how terrible he is at other components (plate discipline, power, bat speed, etc) its hard to argue he’s been anything but an average hitter with one great tool. And then you have to remember he’s got terrible range on defense and is a negative on the basepaths.
He was a very good hitter in 2023. Its not 2023 anymore
Well said.
I don’t think anyone actually thinks he’s that good anymore and may be on the Jeter path of becoming so “overrated” that he becomes underrated
He has/had a specific elite tool that was very easily identified while watching him play, the only thing more noticeable than contact is power, and people wanted to see more contact after 8 years of 3 true outcome ball
You can be contact-oriented and still be a good player. Nico Hoerner is bare minimum top 3 at his position, and he’s in single digit home run territory every year batting around .300. The problem is that a lawn chair would field their position better than Arraez, he provides no value on the base path, and he often expects to be played at premiere offensive positions like 1B and DH while being barely above league average for overall offensive production (109 and 104 wRC+ the last two seasons).
I know all that. I do. But everytime I watch the guy hit I marvel at his contact and low strikeout %. I mean, I’m a Bill James fan and love analytics, but I also love watching old school line drives and watching a hitter like Arraez be able to consistently make contact. Sorry!
There is value in having a guy who can make contact and keep the line moving more than 98% of the rest of the league
He’s been barely above replacement level the past two years, but old-heads will tell you to look at his “batting average”. Not even a top 150 player in the sport.
Ugh, you guys are exhausting
How are we exhausting, by being right?
player is considered overrated because his only asset is making contact
player makes contact once
“not so overrated anymore huh dipshits”
Wow, how very astute.
How groundbreaking….how bizarre!!!!
Haha, fuck you guys.
-4 frv and a -.9 dwar last year, that’s pretty shitty. You have to do more than swing a bat in this game.
His career defensive stats are pretty shit too