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Thread:Austin Nola has really impressed this year with his all around defensive ability. @baseballpro has Nola ranked # 7 overall for C defense & top 10 in receiving, blocking, & throwing. His knee down system is really intriguing to me.. I’m going to try to break it down below
With no R’s on, Nola typically matches his knee 
to where the umpire is slotted behind him to take away that knee as a reference pt. for the bottom of the zone. That’s nothing new, but Nola takes it a step further & also will also make a late transition to KD w/ R’s on base.
to where the umpire is slotted behind him to take away that knee as a reference pt. for the bottom of the zone. That’s nothing new, but Nola takes it a step further & also will also make a late transition to KD w/ R’s on base.
Not only does he show the ability to make those late transitions to either a left knee down or right knee down kickstand type setups & receive well from them, but he also shows comfortability & effectiveness blocking from both setups as he ranks #6 in blocking by @baseballpro
Taking it a step further, Nola threw out 2 would be base stealers against the Angels last week: 1 from a RKD setup & one where he dropped into a LKD & was able get back up & still make a good throw to hose a runner on what looked like a botched hit & run.
Bottom line: whether you’re in favor of knee down systems or not, your players are capable of more than you think they are. There’s a lot of thought that goes into these systems with the players that do it at a high level, but until they’re given the chance, you’ll never know 
