Wnag and Chamberlain

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wait, this is impossible. Pete said Torre would have chosen the exact same roster!

Hm. I was saying that teams were perhaps prioritizing D a bit more at 3B because SS was, overall, becoming defensively weaker and they needed to compensate. But this brings up another option…that teams care a bit less about D at SS these days, and thus guys who can hit really well and field SS tolerably STAY at SS, whereas in the past they might have been moved to 3B in the minors.

This, then, relegates the 3B pool to guys who can hit really wall but can’t hack it AT ALL at SS, or guys who’ve been 3Bs since they were kids, I guess. Or, guys who are blocked by an already very good SS and move for that reason. Like, if the Phillies had a promising SS in AA or AAA, they’d move him to 3B perhaps because of Rollins.

This is a really good question. It’s always interesting how baseball changes and third base has been a strange position recently.

Last year only 9 third baseman in all of baseball who had more than 400 at bats had an OPS over 800.

(By the way – Chipper Jones last year had one of the more unheralded terrific seasons any player had had over the past several years. Didn’t hear much about him but he had a better season than the much talked about David Wright)

For comparison there were 8 centerfielders who had 400 AB and had an OPS over 800.

That’s sort of eye opening.

Just a hunch but I think the physical demands of the position are being squeezed across the talent pool.

Third base takes tremendous agility, reflexes and a great arm. I think ARod’s defense at third shows you how difficult the position is. He was coming off gold glove seasons at SS. I thought he’d move over and be a great defensive third baseman. He’s not bad by any means. But he’s really not good – about average (that really surprised me – i though he’d be great).

Offensively, third demands power. On one hand many players with those defensive skill sets are now playing SS (or sort of playing SS – see JJ Hardy)

But on the other end I think as players have gotten bigger and stronger through lifting weights (and yes other means) some have gotten less agile they have increased their power potential but become less agile in the field (see Ryan Braun). I think this is part of why we’ve seen so many great first baseman over the past 10 years. This has made it more and more difficult to find guys with the defensive skills for a high demand position like third who also can hit for power.

It’s interesting to see how guys who are able to play third in college wind up not being able to hack it there in the majors.

Again – Ryan Braun – great example. This is also a big issue in the draft this year.

The best hitter in college (and perhaps best since Texeira) is Pedro Alvarez who is a third baseman. Absolutely mashes. But the question on him is can he stay at third. It looks iffy if he can. He’s still going to go very high (perhaps #1 overall) but whether he projects as a third baseman or 1st baseman changes his value a great deal.

Corner OF and corner IF are generally considered power positions, I’m pretty sure. I think 1B and LF are considered the least-important defensive positions, followed by RF and 3B. But I’m not sure.

I believe Woodward actually asked to be released by the Yankees rather than go to Scranton.

It was woodward’s option. He had a good spring and I’d guess he figured he’s have a easier shot somewhere else.

Nick Green had the same option in his contract and he elected to stay. I think that’s because he didn’t have a very good spring and would have trouble attracting interest – when a player like that gets sent to AAA clubs remember what they did in spring. The yankees know Green.

I think Woodward may have gone to the Phillies in part because of the division. The NL East has a much stronger need for a player like Woodward. The NL in general substitutes way more because of the pinch hitting for the pitcher. Given the relatively good hitting in the NL East I’d guess they have more pitching changes and more need for substituting players into the game.

That’s interesting. It’s traditionally been a pretty strong offensive position, no? Do you think teams have prioritized D over there a bit more? Perhaps because SS has become less of a defense-first position? Or that there are a lot of pricey vets blocking up the 3B these days (Rolen, Glaus, Nomah, Mora, Crede) and dragging down 3B performance across baseball?

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