I think he’ll go into coaching somewhere

I am going to call it “The X Factor”.

At some point in the very near future all MLB stadiums will have full field tracking for every position player on every pitch, and for the first time ever there will be the possibility of defensible metrics for range. But there will still be human biases in the application of this technology, and one of them will be how to spot that place on the field where the fielder has begun their travel towards a batted ball.

For a guy like Hunter this is rather easy. He is placed on a spot in the outfield and he stands there, stationary, until the ball is struck and THEN he reacts. Let the measurements begin.

But for a guy like Eck, who knew that his arm was weak and his range was short, he had a habit of reading the cacher for pitch selection and location, and would wait until the pitcher released the ball and he would start to break to the probable hit location BEFORE the ball reached the batter. It was pretty common to see Eckstein already moving to his left before a ball was hit up the middle, allowing him to snag a grounder that he otherwise would have failed to field.

Now the computer programmer for “Field F/X” (or whatever they are gonna call the system) has to make a choice. Does he program the computer to mark the actual location of each fielder on the field of play when the pitcher goes into his windup, or does he mark the actual location at the moment a batted ball is struck? The difference between these two points on the field is what I call “The X Factor”. The Field F/X people must declare whether or not their programming includes “The X Factor”, or their data will be suspect.

And that is how smart little players like Eckstein will have an impact on every sabremetrician, and every future baseball player, from that point on out until the end of time. Just like in his playing days, he finds a way to make himself useful when it counts.

I just like rooting for underdogs. I like seeing guys who hustle. He had quite a few endearing qualities like that.

The most fitting nickname ever

when he hit the second one against Toronto. I walked into a room, saw the grand slam and thought i was watching a replay

Opening game of the division series against the New York Yankees, fifth inning, Angels trailing, 3-1, everyone wondering if the new kids were already cracking.

With Adam Kennedy running from first base and David Eckstein batting, the Yankees pitched out and should have easily nailed Kennedy.

Except Eckstein leaned out across the plate and fouled off the pitchout.

We’ll repeat that for the hard of believing.

He fouled off the pitchout.

Roger Clemens stared at home plate in disbelief. Who knows how many scouts and future playoff opponents were doing the same thing?

(http://articles.latimes.com/2002/oct/29/sports/sp-plaschke29)

I got hit in the chest by an Eckstein hit ball, but I wasn’t a kid.

Was out by the left field foul pole and was doing my usual watching the pitchers during BP. All of a sudden, whoosh, I got hit on the side of my right boob, and the ball BOUNCED off and went back on the field.. I ended up in first aid, and spent the game with an ice pack on my chest. Had stripes from the stitches for about 3 days afterwards.

And SOMEONE ELSE got the damn ball!!!!

just saw that. hope he finds that oppritunity

he only wants to play for a few teams I guess.