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Old 04-15-2019, 01:24 PM   #77
chazzycat
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Join Date: Dec 2014
Posts: 1,685
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlatan View Post
1. How important do you think 3B and 1B defense are in the greater scheme of things? Could you skimp a bit by focusing your elite defenders at 2B/SS and not worrying (too much) about the corners?
Yeah, you could probably skimp a bit on the corner defense. But the question is, to what extent. In general third base is really confusing to me...I have a hard time judging defense there. I was expecting Chapman to be great, but he's actually put up a negative ZR over two full seasons...so who knows. I do agree that up the middle (SS/2B) is the most important. Elite defenders like Tulo & Frey regularly put up +20 to +30 ZR seasons for me, which I've never seen any 3B come close to. For first base, I think with all those grounders, you want at least a competent fielder. It's still first base, I wouldn't prioritize it that strongly, but at least try to get a decent error rating.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlatan View Post

2. Do you think there's value in focusing on elite defenders at C and CF also? That way you'd have a pretty traditional solid "up the middle" defense. I think it would be possible to get good defense there without sacrificing too much of the PWR/EYE theme the club is built around.
This is a good question I've been wondering about a lot myself. I have been really curious to see how badly Kyle Schwarber's defense would affect my team, but so far, it just hasn't really. He played 2 full seasons with no C rating at all, but his ZR was just -7 and catcher ERA 3.15. Losing 7 runs over the course of two seasons is really not a deal-breaker at all, and they were easily outweighed by his contributions with the bat.

My theory on that, is catcher rating mostly affects walks & strikeouts (framing) as well as the running game. But my pitching staff is all low-stuff high-control guys, meaning both my strikeouts and walks are very low anyway. Also, with my park factors, running is discouraged because of how easy it is to hit homers. So I think between these factors, it's about the best possible situation to use a bat-first catcher.

I might need to change this approach at some point as I move up, but for now, I am happy with the way things are working out.

As far as center field goes, it's a similar situation. In general I always try go get an elite defender there, but for this team it's really not as important. The pitching staff barely gives up flyballs which really does minimize the impact of tossing average fielders out there. My very average-fielding platoon of Ian Happ/Aaron Hicks has started about 300 games in CF, with a combined ZR of just -2.6. So again, losing just above 1 run per season due to defense, is really just not worth worrying about. It's their offense that is more the problem actually. Eventually, the end-game card for CF is Mike Trout, who will solve both problems
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