August 8, 20197 yr I know what you're talking about, but those aren't the ones I'm referencing. These aren't charged at all. As to your comment "Doesn't do any good to catch it if you can't throw the runner out." I'm sorry, but that's ridiculous. A ball that's waved at by a first or third baseman very likely could end up a double if it makes it into the outfield, so I dang sure want my infielders to catch the ball first, before thinking about whether or not they can throw the runner out. You can't throw it if you don't have it in the first place. And to bad hops...I agree that fields are immaculately maintained compared to our Little League, or even many of our high school fields. However, I've seen at least a half dozen "bad hops" at the pro level just from watching the Reds this year. But it's not the balls that bounce cleanly in the dirt. Normally they occur when the ball hits where the grass meets the dirt, which usually meant just the end of the infield grass area. But now, with the shift being employed more and more often, and infielders playing deeper, now you have to worry about the area where the infield dirt meets the beginning of the outfield grass, too. So, short of going back to all-turf fields, those areas are always going to be in play for the potential "bad hop", and not even the best grounds crew can do anything about them. A lot of how an infielder approaches a ball is situational. Are there times when you need to just knock it down and keep it in the infield? Yep. Does a fast runner change your approach? Yep. The speed of the ball, positioning, number of base runners and where they are at, among many other things, all affect how fielders approach fielding the ball. Sometimes getting in front of with two hands is the right way. Some times fielding it off to the side is the right way too. And because players are human, even if they do it the right way, sometimes they still blow it.
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