Sadly, Mark, I spent this Thanksgiving on Earth — in this very newsroom, in fact, covering breaking news. I skipped the catered cranberry sauce.
I want to unpack your post a bit. You write:
“First base is no longer the place you stick the big lummox who can’t play anywhere else. A simple trip to the ballpark would tell you that. Guys like Mark Teixeira, Casey Kotchman, Carlos Pena, Kevin Youkilis and James Loney show the value of a good first baseman every day.”
I’m certainly not arguing, Mark, that you don’t want a good defensive first baseman. That’s a given, and any team that can afford a great hitting great fielder like Teixeira or Pujols is thrilled. My point is when you have a bat that plays — and I think Burrell’s does, though you may disagree — you want to put him at the position where he has the best chance of succeeding and the least chance of actively hurting you. Right?
But you think that position is left field, not first base? May I ask why? Can you give me a few examples of first basemen who got too old to play first base anymore so they were moved to left field? You’ve already given me an example of somebody (Pete Rose) who played everywhere else before finally being forced to first base at the end of his career.
Here are the left fielders who played every day in 2008:
- Carl Crawford
- Fred Lewis
- Matt Holliday
- Adam Dunn
- Raul Ibanez
- Ryan Braun
- Alfonso Soriano
- Jason Bay
- Delmon Young
- Carlos Quentin
- Manny Ramirez
- Carlos Lee
- Pat Burrell
.
None of those guys was originally a first baseman, so major league teams apparently don’t see le
ft field as the place to dump the lummox once he can no longer play first. And while it’s not hard to envision any of those left-fielders (except probably Manny) converting to first base at least credibly, can you really imagine Ryan Howard or Jason Giambi or Prince Fielder trying to chase down fly balls in left? Look, don’t believe my lying stats, believe your eyes: Could Ryan Howard really be a credible left fielder?
We can see the evidence of this in the league averages by position. The American League’s first baseman hit .266/.346/.447 in 2008, while its left-fielders hit .267/.336/.430. The further down the defensive spectrum, the worse the hitters get — because defense becomes continually more important and more difficult to fill.
And don’t undersell yourself, Mark. I checked the archives and you actually alluded to OPS in 1997! I’m impressed.
Carlos Lee, Pat Burrell and Ryan Braun were trained as 3B but couldn’t be moved to 1B because less-likely LF were already stationed there. In Burrell’s case it was Travis Lee, then Jim Thome, then Ryan Howard. Carlos Lee (who did play 5 games at 1B as a rookie) was blocked by Lyle Overbay and Paul Konerko (a former C). Braun would be at first if not for Prince Fielder (please don’t imagine him in LF).
I think Planet VORP and Grandpa Whicker are both wrong about Pete Rose. He switched to first base because it was easier to read the signs from his bookie in the stands, and thereby know how to play the ball. At least that’s what some guy in a sports bar told me one time….
Earl:
Doesn’t your comment argue Sam’s original point, the one that… wait, I forget… oh, yeah, that LF is a tougher spot to fill, defensively, than 1B?… If I read you right, you’re saying Lee, Burrell and Braun are in LF instead of 1B because their teams had, and I quote, “less-likely LF (sic) already stationed there.” Wouldn’t that make LF the XXXL baseball player’s second-to-last stop before full time DH, part-timerhood and/or an extended stay at a weight loss center?
Or maybe I’m totally misreading you. Maybe you’re agreeing with Sam and suggesting (in a subversive but fundamentally polite way) that Mr. Whicker is missing something about the game he’s been watching since he finished inventing bronze.
Pedro:
Ha.
Andre, I sent you an e-mail covering this in greater detail, but here’s the short answer: You have to be able to run a little to play left field, and some folks can’t. That doesn’t make it a harder position to play. The footwork at first base is more complex than it might seem, and short-hopping a baseball thrown across the diamond is something some outfielders are never able to master when they attempt to make the conversion.