This story was excerpted from Christina De Nicola's Marlins Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
MIAMI -- Derek Hill's diving catch in the left-center gap. Dane Myers’ game-ending collision with the wall. Griffin Conine’s home run robbery.
Why has the Marlins’ outfield defense been so good this season? It’s a simple yet unexpected answer: crop circles. And no farmers or extra-terrestrials -- that we know of -- were responsible for an innovative technique that director of outfield Nathan Mikolas came up with as a grading system to better the unit.
This Spring Training, circles could be found in the outfield of the back fields at the Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium complex. They represented Statcast’s Catch Probability, which takes the distance an outfielder must go, the time he has to get there and the direction he travels to put a percentage of catch likelihood on each individual batted ball. Outs Above Average, which is a range-based metric of skill that shows how many outs a player has saved, is the season-long cumulative expression of each individual Catch Probability play.
“There’s a circle at 3 1/2, 3.6 I believe, and then 5 1/2 feet,” outfield coach Blake Lalli explained to MLB.com. “From the pitcher release, if they get to the first circle, that's like a 50 grade. If they get to the second, it's like a 70 grade. Correlation has shown that the outfielders that react the best go make more plays, even if their route is a little off. We just put hyper focus on moving early and quick, and seeing where it gets us, and trying new things.”
Entering Wednesday, the Marlins ranked as the following in the Majors:
• 1st in good fielding plays runs saved runs above average (3), per Fielding Bible
• T-1st for fewest errors (0)
• T-2nd in defensive runs saved (5)
• T-11th in outs above average (1)
“We're big on catch probabilities,” said Conine, who is the only Major Leaguer with multiple five-star catches this season (plays made on balls with a 0-25% catch probability). “We want 10 percenters and below. That's obviously really hard to do, so we're always, like, [if] we make a good one, ‘What was the percent on that?’ … We want to see who can get the lowest one.”
An infielder and catcher during his professional baseball playing career, Lalli had never specifically worked with outfielders before in his coaching career. He credits Mikolas’ ideas that he executes. Buy-in from the outfielders has been high, and so has the constant communication.
Miami also has the benefit of athletic outfielders with strong arms. Hill, Myers, Kyle Stowers and Jesús Sánchez can play all three positions.
So how have the Marlins been able to improve their reaction times and in turn their overall defense?
According to Conine, it starts with the pre-pitch setup. The outfielders try to time landing from a hop just as the ball is crossing the plate for momentum as opposed to walking into it. It’s all about the burst.
“Watch Derek Hill,” Lalli said of Hill, who is tied for sixth in MLB in OAA. “He's kind of like walking and shuffling into it [as the pitch is being thrown], and it's allowing him to break sooner. He's almost in constant movement, instead of just stand still and go.”
Miami’s outfielders practice this, using their training to replicate a game-like environment as much as possible, something the organization has been preaching in all facets.
Outfield drills consist of Lalli holding a baseball in each hand and dropping his hands toward the two machines. Only one baseball will be let go. During batting practice, outfielders will focus on every pitch while shagging. Not every ball will be hit to him, but he will still concentrate on the first five feet.
“We've been intentional about it,” Stowers said. “I think that's kind of what it is, just about getting off of wherever we're starting, just getting, quote-unquote, out of the first circle, and something we worked on all spring. I think when you work on something, you're intentional about something [and] you start to see it show up.”