KluberSociety
NBA Starter
- Joined
- Apr 10, 2018
- Messages
- 4,335
- Reaction score
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- Points
- 113
I don't know what everyone's obsession is with having "power bats" in the "corner outfield".
When you put a good fielder in LF or RF they are a lot better relative to the average LF/RF than they would be relative to the average CF, so they provide a lot of value that way. That was a lot of Mookie Betts's value in Boston. He could have played a decent CF, but he also could've played a great RF and they already had a great CF in JBJ so they put him in RF and the two were a baseball vacuum.
Zimmer has a great UZR in RF but probably would be struggling to put up a zero UZR in CF. When you move someone from a tougher position to an "easier" position they can excel. Another reason why it's not bad to have a bunch of people to play SS, because you can move them to 2B or 3B usually pretty easily and they can excel there.
I don't really know what Franmil could do in the OF if he loses weight as suggested, but I'd be also worried about his injury risk because he'll still be a big guy and we can't lose his bat. Seems like a lot of risk for very little gain.
Harold does get a worse rap than he deserves in OF, primarily because he looks so ugly doing it, particularly with his misplays off the wall and weak throws. They make a memorable visual impact but he does make up for some of it by generally moving around well. I've seen people suggest that Harold should never play OF again and then those same people suggest that Naylor is capable of playing OF when Naylor not only fails the eye test but he is far beyond Harold bad when it comes to the defensive metrics. He just doesn't get to baseballs.
If I were GM, I'd make sure that Franmil and Naylor never touched the OF again except in NL parks. There really just is no reason for it. Especially when we have athletic players like Amed who can assuredly play a strong corner outfield in the case that he gets bumped from SS which I would hope happens some time next year. Sure we could also trade them for a "real" OF but I like the flexibility now.
When you put a good fielder in LF or RF they are a lot better relative to the average LF/RF than they would be relative to the average CF, so they provide a lot of value that way. That was a lot of Mookie Betts's value in Boston. He could have played a decent CF, but he also could've played a great RF and they already had a great CF in JBJ so they put him in RF and the two were a baseball vacuum.
Zimmer has a great UZR in RF but probably would be struggling to put up a zero UZR in CF. When you move someone from a tougher position to an "easier" position they can excel. Another reason why it's not bad to have a bunch of people to play SS, because you can move them to 2B or 3B usually pretty easily and they can excel there.
I don't really know what Franmil could do in the OF if he loses weight as suggested, but I'd be also worried about his injury risk because he'll still be a big guy and we can't lose his bat. Seems like a lot of risk for very little gain.
Harold does get a worse rap than he deserves in OF, primarily because he looks so ugly doing it, particularly with his misplays off the wall and weak throws. They make a memorable visual impact but he does make up for some of it by generally moving around well. I've seen people suggest that Harold should never play OF again and then those same people suggest that Naylor is capable of playing OF when Naylor not only fails the eye test but he is far beyond Harold bad when it comes to the defensive metrics. He just doesn't get to baseballs.
If I were GM, I'd make sure that Franmil and Naylor never touched the OF again except in NL parks. There really just is no reason for it. Especially when we have athletic players like Amed who can assuredly play a strong corner outfield in the case that he gets bumped from SS which I would hope happens some time next year. Sure we could also trade them for a "real" OF but I like the flexibility now.