Sports Science: Breaking down the Jose Iglesias play

Jose Iglesias gave us a web gem for the ages last night in the third inning when he absolutely robbed David Ortiz of a base hit. Here’s an idea of how far he went, how fast he traveled and how long it took him to get there. SCIENCE!

This is where Jose Iglesias was positioned right before Ortiz struck the ball

FOX

This is where he ended up

FOX

A rough approximation of where he was from start to finish on the Comerica Park field

FOX

Multiple angles giving you an idea of how far he traveled

<img src="https://brobible.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/iglesias-13.gif" <img src="https://brobible.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/iglesias-23.gif"
<img src="https://brobible.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/iglesias-33.gif" <img src="https://brobible.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/iglesias-43.gif"

Obviously without a measuring tape, it’s impossible to tell exact distance. But we do know it took roughly 4.2 seconds from the moment Ortiz struck the ball until Iglesias made the catch. We looked at past instances of Iglesias sprinting to get an idea of how far he went. We counted the steps he took (18) and we used a protractor (ok, no we didn’t).

In the end, we’re estimating 75-80 feet (+/- 10%). Some quick math and voila, Iglesias hit an average speed of about 13 mph on the play.

Just incredible.

*UPDATE: ESPN says 82 feet on the nose. Our estimate was pretty good.

ESPN via Fox