Official Scorers

[Monco]

The other day Z had a no-hitter going. Fly ball to Jones that he loses in the sun.They called it a hit. Today Todd Walker should have been charged with 2 errors on very catchable grounders.They scored them as hits. Whats the deal? Are the scorers under instructions to call it a hit as much as possible so the Cubs can say how much they improved their defense ?

[otis89]

In defense of Jones, you can't catch what you can't see.

[da bears]

I personally was more shocked that they ruled a hit for the Marlins batter this past week when Cedeno made a throw in the dirt that Walker couldn't scoop up. I was more shocked that was a hit than the Jones play.

[mul21]

The other day Z had a no-hitter going. Fly ball to Jones that he loses in the sun.They called it a hit. Today Todd Walker should have been charged with 2 errors on very catchable grounders.They scored them as hits. Whats the deal? Are the scorers under instructions to call it a hit as much as possible so the Cubs can say how much they improved their defense ?

 

When a fielder loses the ball in the sun or the light, it is scored as a hit almost 100% of the time. It's not a physical mistake like a fielding or throwing error is and doesn't count against the fielder for that reason.

[NewUserName]

I did think that both of Walkers today should have been errors.

 

I have always thought that losing the ball in the sun is strange. They always call it a hit, however wasnt this one of those fundamentals that we were taught as kids. I always thought it should be an error, maybe my coaches growing up were just hard.

[CubsBullsBears]

I thought the ball Jones lost in the sun hit the wall?

[SouthSideRyan]

There's pretty much no MLB official scorer that will call a play an error if the fielder doesn't touch it. Which is dumb, IMO, but it's not exclusively a Cub thing.

[XZero771679666304]

I did think that both of Walkers today should have been errors.

 

I have always thought that losing the ball in the sun is strange. They always call it a hit, however wasnt this one of those fundamentals that we were taught as kids. I always thought it should be an error, maybe my coaches growing up were just hard.

 

99% of the time you lose a ball in the sun, there's nothing you can do about it. Occasionally you can lose a ball by taking your eye off of it and finding the sun when you look back for it. But those times the ball is in the same line of sight of the sun, you're just boned. Sometimes it is so bad, sunglasses won't do any good.

 

One time in HS, I had a liner hit at me in center and totally lost it in the sun. I just froze and put my glove in front of my face to protect myself, and I'll be damned if it didn't hit square in the webbing. I was a pretty darn good defender, so no one thought anything of it, except the RF who saw the look on my face. One second you have it, and the next second you're trying to remember if you have dental insurance.

 

Losing a ball in the sun can be a scary thing if you know it was hit hard and right at you.

[sethuel1]

No way should that one Walker took off his shoulder be an error. That was an absolute rocket that took a bad hop. Almost always ruled a hit.

[Andy]

Ken Rosenberg is absurdly nice to Cubs fielders sometimes. A big part of Ramirez's lowered error total in 2004 could probably be credited to Rosenberg.

[otis89]

Ken Rosenberg is absurdly nice to Cubs fielders sometimes. A big part of Ramirez's lowered error total in 2004 could probably be credited to Rosenberg.

 

And Lee scooping up all his bad throws saving him from another bajillion errors.

[CubsBullsBears]

Ken Rosenberg is absurdly nice to Cubs fielders sometimes. A big part of Ramirez's lowered error total in 2004 could probably be credited to Rosenberg.

 

And Lee scooping up all his bad throws saving him from another bajillion errors.

^^^^

I'm actually surprised our IF hasn't gone errors galore w/ Lee out.

[Ding Dong Johnson]

Ken Rosenberg is absurdly nice to Cubs fielders sometimes. A big part of Ramirez's lowered error total in 2004 could probably be credited to Rosenberg.

 

I've never found that to be the case. He's always seemed quite fair to me (especially considering he's a Sox fan).

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

There's nothing strange about a scorer ruling a ball lost in the sun as a hit. On Sunday, during the Dodgers-Braves game, a Dodger (sorry can't remember who) hit a high pop up between first and second....it was two outs, so the batter ran the whole way, and Giles let it drop on the infield dirt. The scorer ruled it a double. The ball didn't travel more than 90 ft from home, but it was a double.