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Posted By: warshawlaw

So much of tripling or inside the park HRs is outfielder positioning. When I played little league I hit two triples. Both went right over the bag at 1st and down the line. I was a righty hitter and barely got my bat on either ball but there was no one there to field it until it hit the back fence.

If you know a heavy hitter will hit long, hard doubles and triples, you play him back further than a slap hitter and you can cut off more drives before they run to the fence. It may be that many of Leach's insiders got past outfielders who were playing him more shallowly than the others named, who might have had many more insiders had they been played less conservatively. Once the ball gets past the outfielder, forget about it with a jackrabbit on the basepaths.