Chicago Cubs: Jon Lester picks Tommy Pham off of first base! (Video)
Watch Chicago Cubs pitcher Jon Lester pick St. Louis Cardinals outfielder Tommy Pham off of first base.
Chicago Cubs ace pitcher Jon Lester is one of the best and most consistent starting pitchers in the game. He is absolutely cerebral on the mound and was a huge reason for the Cubs’ World Series championship last season.
As great as Lester is, he has always had a hard time throwing over to first base. Lester struggling to throw the ball over to first has always been extremely odd. The guy can throw a 93 MPH cut fastball with a ton of movement right on the corner of the plate but he cannot lob a pickoff throw to first base. It is a classic case of the yips as seeming every time Lester has to make a throw to first, he air mails it.
On Saturday against the St. Louis Cardinals, Lester got tired of this nonsense. In the fifth inning, Cardinals outfielder Tommy Pham was getting nearly a 20 foot lead off of the Cubs’ ace. Instead of letting him do what he wants, Lester simply tossed the ball over and picked Pham off. It was great.
Lester pickoff. pic.twitter.com/9L2EGtAH9V
— ✶ Ⓜ️𝕒𝕣𝕔𝕦𝕤 ▶️ ✶ (@_MarcusD2_) June 3, 2017
While it has not hurt Lester much over the years, I mean the guy is still one of the elite starters in baseball, teams have tried to take advantage of Lester’s struggles on the pick-off throw. Runners commonly get huge leads against Lester and it does lead to a fair amount of stolen bases.
However, the Cubs have done a great job of limiting the impact of Lester’s struggles. David Ross and now Willson Contreras will commonly throw over the first base after the pitch to keep runners close. With guys getting huge leads off of Lester, this has allowed the Cubs’ strong-armed catchers to throw out runners at first base many times.
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It will be interesting to see if Lester has really put this issue behind him or not. It was only one lobbed over pick-off throw but it got the job done. If nothing else, this could reset the scouting report against Lester and keep the base runners honest.