Question: Last night, Ashby was talking about Villar's mental mistakes, one of which was the play where he cut the ball from the left fielder and failed to execute the throw to third to nail what would have been an easy out. One thing they mentioned was that he had his back to the infield and he should have been turned to receive the throw in a position where he could both see and execute the next throw if necessary. Up until now, being in a position to throw coincides with what I was taught, but the "seeing" part was foreign to me, as I was always taught to throw where I was told.
Then, Ashby said he talked to Porter and was told that the Astros don't use calls from the infielder directing whether to cut, whether to hold, and where to throw if a throw is needed. On that play, I would have expected Dominguez to either remain silent, which tells Villar to let the throw go through, or say "cut, third," which tells Villar to cut and then throw to third. Not communicating anything to the cutoff man seems inefficient as that is a lot of information to process for a fielder who has just received a throw and now has to turn to see the action on the bases. In fact, it seems so inefficient that I assume Ashby must have misheard Porter.
At any rate, is what Ashby reported a common method for cutoffs?
