He knew that because the umpire signaled a dead ball. Look, I don't think Eloy is some great defender but of all plays to criticize him on, I don't get why you are choosing one that had literally no effect on the game
I mean he clearly knew or else he would've thrown it in. You can't possibly think he's *that* bad of a fielder that he would just decide to not ever throw the ball in
I'm really curious to see how this game goes. Giolito against a lineup that has hardly even practiced (at least theoretically) for over 2 weeks. He could make them look terrible if he uses more than 2 pitches
He was towards the top of this list last year too, partially because he gets so many PAs. However, this year, all these hard hit balls are going straight into the ground
Not sure what the game thread was saying about this but I'm honestly not convinced there's a big drop-off from Madrigal to Mendick. Danny is a good defender too, and I'm not sure a rookie Madrigal is significantly better at the plate
I wouldn't say it's near 100% (even with the shift, as the bunt still has to be good enough for the pitcher to miss it), but I think you're severely discounting the probability of failed bunts.