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Welcome to Behind the Plate With DJ, a weekly look at what is going on in the world of baseball. This series will weigh in on the interesting, the controversial, and the downright cool. The play of the week could be an incredible play or an unusual one. If something made you scratch your head, you will probably find it here. So sit back, relax, and let’s take a look at the week that was.

Comeback Sweep

The Royals were behind in the 7th inning in each of the three games this weekend against the White Sox, and in each of the three they came back to win the game.

It started on Friday, with the White Sox scoring 5 runs in the sixth inning for a 5-2 lead going into the seventh. The Royals scored 4 runs on 4 hits and a walk in the bottom of the seventh to take the lead and scored an insurance run in the eighth for a 7-5 win.

On Saturday, the Royals came back in historic fashion. They were down 7-1 in the bottom of the ninth. Paulo Orlando led off the inning by striking out, making a comeback even less likely. The Royals then scored 4 runs on 3 hits and 2 walks. Lorenzo Cain drove in another run, but Whit Merrifield was out on a fielder’s choice, making it 7-5 with 2 outs.

Eric Hosmer doubled to drive in Cain and represented the tying run on second base. Drew Butera drove him in with a double, and now the winning run was on second. A wild pitch moved Butera over to third and the White Sox intentionally walked Orlando and Tommy Kahnle. Brett Eibner made them pay with a single off of Jose Abreu’s glove to drive in the winning run, completing the biggest ninth inning comeback in Royals’ history.

The Royals were not done coming back. The White Sox had a 5-2 lead in the eighth inning. Cain opened the scoring with a solo home run. The Royals loaded the bases with a double, walk, and single to set up a game-tying walk to Eibner. Cheslor Cuthbert singled to drive in the go-ahead run, but Orlando was thrown out at the plate for the second out on the play. The Royals hung on to win 5-4 and completed a sweep of the White Sox by coming back in the seventh inning or later in each game.

Trout’s Future

The Angels are not having the season that they were expecting to have. They finished May in fourth place, 7 games behind the Rangers and 4 games under .500 and have been dealing with injuries and poor play.

The Angels currently have eight players on the disabled list, including two starting pitchers, their starting shortstop, and a catcher. On top of that, 5 of their 9 starters are hitting .255 or less on the season. Mike Trout is having another great season, leading the team with a .312 batting average, .556 slugging percentage, 11 home runs, 37 RBI, 36 runs scored, and 6 stolen bases.

This brings up a tough question for the organization. Should the Angels pack it up and become sellers at the trade deadline? If so, who could be traded? Albert Pujols has not lived up to his contract, which goes until 2021, making him hard to move. Kole Calhoun has been doing pretty well this season and does have a Gold Glove. The Angels could get some interest for Calhoun.

But the biggest trade chip that the Angles have is Trout. If the Angels decide to go into rebuilding mode, trading Trout would bring in a very large haul of prospects. However, they would be trading one of the best players in baseball, and that would be hard to sell to the fans. Trout is the face of the franchise, but would they be better off in the long run with the prospects that they can get by trading him?

Like I said, the Angels will have a tough decision coming up.

Unlimited Challenges

The Reds lost a challenge in the first inning in Milwaukee on Saturday, thereby losing their ability to challenge any calls for the rest of the game. However, on an apparent double play to end the top of the ninth, Reds manager Bryan Price challenged the call. It was ruled that second baseman Scooter Gennett had come off the bag before he received the throw and the runner was safe. On top of that, the runner on third scored what would prove to be the winning run.

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There were a couple of issues with the way it played out. First of all, the umpires clearly were not going to look at the play. Therefore, the only way it would go to review is is Pryce challenged it, but he was out of challenges.

The second issue is how late Pryce challenged it. Managers are supposed to request a review within 30 seconds of the end of the play. Pryce took much longer than that to talk to the crew chief. The Brewers were coming off the field and the Reds were taking the field. It took a long time for the Reds clubhouse to determine that Gennett’s foot came off early. In fact, if it had not been the third out, it is very likely that the Brewers would have thrown another pitch before Pryce made the request.

With the way the rules are set up right now, it does not matter if a manager is out of challenges or not. They can request a review from the seventh inning on and the crew chief will take a look at it. The only difference is that the umpire will not hold play while the clubhouse gets a look at it.

Advanced Stat of the week

Every week, Behind the Plate will look at an advanced stat that is being used in baseball. These stats give a better idea on what value a player gives a team. This week’s stat is Range Factor.

Range Factor is a defensive stat that attempts to quantify a defenders range, or how much area he can cover. The higher the Range Factor, the more ground he can cover, which means he will produce more outs than a defender with a lower Range Factor.

Range Factor is used as a rate statistic, either per 9 innings or per game. The formula for Range Factor per 9 innings (RF/9) is (9*(Putouts+Assists))/Innings. The formula is Range Factor per Game (RF/G) is (Putouts+Assists)/Games Played.

The idea is that a player with greater range will be able to get to more balls and create more outs in a game. This stat cannot be compared between positions. First basemen, for instance, gets a Putout on almost every ground ball out, whereas a left fielder will have far fewer chances.

Range Factor is good to use in conjunction with Fielding Percentage. If 2 players have similar Fielding Percentages, but one has a higher Range Factor, the player with the higher Range Factor will produce more outs, thus is more valuable to his team.

Play of the Week

On Friday, Justin Grimm of the Cubs had a nifty grab of an Aledmys Diaz ground ball to get the out in the bottom of the eighth against the Cardinals.

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