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Originally Posted by ike121212
The flip side is that an Omar Vizquel makes the best defensive 1B ever. Anyone believe that a 5'9'' career SS would make a great 1B?
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Yes, yes I do. I think Omar Vizquel would have gotten to balls that other first baseman don't even think about. And I think people overstate the impact of a short first baseman on throws. I don't see any reason Vizquel couldn't have been a +15, maybe a +20 first baseman. That's a great defensive first baseman. In the entire bb-ref database Albert Pujols' '07 is the only year by a first baseman above +18.
But he wasn't allowed to try because the math doesn't work out. The positional difference between shortstop and first base is 20 runs. Vizquel would have had to been a +27 first baseman just to break even. For a -20 hitting first baseman to make sense he really would have to be the best defensive first baseman ever.