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Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Left-handed Infielder, or Frank Thomas?
Endy Chavez is one of our generations best fielding outfielders. He also happens to throw lefthanded. Frank Thomas is one of our generations worst fielding infielders. He’s a righty. If you were to put each of them at shortstop, who would fare better? Whatever extra time it takes for Endy to set himself to throw is less than whatever time it takes for Thomas to get to the ball (if he can even manage to get to the ball in the first place). But, this one is easy.
The question is how much does being a lefty disadvantage Endy? How many plays does it cost him? If the difference between Adam Everett (pre-injury) and Frank Thomas playing shortstop is say an extra 100 plays made, and an average shortstop and Frank Thomas is 70 plays made, where does the lefthanded Endy Chavez fall in this continuum? Would he fare better or worse than putting Rickie Weeks at SS? Better or worse than putting Ryan Braun there? Take the worst-fielding 2B or 3B in baseball, and put him at shortstop. Say this player makes 40 plays more than Frank Thomas at shortstop. Is Endy better or worse than that guy?
The question therefore is: how many plays do you think being lefthanded costs an otherwise fantastic fielder? (My question is NOT whether a manager will ever do it.)
See, we can come to a reasonable agreement as to how many runs speed is worth, anticipation is worth, arm strength, accuracy, catching a ball, etc. I’m wondering how well can we agree on the throwing hand of an infielder.
Bonus: In the early days of baseball, I suppose when Frank Thomas-likes were more than an option, they did resort to lefthanded shortstops. Here are 42 of the 43:
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