Undeserved Home Runs

In Thursday’s Spring Training game between Houston and the New York Mets, the Astros’ AJ Reed got credit for a home run on a ball that hit the warning track and rolled towards the fence. Yoenis Cespedes thought the ball was lodged under the fence and put up his hands indicating to the umpires that it should be a ground rule double.  And he just watched the ball as Reed circled the bases and got a home run. The umpire ran towards the ball, confirmed that it was in fact in play and the home run stood.  Click below to see this whole play:

On my Baseball Scoring site, I have a post explaining in detail why even though Cespedes just sat there and looked at the ball, the correct official scoring of this play is a home run and no error. Feel free to check it out, if you want.

I still don't understand how some people think this guy is a gold-glove outfielder. He has a strong arm, but takes absolutely awful routes to balls, and occasionally makes bone-headed plays.  Very glad he's not patrolling Fenway's outfield anymore.

For your entertainment purposes here are a bunch of other plays where batters got home runs, mainly due to fielder's misplays (but not errors!)

One week left of this 5 month hibernation!