Nathan Ray Seebeck-Imagn Images

Welcome to another edition of Five Things I Liked (Or Didn’t Like) In Baseball This Week. Actually, this is a slightly different column: Five Nico Hoerner Throws From Shallow Right Field I’ve Liked This Year Plus Assorted Veteran Cubs Defenders. That’s a little bit less catchy, though, and it’s at least vaguely Five Things formatted, so I’m counting it. Does “plays a single second baseman has made in one area of the field in one month of play” sound like too narrow a topic for not just one article, but five vignettes? It sure does – until you watch Hoerner play. When I voted for him in the Fielding Bible Awards last year, I wrote this: “I actually spent a while reviewing his defense on video. That wasn’t because I seriously considered anyone else for the top spot; it’s just that satisfying to watch him play.” Today, you can be a video reviewer alongside me. Try not to spit out your drink. And of course, what introduction could be complete without credit to Zach Lowe of The Ringer, the inspiration for this column?

1. Calmness Under Pressure
When you’re on the baseball diamond, things won’t always go right. At the big league level, the margins are razor thin. The other guy lives in a big house, too. Half a second late, and there’s no chance for an out. Throw to the wrong base? That’s often going to cost you. But the Chicago infield is packed to the gills with defenders who can tilt the playing field with guile, clawing that razor-thin margin back. A freakishly high chopper, off the bat of Joey Wiemer, gave baserunner Andrés Chaparro a good opportunity to take an extra base on an infield single. Hoerner probably shouldn’t have even attempted to throw him out, but he went for it:

You can see the problem with this play right away. Hoerner had roughly zero chance of throwing Chaparro out. He didn’t even release the ball until three steps after he’d picked it up, and those three steps took him directly away from third base. That meant his momentum worked against the throw, and the ball reached Alex Bregman on three hops, with Chaparro at no risk of being thrown out. Meanwhile, Wiemer had Hoerner directly in front of him at first base, and when he saw that fallaway lollipop throw, he took off for second.

But Bregman bailed Hoerner out with a cerebral save. He abandoned third base early and charged the short hop. Meanwhile, Dansby Swanson saw Wiemer heading for second and backpedaled to the bag to give Bregman a good target. He got low, caught the ball at a good height for a tag, and stuck with Wiemer’s swim move:

This just isn’t a position that teams turn into outs:

But then again, not many third basemen recognize what’s going on quickly enough to make this play:

And check out Swanson throwing up his glove to fake receiving a throw. He was nowhere near the trajectory of that ball, but that’s very difficult for Wiemer to pick up given the angles involved in the play. Wiemer stutter-stepped briefly there, and then was out by a tiny margin. Swanson even had the wherewithal to apply an excellent, second-effort tag that kept Wiemer on the hook despite a very good slide:

I love how each of Chicago’s defenders acted like a force multiplier for the others. Hoerner’s throw would be ill-advised if it weren’t for the fact that his teammates were covering for him. Swanson’s deke wouldn’t have mattered if Bregman didn’t abandon the play at third and try to get an out at second. Bregman’s quick thinking wouldn’t have mattered if Swanson wasn’t in a perfect position to receive a throw and make a tag. Everyone is making everyone else better here, and it’s a joy to watch.

2. The Better Part of Valor
Hoerner might have hurled that ball wildly, but he isn’t just up there chucking. In fact, his off-balance throws are more common than you’d think, and he uses them effectively. I really enjoyed this one in extra innings against the Mets:

That might look like a ho-hum play, but a poor defender could concede a run there more easily than you’d think. When Hoerner fielded the ball, there wasn’t much chance of getting Marcus Semien at first. His momentum was carrying him the wrong way, and that move-to-your-left-throw-to-your-left action doesn’t work well for righties. The only option there would’ve been some kind of sidearm toss, without enough mustard to beat the hustling Semien. Lots of players would try it, but it definitely wouldn’t work.

The next option would be to just eat the ball. But again, Hoerner was headed into right field, and every instant he didn’t let go of the ball carried it farther from the infield. Here’s an overhead view of the field taken exactly as Hoerner fielded the ball:

MJ Melendez rounded third base aggressively, looking for any way to squeeze across a run. If Hoerner had put the ball in his pocket there instead of chucking it home, and especially if Hoerner had thrown to first, Melendez might have scored. He had a full head of steam and Hoerner was in a terrible position to make a throw. But while the throw he made wasn’t strong, it was quick, and that was more important in this situation:

If you think about this play in terms of risk against reward, Hoerner’s option is neither the one with the highest reward for success (throwing Semien out at first) nor the one with the least risk of making an error (not throwing the ball at all). But he realized that the more important risk to mitigate was allowing a cheap run, and so he acted accordingly. Runners score on busted plays like that all the time – but not against the Cubs.

3. Turning and Firing
Those first two plays showed Hoerner’s quick processing speed, but they didn’t exactly make his arm look strong. Let’s fix that. Look at this spectacular relay throw from basically the same spot on the field as the last two plays:

Andy Pages thought he was free and clear with a triple when his line drive turned Seiya Suzuki around in right field. But Suzuki recovered to hit the cutoff man (with a great throw, it should be said), and Hoerner made his relay count. This time, he had time to set up, and he used it perfectly. Look at where he was standing – or, well, not standing – when he caught the ball:

That’s textbook technique, catching the relay throw while already crow hopping. He landed in throwing position, with his entire weight headed to third base. That let him pull down and fire in one smooth motion and with maximum force behind the ball:

Don’t discount Bregman’s tag, either. Some third basemen get in trouble on plays like this by staying directly on the bag. When a throw comes in down the line toward home, they have to lunge in that direction, which means their momentum is carrying them away from the play. Bregman took a few steps to his right so that he could catch the ball in the middle of his body and remain in balance while he tagged Pages. Then he swept his tag directly at the space Pages was trying to slide through, which meant the runner had to attempt to hook around the tag. He failed:

If you’re wondering how difficult a relay is, you can usually check the runner afterwards. Pages’s face tells me this was a good one:

4. Follow The Bouncing Ball
Here’s the very next play from that game:

As hard as that looks, I think it’s even harder. First, the ball caromed off the glove of Michael Busch, who was incredibly close to Hoerner when he deflected it. The ball bounced high enough in the air that Hoerner had to stop himself, plant, and then jump to barehand it:

That’s difficult, and it wasn’t even the most difficult part. As you can see at the bottom of that frame, Ryan Rolison was late covering first and was suddenly in a footrace with Hyeseong Kim. You’ve seen this play out a thousand times, I’m sure. It’s hard to lead a pitcher with your throw; fielders prefer to get the ball to the pitcher and let them run to the base, or alternately to wait to throw until the pitcher is set up to receive it. But there was no time. Hoerner had to cut loose the instant he landed. The second his feet hit the ground, he whipped the ball directly to first, leading Rolison perfectly:

Rolison showed off some nice footwork, but really, this reverse angle mostly shows how accurate Hoerner’s throw was:

What a ludicrous play.

5. Spin Moves
Part of a middle infielder’s job is dealing with baserunners on first base. The faster the runner, the more that either the shortstop or second baseman has to focus on staying near the bag for a potential throw from the catcher. Last Sunday, with Corbin Carroll on first and switch-hitter Ildemaro Vargas at the plate batting right-handed, Hoerner drew coverage duty. Even though the Diamondbacks were down four runs, Carroll took off, and Hoerner dutifully rolled over to second. Then things got weird:

I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a defender make this exact play before. By the time Hoerner picked up the batted ball, he was already all the way to second base and slowing down to receive a potential throw from the catcher. He couldn’t track the ball off the bat because Carroll was directly in his path. So he looped around Carroll, made sure he cleared him, and then started tracking the ball over his shoulder like a wide receiver running a fade:

There were many ways for this play to go wrong. Hoerner could have collided with Carroll while he was looking up at the ball. He could have put his head down to gain speed and then struggled to reacquire the ball when he looked back up. He could have overrun it, or started too slowly, or picked a bad angle. If you’re in a hurry to make this play, you’ll almost certainly fail to make it. It requires intricate timing and precision, not the kind of thing you can do in a hurry. But Hoerner’s internal clock was perfect; he didn’t have to hurry to make the play, he just had to be calm and decisive. He never even hit an all-out sprint; he just kept track of the ball and eased under it in complete control.

That was just half of the play; the throw was another Hoerner special. His momentum was all wrong for a throw to first base. This time, he took a page out of the Derek Jeter playbook. He pivoted to put his back toward first base, which might sound counterintuitive, but spinning the other way wouldn’t work; if he’d spun toward first instead of away from it, his angular momentum would’ve been moving away from his target when he threw. By spinning the “wrong way,” he generated enough force to make a throw feasible. Then he planted his left leg and jumped, stopping himself with the force of the jump, and made a very difficult throw look easy:

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a baseball play that looks quite like that before (except for Carroll’s helmet being too big for his head, hat tip to Sam Miller). But that’s basically Hoerner’s specialty. He makes defensive plays that no one else would even think to make. He makes plays that make you go, “Wait, I didn’t realize you could do that.” He’s a great defender in a lot of conventional ways, too, but I haven’t seen anyone in baseball make more out of less than him. It’s uncanny. There’s no official team of Five Things, but after this month, I think Hoerner might be the official player.