I do find it somewhat hypocritical that if Ichiro were to make a similar play, he would just be preserving himself for some spectacular later play or metering himself to preserve his body for playing an injury-free 162 game season.

You find it hypocritical that in a hypothetical situation you invented, Dave had a reaction you disagree with.

Wow.

That wasn’t a guy protecting an injury.

…and you’re Hall’s personal physician….or perhaps you’re his conscience? I’m going to go with…he’s limping around so he probably has an injury of some sort and is at less than 100%. I might question his decision because it looked like he could have made it to the ball based on the observation that he made it to one that looked like a similar distance a little later, but I don’t know enough to question his motive nor his motivation.

I do find it somewhat hypocritical that if Ichiro were to make a similar play, he would just be preserving himself for some spectacular later play or metering himself to preserve his body for playing an injury-free 162 game season.

BTW – My guess would be that Bill Hall is STILL in the lineup because the front office doesn’t believe his abiltiy to hit for contact is related to his hurt quad and they want to see if his terrible contact rate improves with more at bats. The answer would appear to be “no”, and I don’t expect to see him in an M’s uniform next year no matter how cheaply they aquired him.

Honestly, my reaction to that (non-)play when I saw it was “WTF — is this shades of Raul all over again?”

I don’t know that I can ever recall Raul Ibanez dogging it in the field. Missing plays, yes, but that’s just because he’s a crappy fielder.