Quote:
Originally Posted by Questdog
In OOTP height is a bonus, but does not guarantee that a player will be better than another.
In real life, some managers take this needing tall first basemen to absurd extremes. I remember a year or two ago the Reds needed somebody to play 1B when Joey Votto was hurt. Brian Price, who is an idiot, decided to put Jay Bruce, who is 6-3 there and put Skip Schumaker, who is 5-10, out in right, Bruce's normal haunt. The first game he did it, I told everyone in the room how stupid it was. Bruce has one advantage and that is on high throws. Schumaker, who in my mind, was the natural choice to try there, had been a starting second baseman and would be obviously 100 times better at everything a 1B needs to do except catching those specific throws that are just above his reach, but still within Bruce's. How many throws a year will hit that exact 5 inch window? Who knows, but I am pretty certain it is a lot less than the number of balls that will go through Bruce's legs that Schumaker would have stopped...... Keith Hernandez, the best 1B of the 70's and 80's, was not tall......
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In that situation it was dumb, but height is more of an advantage than just high throws. Also short throws that the 1B needs to stretch for. I do agree with you that there's much more to 1B than standing on base, catching balls