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5/29/08

Tampa Bay Rays Ball Boy Makes Great Catch

Even The Rays Staff Is Getting In On The Fielding Fun

MLB, Tampa Bay Rays, Web Gem

CriticalFanatic

more posts by author

Check out this great catch by the Tampa Bay Rays left field line ball boy Wednesday afternoon (thanks to Jimmy Traina's Hot Clicks for the vid). Just an awesome grab.

That's how good things have been going for the Rays organization.

Tampa's MLB best record of 32-21 has been credited to many things: great young pitching staff, Troy Percival's resurgence as a closer, and a lineup that's been consistent from leadoff to the nine spot. Often overlooked is that the Rays lead all of baseball with a .989 fielding percentage.

1. Rays .989
1. Dodgers .989
1. Padres .989
4. Indians .987
5. Rockies .987

Fans get so lost in batting averages, home runs and strikeouts that would forget some of the best offseason acquisitions or lineup decisions are instigated by a desire to improve defense.

You can find several anomalies to the theory that great defense wins -- seeing as how the Padres are struggling mightily, but that's because they can't bat either. But if you've got talent on the roster, not giving up a few extra outs can be the difference between the worst record in the league and the best.

Teams like the Mets, Brewers, and Tigers are all near the bottom in team fielding percentage. You rarely hear that mentioned when we're talking about their struggles.

So clearly this Rays ball boy is learning a thing or two from watching Rays games. I can think of a few teams in the NL Central who wouldn't mind that glove for a defensive replacement late in games.

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5/29/08

100%InjuryRate

1	I assumed the Tigers and Mets were struggling because they sucked more than anything else.

5/29/08

Boski93

1	This is the closest the Pacers and good defense have come in years.

5/29/08

Boski93

2	(Edited by Boski93) Looks like this poster will be charged with the error for double posting.

6/1/08

azcardsfan

I di a blog a month before preseason why Tigers won't win series everybody laughed at me, now its still early but if they do not get some starting pitching they are cooked, they are also lucky the White Sox front office is scared to admit they screwed up by trading for Swisher and continue to trot him in field, instead of biting bullett and call up Jerry Owens to jump start his offense at the leadoff position, because if they hit just a little the tigers would be behind them by at 12 games in loss column, as again Sox had another game where they gave up 2 runs or less and loss their last 5 losses they have only gave up 2 runs or less