Top 5 Catches From MLB's First Week
By Ryan Mayer
(CBS Local) Baseball season officially opened last week, and already we've had a plethora of ridiculous defensive plays. Recency bias will always mean that we think these plays will be the best of the year, but we'll more than likely forget them in a couple months.
In order to try and give them their proper due, let's rank the top defensive plays so far this season, culling the list down to the top five.
5) Lorenzo Cain, CF, Kansas City Royals: Cain's known for his speed and exploits with the glove, and against the White Sox last week, he showed exactly why. With the Royals up 1-0 in the top of the second inning and Adam LaRoche at the plate, LaRoche crushed a pitch from Edinson Volquez to deep right center thinking he had at least a double, if not a round-tripper. Well, Cain had other ideas.
4) Adam Eaton, CF, Chicago White Sox: Apparently Eaton saw what Cain did and thought, "Anything he can do, I can do better." In the fifth inning of the same game with the score still sitting at 1-0 and a runner on third with two outs, Mike Moustakas got ahold of a John Danks pitch and hit a screaming liner to center. Eaton responded by making a diving over-the-shoulder grab that saved the run.
3) Mookie Betts, CF, Boston Red Sox: Betts' catch came at Fenway over the weekend. The reason it overtakes the previous two is because it robbed a home run from Bryce Harper that would have given the Nationals a great start.
2) Nolan Arenado, 3B, Colorado Rockies: Arenado has won the Gold Glove at third base in the National League the past two seasons and after watching his catch Tuesday night against the Giants, we might as well just hand him his third straight right now. When fans of the opposing team are worried you're going to hurt yourself and they're trying to help you out/catch you? You know you're playing hard.
1) George Springer, RF, Houston Astros: Why does Springer get the top spot? The circumstances of his play had the highest stakes of any of the great catches mentioned so far. Bottom of the 10th inning with the game tied, bases loaded and two outs. Doesn't get much bigger of a spot than that, short of it being a postseason game. Go on George, get up there.