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Thursday, July 15, 2010
Getting a chance to play
Bill James:
I would suspect, although I’m not really sure how you would study it, that most players get their chance after somebody else fails. I don’t think it is very common to take the job AWAY from a productive player to give a young player a chance. I don’t KNOW, but I suspect that if you looked at Carl Crawford, Even Longoria and Ryan Howard, and you asked “Who was playing these positions before they got a chance”, the answer would not normally be “Ted Williams retired.”
If we grant Bill that fails also includes injured or retired (thereby absolving him of Ryan Howard / Jim Thome), the first one that came to mind was sabermetric superstar Chase Utley pushing out sabermetric darling Placido Polanco (Polanco ended up accepting arbitration, and the Phillies went with Bell instead of Polanco at 3B).
Which was the first one that came to mind for you?
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