THE BOOK--Playing The Percentages In Baseball

Nice post. But instead of what is best for the financial well-being of the Marlins, I’m more interested in what is best from a pure baseball standpoint.

My instinct (such as it is) tells me that if a great bat/mediocre glove player such as H Ram. can at least put up an avg, or close, ZR, I’ll leave him there. If he’s not able to make lots of out-of-zone plays, that’s OK. If his low fielding rating is, instead, the result of not making more plays on balls in zone (particularly lots of errors), then I will look to move him.

If a fielder is able to do at least OK on balls in zone, then I will assume that he can ‘handle’ the position, and that his hitting will not be unduly affected by position stress, and I will not be eager to move him to an easier position.

This is just my opinion, from watching baseball.

Well, the Nationals traded for Soriano and immediately moved him to left field. The Yankees and Rangers played him at 2B, but everybody knew he wasn’t good enough to play there regularly. Isn’t it a similar situation with Ramirez (except, perhaps, that he gets less attention because he plays in the black hole known as Miami sports)? I think those in baseball realize he’s not going to be a shortstop for his whole career. The only real question, I think, is whether he becomes an OF or a 2B/3B. I don’t know enough about the defensive skills he does have (is he bad because of no range, a poor arm, too many errors?) to know what would be best for him.

Isn’t it nice that we can pretty much answer all the questions on this thread? Ramirez was dead last in the National League in converting balls in-zone into outs, so it doesn’t really look like he can handle the position, at least not based on David’s definition. As for where to move Ramirez, the Fan’s Scouting Report tells us that he has good speed and arm strength and a quick first step, but is terrible in every other category. His comps are a bunch of middle infielders and outfielders. I personally think he would be great in center, or at least a lot better than he is at shortstop.

Since Tango brought up Cabrera, something funny occurred to me while watching Tigers/White Sox (aside from Pudge being one of the worst possible leadoff choices I could imagine). How much better would Detroit be with Guillen at third and Cabrera at first? Wouldn’t this be a simple, obvious switch that a “genius” like Leyland should have figured out by now?

I’m sure in the long run it’s worth a win, at most. But any place you can get runs/wins, you take them, especially since I can’t imagine either guy would complain too much about the switch.