Is Bryan LaHair legit?

[Little Slide Rooter]

I'm not talking long term. Just saying that if he continues to resemble Ryan Theriot with the bat, the time could come sooner than later. On thing that you and I have agreed upon in the past is that there's no reason to just get rid of him as long he's not blocking anyone because chances are whoever is put in his place won't match his production. Well, LaHair might be able to match his production, and before stomping all over the idea of him playing LF because he's big and oafish he should be given the chance to do so if not here and there this season than in Winter Ball if we haven't traded him.

[Sammy Sofa]

Well, LaHair might be able to match his production, and before stomping all over the idea of him playing LF because he's big and oafish he should be given the chance to do so if not here and there this season than in Winter Ball if we haven't traded him.

 

This is getting ridiculous. Winter ball isn't going to "fix him;" he's just not an OFer.

[mookie]

Tell me of this Winter Ball.

[davell]

N&G: You don't think it's at least worth TRYING him in LF for a 10-20 game stretch?

[dew1679666265]

N&G: You don't think it's at least worth TRYING him in LF for a 10-20 game stretch?

 

I'm not mojo, but I don't think it'd be a good idea to try LaHair in the OF this year whichever side of the debate you fall on. If you aren't able to get an acceptable deal at the deadline, I think you keep him at first the remainder of this year and keep Rizzo in AAA all year (until September callups). After the season, you work hard with LaHair and get him reps in the OF and monitor his progress that way. At that point you make a determination on whether you feel he's an OF or not.

 

Trying him for 10-20 games after he's barely played OF in the minors and been a first baseman almost exclusively for a while now isn't going to give you the kind of sample size that will tell you conclusively either way.

[Sammy Sofa]

N&G: You don't think it's at least worth TRYING him in LF for a 10-20 game stretch?

 

I'm not mojo, but I don't think it'd be a good idea to try LaHair in the OF this year whichever side of the debate you fall on. If you aren't able to get an acceptable deal at the deadline, I think you keep him at first the remainder of this year and keep Rizzo in AAA all year (until September callups). After the season, you work hard with LaHair and get him reps in the OF and monitor his progress that way. At that point you make a determination on whether you feel he's an OF or not.

 

Trying him for 10-20 games after he's barely played OF in the minors and been a first baseman almost exclusively for a while now isn't going to give you the kind of sample size that will tell you conclusively either way.

 

He's got over 260 innings logged in the OF between the minors and the majors, a bunch of those coming just last year, so he hasn't been "a first baseman almost exclusively for a while now."

 

And no, I've never been saying they can't put him out there; they can put him out there all they want. He's just going to be terrible at it. Him succeeding at hitting despite many predictions otherwise is one thing; the guy has a skill set that shows that offensive success in the majors isn't out of the realm of possibility. Defensively, however, he has basically zilch to show he can succeed as a starting OFer. Some people are talking like he hasn't been "tried" out there before, and he has; he's not good at it. He's not even a very good defensive 1B.

 

The reality of the situation is that he's a man without a position on the Cubs as of next year. If he can maintain consistent offensive ability there's no shortage of competitive teams that need that ability, especially at 1B or DH. With the FO we have I'd much rather see them capitalize on that and pick up someone like Upton than trying to shoehorn him in as a starting OFer.

[dew1679666265]

He's got over 260 innings logged in the OF between the minors and the majors, a bunch of those coming just last year, so he hasn't been "a first baseman almost exclusively for a while now."

 

He played all of 12 games in the OF last year, out of 129 total minor league games. He didn't play that much OF last year. He did play OF in 48 games in 2010, so that's probably the most recent significant sample.

 

He's not got the athleticism to just stick him out there and hope for the best. His best shot at being given a real chance in the OF is to work with him in the offseason and then try him. I still don't think it would work, but if we're going to experiment with him in the OF, I think we should do it in earnest then. If we want to stick him in LF in the meantime, ok I guess. It's not like it's going to keep us from contending this year.

 

The reality of the situation is that he's a man without a position on the Cubs as of next year. If he can maintain consistent offensive ability there's no shortage of competitive teams that need that ability, especially at 1B or DH. With the FO we have I'd much rather see them capitalize on that and pick up someone like Upton than trying to shoehorn him in as a starting OFer.

 

I agree with this.

[davell]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/bryan-lahair-success-sustainable/

 

Decent article from Fangraphs on what LaHair can sustain.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/bryan-lahair-success-sustainable/

 

Decent article from Fangraphs on what LaHair can sustain.

 

Between this and the Adam Dunn comp, I'm non-sarcastically sold on LaHair. I think I even kinda want him in left when Rizzo comes up.

[davell]

Yeah, I just can't see how his defense out there cancels out his bat. I think he'd be quite an upgrade from Soriano once everything is weighed in. It's a best case scenario for us, since we're still paying 18 mill a year at that position and now we could have a guy producing from it, for the league minimum. I'll trade him, but I really want value for him, he could really be a bigtime help if he sticks around here, even if he stumbles all over himself in LF.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Yeah, I just can't see how his defense out there cancels out his bat. I think he'd be quite an upgrade from Soriano once everything is weighed in. It's a best case scenario for us, since we're still paying 18 mill a year at that position and now we could have a guy producing from it, for the league minimum. I'll trade him, but I really want value for him, he could really be a bigtime help if he sticks around here, even if he stumbles all over himself in LF.

 

The standard for LF awfulness is Adam Dunn, who both fangraphs and BR have at about -15 runs per year in left.

 

In order to balance that out and be an average player, he needs to have about a .340 wOBA over a full season. If that Fangraphs article is right, he'll clear that with room to spare.

[davell]

It'd be really nice to have two lefty bats that conceivably could hit you 30 homers, with Castro and another bigtime addition to the lineup as well. Plus, Jackson hopefully getting you around 20 or so too.

[Tracer Bullet]

http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/bryan-lahair-success-sustainable/

 

Decent article from Fangraphs on what LaHair can sustain.

 

Between this and the Adam Dunn comp, I'm non-sarcastically sold on LaHair. I think I even kinda want him in left when Rizzo comes up.

 

It was yesterday that you said he wouldn't be league average for a 1b, right? I was traveling so I may have dreamt this, but I don't often dream about nsbb and when I do, its about snood's beard, but I could have sworn you were telling SP and everyone else that LaHair wouldn't be league average at first.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

It was yesterday that you said he wouldn't be league average for a 1b, right? I was traveling so I may have dreamt this, but I don't often dream about nsbb and when I do, its about snood's beard, but I could have sworn you were telling SP and everyone else that LaHair wouldn't be league average at first.

 

Yes. I am completely and utterly flip-flopping.

 

Opinions are like investment portfolios. You need to stay diversified to maximize your long-term correctness.

[Tracer Bullet]

Solely based on fangraphs?

[Hairyducked Idiot]

Solely based on fangraphs?

 

The Adam Dunn comp was mostly what sold me, actually.

 

I'm a huge nerd for comps. I didn't think there were any examples of hitters succeeding with LaHair's peripherals, mostly because I hadn't bothered to look that hard for them.

[Guest]

http://espn.go.com/blog/chicago/cubs/post/_/id/9974/lahair-takes-a-step-outside

[PriortoTheoIhadWood]

LaHair in LF would be vomit inducing. He's a 1B/DH as a major leaguer. How do you look at that body type and his movement skills and think "OFer?"

 

It would not end well. Hell, it probably wouldn't start well. It's begging for trouble

 

If its such a big deal experiment this year while the team is expected to suck. If for no other reason than letting everyone learn that this just will not go well.

Edited May 10, 2012 by PriortoTheoIhadWood

[Guest]

LaHair in LF would be vomit inducing. He's a 1B/DH as a major leaguer. How do you look at that body type and his movement skills and think "OFer?"

 

It would not end well. Hell, it probably wouldn't start well. It's begging for trouble

 

If its such a big deal experiment this year while the team is expected to suck. Just so everyone learns that this just will not go well.

 

Doesn't really matter if he hits well enough. That's a big if, though.

[PriortoTheoIhadWood]

LaHair in LF would be vomit inducing. He's a 1B/DH as a major leaguer. How do you look at that body type and his movement skills and think "OFer?"

 

It would not end well. Hell, it probably wouldn't start well. It's begging for trouble

 

If its such a big deal experiment this year while the team is expected to suck. Just so everyone learns that this just will not go well.

 

Doesn't really matter if he hits well enough. That's a big if, though.

 

It does if they want to improve defensively.

 

Even then to ask a guy who's basically 30 and not very athletic to do that you're increasing his chances of getting hurt. Nothing about this says good idea.

[Hairyducked Idiot]

LaHair in LF would be vomit inducing. He's a 1B/DH as a major leaguer. How do you look at that body type and his movement skills and think "OFer?"

 

It would not end well. Hell, it probably wouldn't start well. It's begging for trouble

 

If its such a big deal experiment this year while the team is expected to suck. Just so everyone learns that this just will not go well.

 

Doesn't really matter if he hits well enough. That's a big if, though.

 

It does if they want to improve defensively.

 

Even then to ask a guy who's basically 30 and not very athletic to do that you're increasing his chances of getting hurt. Nothing about this says good idea.

 

Except if he can hit, he's probably providing more value than our current left fielder or anyone else in the organization.

[weis21]

LaHair in LF would be vomit inducing. He's a 1B/DH as a major leaguer. How do you look at that body type and his movement skills and think "OFer?"

 

It would not end well. Hell, it probably wouldn't start well. It's begging for trouble

 

If its such a big deal experiment this year while the team is expected to suck. Just so everyone learns that this just will not go well.

 

Doesn't really matter if he hits well enough. That's a big if, though.

 

It does if they want to improve defensively.

 

Even then to ask a guy who's basically 30 and not very athletic to do that you're increasing his chances of getting hurt. Nothing about this says good idea.

I'm at work and cant look up the numbers, but you make it seem as if he's never played a game in the OF before. He's had a lot of experience there in the minors and its not like he hasn't always had his current body type. If he didn't hurt himself playing OF in the minors, I don't see why you'd worry about that now.

 

And so what if they downgrade on defense if his offense more than makes up for it (which it almost certainly would when the alternative is Soriano).

 

ETA: takes a while to type on this phone. See that Kyle beat me.

Sent from my ADR6400L using Tapatalk 2

[mookie]

Gosh, we aren't talking about Billy Butler and Prince Fielder here folks.

[bukie]

Updated ZIPS projections for hitters based on the data so far: http://www.fangraphs.com/projections.aspx?pos=all&stats=bat&type=uzips&team=0&players=0&sort=18,d

 

Spit-take worthy.

[dew1679666265]

I realize we have DeJesus, but would signing Upton and having an OF of (from LF-RF) LaHair/Upton/BJax be enough to mitigate some of the potential defensive disaster LaHair might be?

 

If a couple very rangy players in CF and RF plus Sveum's shift magic could take some pressure off LaHair's bat staying awesome, it seems like there's a chance this could work.