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Yogi Berra once said: "Baseball is mental at 90%, the other half is physical."
His figures may have been a little behind, but the feeling is perfect. Jurickson Profar can certainly testify to that.
The A second-base player made his seventh error of the season Monday night, leading to six unseeded Red Sox races, bringing the A's to a fourth straight defeat, 9-4.
Profar's seven mistakes are three more than any other second-base Major League baseball player this season. Even more troubling, six of the seven made mistakes and were not even close.
That was the case on Monday, when Profar lined up a routine double play ball in the third inning and threw it into the ground, about 10 feet from the second goal. A few games later, on another routine ground ball, he carefully lobbed the ball towards the first goal, apparently scared to throw.
It seems that Profar had a bad deal with the yips. There have been several instances where the yips have been wreaking havoc on baseball over the years. Former Dodgers goaltender Steve Sax is probably the most famous case.
In 1983, Sax suddenly became unable to make routine throws to first base, making 30 mistakes at the highest career level that season. Former Yankees second baseman Chuck Knoblauch developed a similar problem in 1999, finishing with 26 mistakes, most of which are very imprecise.
The current Cubs pitcher, Jon Lester, is beaten against his own case, where he can not throw the ball to first base. Fortunately for him, it did not affect his ability to launch.
Profar has not played a lot of second base in his career and is still learning the job. Last season with the Rangers, he spent most of his time on third base and stopping, playing only 10 games on second base.
"Different position, different angles," Bob Melvin, head of the agency, told reporters on Monday. "We are working, at some point he will be comfortable there."
Profar has already sought advice from Marcus Semien, a stopover player in Oakland, who tackled his own defense challenges early in his career.
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"I'm ready to continue working," Profar told reporters. "I talked to Marcus a bit and he talked about what he did, I will follow in his footsteps and try to feel better to help my team win."
For the moment, Profar seems to think excessively each game at the second goal, a main symptom of the yips. Remains to know if he can overcome them. But for now, his mistakes cost games in Oakland.
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