If one is watching the San Diego Padres, something that stands out is how their players communicate with each other whenever it’s their turn at-bat.
The communication can be seen mostly when someone strikes out and gives the on-deck batter a quick scouting report. The Padres are not alone in the technique but they happen to do a better job of it than the two teams ahead of them in the National League West standings, according to former Los Angeles Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks outfielder David Peralta.
“That’s what winning teams do — communicate, help each other,” Peralta said, via the San Diego Union-Tribune. “There’s not selfishness here. Even if I got an out, I’m going to tell my teammates coming back, ‘This guy has this and this. The ball does this.’ So my teammate can be ready for whatever. That’s what makes teams on another level — a winning team.”
Peralta has played for the Dodgers, Diamondbacks, and Tampa Bay Rays during his career and says the Padres are “a lot more” committed to sharing scouting information in-game than any team he has been on.
A prime example of the Padres excelling at this was on Sunday, when Jake Cronenworth saw three sliders from Mets closer Edwin Diaz during his eight-pitch at-bat in the ninth inning. All three were off the plate but he fouled off the first two before striking out on the third.
It was on his way back to the dugout when Cronenworth told Jackson Merrill that the slider wasn’t moving.
Merill got a hold of a slider that did not break very much and hung in the center of the strike zone sending it out of the park for a walk-off home run.
“I already had it in my mind,” Merrill told the U-T. “But him telling me it’s literally not moving, as soon as I saw it, I was like, ‘Yeah, it’s gone.’”
The team nipping at the Dodgers’ heels in the division standings has been using this form of scouting all season to the point where it is second-nature.
“It has been happening so often now that it’s just kind of become routine,” Cronenworth said. “It’s helped a lot through the entire season.”
While the messages vary from inning to inning, the underlying purpose is the same and could be the difference between a win or a loss.
“That’s the small details you can help your team to win,” Peralta said. “That’s what makes the difference.”
