FanPost

The Altuve/Correa Double Play, 8th Inning Game 6

I was talking to a friend about the double play Gary Sanchez hit into, and I said something like "only Correa gets him there," and that's hyperbole like I'm used to talking in with this team in general, and with Correa specifically, but I think I can prove that if the *average* shortstop had been playing for the Astros, it's two outs with a man on for Urshela (who led off the ninth with a single you may recall).

Statcast says that Carlos' throw was 94.5 mph. Let's turn that into feet per second, and luckily for me, Google has a tool for that. Turns out 94.5 mph is 138.6 feet per second. I've got a couple or three approximations here, and the first one is that Carlos threw the ball 85 feet. That's probably not exactly right, but his foot as he follows through comes down 4 or 5 feet from the bag, and I don't think there's any way to get a more precise number. But I used 85 feet; it seems about right, anyway.

A projectile moving 138.6 feet per second is going to travel 85 feet in .613 seconds. That's blazing fast, no?

Blazing fast, *very easy for an umpire to call*, and certainly faster than the average shortstop can throw it. Here's my second approximation, but I'm going to say the average major league shortstop can throw it at 85 miles an hour. 85 miles an hour works out to .682 seconds to travel those admittedly approximated 85 feet.

So if you're with me so far, the ball that Correa threw would beat the one an average guy throws by .068 seconds into Yuli's glove.

At some point through these many calculations, one of those rightward numbers from the decimal is not going to be significant, I get it, but let's pretend, shall we?

I wouldn't believe it but Statcast has Gary Sanchez going from first to third at 28.7 feet per second. Was he running that fast in the eight inning of Game 6? I have no idea, that's approximation number three, but let's say he was.

If he was, 28.7 ft/sec means .0348 sec/ft, and more importantly, it means .0697 sec/2 ft, because that's what Sanchez appeared to be out by.

So, you probably have Carlos saving .068 seconds with his throw on a play where Sanchez might have been out by .069 seconds.

There's too many approximations and too many insignificant digits for us to say with any kind of certainty, but the obvious suggestion is that an average shortstop gets Sanchez by .001 seconds--which of course is much to fast for any umpire--any human being--to discern. And no replay that close is going to overturn that call, either.

Maybe with Sanchez reaching, Urshela *doesn't* single. Maybe Joe Smith would have had what Osuna didn't vs. Gio. Maybe all it would have meant was that LaMahieu's shot in the ninth was of the harmless solo variety. Or maybe the entire game would have been different from that point on. That second option is kind of what I think.

The Astros needed every out they got, and a couple they didn't get, too. Brantley's catch and throw has gotten a lot of press, but he had more than .06 seconds to make it, and Judge was out by yards. Correa's throw was the dazzler for me, and the play where our systematic defensive superiority over the Yankees was most evident, I think.