From YahooSports.com
Jon Lester has 155 million reasons to be a complete ball player. Throwing the ball to first base is one of them.
And it should be an easy on. It is the same distance from the mound to first base as it is to home plate, where Lester makes his bread and butter.
From the start of youth baseball to the minors, pitchers normally were the "best" baseball players on their teams. They were usually two way starters. They usually had all the tools to play the game. That is why they rode their skill sets to the major leagues as complete players.
Now, one could say that Lester having been in the American League (with its DH), his batting skills could have atrophied - - - which they have done so. But pitchers in the AL still have to play defense, right? There is no designated fielder.
Which brings Lester's previously unknown to Chicago yips into comical snowball effect.
Yesterday, in his third Cub start (all at his new home under construction park) Lester had to toss a come-backer to first but used his entire glove to get the job done. Now, this has happened before but not by a pitcher who has a documented problem of throwing the baseball to first on pick-off moves.
Matt Garza was a terrible fielder. Bunts to third or the mound usually wound up in right field. Teams took advantage of Garza's inability to field his position. It became a long running joke.
Now, Lester seems to have surpassed Garza in the comedy fielding.
Cub fans will groan that this can only happen to them; their "ace" pitcher has a major flaw which will at some point cost us critical games. How hard can it be to throw a baseball to Anthony Rizzo??!
Apparently, for Lester: very.
