Orange County Register

The latest Angels rumor — sign C.C. Sabathia and Pat Burrell, move Burrell to first base — assumes that Burrell could handle the position defensively after spending most of his career in left field. Is this a reasonable assumption?

There is a long history of guys moving around the field, and first base is usually the last (and easiest) destination.

Bill James laid out the defensive spectrum in the 1980s:

The defensive spectrum looks like this:

 [ - - 1B - LF - RF - 3B - CF - 2B - SS - C - - ]
 with the basic premise being that positions at the right end of
 the spectrum are more difficult than the positions at the left
 end of the spectrum.  Players can generally move from right
 to left along the specturm successfully during their careers.

So, James posited, a shortstop can generally play second base, but not vice versa, and nearly everybody can, theoretically, play first base. In 2008, 23 players spent the full season playing first base. Eight of them had, at some point, been converted from other positions. They include two of the agreed upon best fielding first baseman in the game, Albert Pujols and Mark Teixeira, and one of the consensus worst, Jason Giambi.

If we use Revised Zone Rating — which assigns a “zone” to each position and measures what percentage of the balls hit into each player’s zone are turned into an out — we can see those eight guys do pretty well in the rankings of those 23 players.

1. Albert Pujols, converted from third base and outfield.

2. Mark Teixeira, converted from third base.

3. Lance Berkman, converted from outfield.

5. Daric Barton, converted from catcher.

7. Miguel Cabrera, converted from third base.

8. Carlos Delgado, converted from catcher.

14. Kevin Youkilis, converted from third base.

22. Jason Giambi, converted from third base and outfield.

The converts overwhelmed the top 10. By an alternate measurement known as the plus/minus system, Teixeira and Pujols are at the top and, again, five converted players are among the best 10. (Delgado and Giambi, though, were in the bottom five.)

Every player is different, so it may not go as well for Burrell. He’s an outfielder, not a third baseman like many of the converts were. He would be making the switch later than any of the players above, and by some measures he’s among the worst left fielders in the game.  But he did play 58 games at first base early in his career and Baseball Prospectus said he was just about average, and he played mostly first base in the minors. If the Angels are really considering him as a first baseman, though, I imagine they think he can handle it — and there’s no historical reason to think they aren’t correct.

More Angels news:

• Teixeira is no Konerko.
• Big Mo vs. Little Sarge: A race to the bottom.
• Reshaping the West.
• Poll: How much is Teixeira worth?

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