Thrilho

I just got up, but it looks like Duke has already made my point for me. He was talking about the role Almora would play. Szczur has a role, so Almora could have one. You were equating them as players. "If all they can get out of the 6th pick is a Szczur..." is the way you framed it, which to me would mean that Almora ends up as a Szczur level talent. So yes, technically Duke did bring up Szczur's name first, but you were the one to take it to talent level comparisons. If you didn't mean to make that comparison or misconstrued Duke's post to think that he was making the comparison then cool. But just thought I'd clarify my post. I'd normally just let this go, but since I'm guessing I'm in that group of people you wanted to punch themselves in the balls, I'm still just wondering. What's your alternative? I've seen you railing against these faceless people handing Almora the job, but I'm pretty sure I've never seen you posit another option. Is it JHey in center and some other guy in LF? Is there some young CF you have your eye on? Failing those things is there some value hurdle the future CF has to meet? A type of player you'd rather have? You know the minors and league pretty well, so I'm sure you've got some names.

Okey dokey. Well, my point was that it's a not a great comparison, and it looks like we agree. So settled for the evening!

I'm tired as a muh and also an idiot who can't fully articulate, but there's something intrisically wrong with that. 2016 Szczur is on pace for 150-200 PAs. That is great for Szczur and likely not even close to the best case Almora outcome for the organization. There's an opportunity cost to plugging an Almora, twice a top 40 prospect on BA's well researched preason top 100, into a similar role to Matt Szczur as any and every organization would value Almora significantly more. Yeah, I know. Almora's probably not as good (offensively) as Szczur has been so far this or as bad as he was last year, but as you say here most organizations would value him significantly more. That was why I thought it was an odd comparison when you made it. If you think it's clear that most organizations would value Almora higher than Szczur then why say it's possible that the number 6 pick in the draft is another Szczur?

For comparison with my post above, here was Szczur's line for his first go round at AA and AAA in 2013-2014, where he finished up at the age of 25. Matt Szczur: .273/.335/.344 .315 wOBA .071 ISO 7.8%BB/15.0%K You figure Szczur is going to come back to earth from his .405 wOBA, but when he does what level are you expecting out of him? If you're expecting a big collapse back to 2015 MLB Szczur of the .222/.278/.333 slash line then I'd say Almora probably has more pedigree than to drop back that far. If you're saying 2016 Szczur with good defense in center then hurray! But the other thing about Szczur and the concept of "guys like Szczur" is that we don't even know how great he is defensively. So far he's played only 90 of his 377 MLB innings in center, and he's got a -5.5 UZR/150 in those 377 innings. This year he's at a 35.8, last year was -22.6, so.... I guess the data is still evening out. But seems fair to say he might not be Almora in center. I'd just want to know which version of Szczur is the guy you think Almora is likely to be and which players who bring greater value (considering defense) you'd prefer to have play for the Cubs.

So compare Almora to a third baseman MVP candidate, a corner outfielder who hit 22 home runs in the majors last year, a short stop who most feel has some level of HOF potential, another short stop who had a 37 home run season but also had horrific strikeout problems that don't show up in his slash line, a catcher who is 15th in wOBA among qualified MiLB players, and Jorge Soler, left field statue extraordinaire. These are pretty high standards in vacuum, regardless of position. For a center fielder in AAA who just turned 22 they're probably just the wrong comps. Here are some guys from around the MLB today who look similar to what I'd hope for out of Almora. Not saying he'd be as good as these guys, but similar directionally as good defense but not elite offensive CFs. I'm also throwing in Michael Taylor as a downside comparison. There are obviously hundreds of other guys with similar profiles to Almora who were just trash heaped for various reasons, but I threw him in because he's got a prettier slash line than Almora but sucks in MLB because of a 30% K rate. 2015 MLB stats Kevin Kiermaier: 5.5 fWAR 32.0 Def .309 wOBA Kevin Pillar: 4.3 fWAR 16.6 Def .310 wOBA Odubel Herrera: 3.9 fWAR 11.7 Def .333 wOBA Michael Taylor: 1.0 fWAR 12.3 Def .274 wOBA Milb stats from the last two full years each player was in the minors. All AA-AAA. Kevin Kiermaier: .293/.359/.435 .360 wOBA .141 ISO 8.2%BB 15.2%K (age 24) Kevin Pillar: .314/.356/.482 .374 wOBA .168 ISO 5.3%BB 12.1%K (age 25) Odubel Herrera: .291/.350/.371 .332 wOBA .080 ISO 8.1%BB 16.5%K (age 23) Michael Taylor: .279/.359/.465 .372 wOBA .186 ISO 10.3%BB 25.7%K (age 23) Almora (15-16): .286/.328/.417 .338 wOBA .131 ISO 5.7%BB 11.5%K (age 22) Almora (2016): .315/.330/.450 .343 wOBA .135 ISO 2.9%BB 13.8%K (age 22) So Almora has less power and walk rate than most of these guys. His wOBA for the last two years is .338, relative to .360-.370 out of three of them. Walk rate is lower than everyone (unless you lump in 2015 and compare him with Pillar), but also a lower K rate than everyone and this year his BA is pretty high comparatively, which would make sense given the low Ks. So the two major questions to me would be where do you project Almora from here offensively, and how much do you need out of his offense? Pillar was able to get 4.3 fWAR out of a .310 wOBA season. Is Almora as good as Pillar defensively? We don't have the defensive stats to say yet, but it seems possible. I'd think Almora has a decent shot of being a .310-.320 wOBA type player. We could go around about which part of his slash line would get the pickup, but I think it could come from walks or power. Even if he falls short of that though, it looks like there's a lot of room miss if you're good in center. Then I'd look at fit on the team, both offensively and defensively. If you've got Bryant playing left you can probably make just about any center fielder work. But if you want to get Schwarber back in I'd think you'd almost need an elite center fielder to keep the stress off him and his defense as he comes back. Or if Soler starts beasting and they ship out Schwarber to keep Soler, I'd think an elite defensive center fielder would be great too. Maybe they get their third main outfielder from outside the organization, but with the current makeup of the team it seems like Almora would help with the flexibility. Then in the lineup they could use another high contact guy. Russell is showing now that you don't need to have elite slash line output to have a big impact by driving in runs. Dropping another guy in at the end of the order to drive in all these on base monsters with singles and doubles wouldn't be the worst way to construct a lineup. Of course, if they decide to fleece the Dbacks for Pollock or something that would be great, but the game isn't flooded with young positive defensive value above average offensive center fielders. Looking down the 2015 list of guys with a 2.0 fWAR (17) and positive defensive value (and who I didn't list above are) Trout, Pollock, Cain, Cutch, Betts, Jones, Fowler, and Austin Jackson. Most of those guys that are young enough to want are pretty well untouchable or they're Cain at 30 with a huge deal coming after 2017. You could go get another minor league center fielder, but I'm not well versed enough on the minors across MLB to say who that guy would be. Or you could go get another corner outfielder and I'm sure Heyward would be great in center. But again, I'm not sure who that guy would be, and I wouldn't want to spend much on another corner outfield spot when that guy would just be keeping it warm for Harper. Almora is in the system, so absent other trade ideas I'm pretty happy with him as an option for later this year and next at least.

Totally. Only give up Contreras for Trout. The Cubs have most of their positions filled up with good young players. Schwarber hopefully ready to take back of the OF next year or Baez/Soler could become good. The only positional need the Cubs really have going forward is catcher, and hey look here's one of the best hitters in the minors playing catcher at AAA! If they want to make a trade for a young pitcher for with a lot of years who could start ahead of Lakey it would be ok, but there's enough in the minors and in Jorge Soler to say no Contreras and still get most any pitcher. Would still definitely prefer not to trade Javy and it would take a seriously good young starter to make me want to do it. But no Contreras on any available pitcher for me. Even if he's Welington Castillo behind the plate. But personally, I'd just rather keep the starting 5 we have, plus Wood and Warren. Save the chips in case a guy like Trout does come on the market. I've always liked Hammel, but figure even if he explodes they should weather it fine in the regular season and I'm all the way down with Hendricks in the playoff rotation. Gray would be ok, but again no Contreras. I'd have to know a lot more than I do about why he sucks now before making Javy part of a huge deal involving him. Lefty reliever? I'm down but don't think he has to be that good. I wouldn't want to give up the kind of package that would net Miller. There's Trout to think about and the post-2017 rotation. But mostly just wanted to echo Duke's desire for youth and years. I don't want to sign up any Brauns for their twilight years or a rental like Lucroy when he'll cost us our Trout savings and perhaps not even out OPS the ageless David Ross.

Good AB by Javy too. Like Big Slick said, I thought he'd be swinging out of his shoes. First Wrigley wind blowing out AB in a while and Soler just homered. But two good takes a couple wild hacks then a no leg kick bullet liner into left off a fastball in the zone up. He's been rolling over or hitting those without much authority lately, so was nice to see him tattoo one with a controlled swing on a 2 strike count. And yeah, Addy's looked great today.

Georgie getting this launch angle thing dialed in!

I voted yesterday for Blackburn, Williams, and Hannemann. I figured I'd like the bell go by and let Hannemann's hopes die on the 6 vote scrap heap, but it seems he wanted it enough to homer and make me write a post about him. Even though his he's only sporting a .222/.318/.380 line, he's got some good stuff going. He hit his 5th HR tonight in 203 ABsvs 6 in 553 last year. BB%/K% of 10.2%/14.7% this year vs 7.1%/21.8% for 2014-2015. ISO of .158 vs last two years of .120. 17 for 20 in stolen bases. And lot of that success this year has been off left handed pitching. His batting lines this year: 2016 AA vs Left: .271/.375/.375 in 48 ABs vs Right: .203/.295/.382 in 123 ABs 2015 AA vs Left: .250/.319/.321 in 48 ABs vs Right: .229/.283/.371 in 123 ABs So for both 2015 and 2016, similar walk numbers from both sides of the plate, more power against righties, more contact against lefties. But he's so far added a little more power from both sides of the plate and has his BA up a bit against lefties. It should keep coming up from both sides, as he's sporting a .246 BABIP this year, compared with around .300 the rest of his career. Then there's the fact that the Cubs have had him playing center and leading off for much of his career. Seems like they wouldn't have continually led off a guy with a career .309 OBP if they didn't think he'd eventually be good. There are definitely many examples of nobodies the Cubs have led off lately, but they seem to keep the prime spots for the prime guys unless there's an uber hitting journeyman who just has to hit 3rd. Then they've let him play the CF position in 247 out of 319 games when there have been a lot of other decent CFs coming through the org at the same time. Seems like you'd want to save that position for guys who you'll be able to sell to other teams later as a center fielder, so again you'd save it for premium guys, particularly at the higher levels. And of course he's also not a pitcher, which nice.

To clarify, I'm not saying that KATOH is winning on Almora in the sense that he's currently performing to the level of #8 prospect in the game or that Contreras' hot start has validated him being 20 spots ahead of Torres. Just that it forecast those two guys higher than most, and I think both are performing well enough to be uniformly moved up most lists. So you know, finding reasons to believe a formula that tells me Candelario is the 43rd most valuable prospect in baseball.

Fangraphs doesn't have the last two games in the game logs but for 5/1-5/23 he was hitting .263/.352/.425, which is good for .364 wOBA and 126 wRC+. As I was looking that up, I also came across KATOH's opinion of him from the offseason. He came in at number 43, one spot ahead of Torres, 23 spots behind Contreras, 35 spots behind Almora. I don't know enough to endorse the whole thing (Buxton behind everyone listed above so guessing it's not great with working in defense/speed?), but most opinions had Almora a good bit lower and I think most had Contreras behind Torres by a bit. So far KATOH is winning on those guys. So hopefully it's right and Jeimer is an elite prospect too. http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/katohs-top-100-prospect-list-for-2016/ Also, since we're talking about interesting pitchers, Clifton. Just figured he had to be thrown in with the Hudson and Cease as the other guy I'm most excited about right now.

Another Eloy walk. Let that fear sink in MWL pitchers. Embrace it.

Also Blackburn beasting again. Only 4 singles and no walks no runs through 6 IP, with 4 Ks. The GB rate wasn't crazy, at 5 GB to 7 FB, but not allowing an XBH is pretty cool. Only took him 83 pitches to get through 6. Now at a .96 ERA.

Also, wanted to note that a big thing that's killed Candelario has been hitting from the left side. For 2016, he's got a .313/.400/.500 line in 48 ABs as a RH hitter and a .172/.308/.323 line in 99 ABs as a left handed hitter. Last year in AA, he had a .947 OPS in 43 ABs as a RHH vs .801 in 115 ABs as a LHH. At MB, it was flipped with a .628 as a RHH and .771 as a LHH. Previously, it was a pretty mixed bag. So it doesn't look like there's evidence that he should be that bad from the left side. And the walk numbers look great from that side and power numbers are decent, it's just that it seems that's where his batting average woes are coming from. Hopefully he's working on something there, and yesterday was the first bit of evidence that he's cleaning it up as he hit the home run and one of the doubles as a lefty.

I'd leave him down there for awhile. His plate discipline still needs some work. And he's just 19. Let him get used to being a beast as the in-game power continues to manifest. Hope he starts being more selective. I'd be more inclined to move a guy like him up at a swifter rate when he gets older. I wouldn't mind leaving him there a long time, I was wondering more about what will happen than what I would prefer. Like if he has flipped a switch, and pitchers really do start pitching around him and he's able to control the zone and draw some walks. All while holding down the strike outs. After a 28% K rate in April, and a similar 27% K rate for 5/1-5/12, he's cut it to 18% for 5/13-5/21. Obviously, real small sample size but he's been seriously beasting over that short time that he's cut down on his Ks. And he's drawn 2 walks over that time frame for a walk rate to 5%. If he were to keep up a K rate around 18% and walk at ~6-7% while also continuing to beast with the power and hit .300+ for another month they might just decide they want to challenge him. Or don't. I really don't care a bit about how quick Eloy moves, just excited about this run and wondering how they'll handle him. Regarding Dewees, that's awesome. Would really be great if he could start hitting some HRs. Thanks to the 8 triples and 19 total XBHs, he's got a .184 Iso. But more HRs would definitely be a lot cooler. He hit 18 in 251 ABs his last year of college, so you'd think that some more are there. He did only have 6 HRs in 260 ABs between freshman and sophomore, and only hit his 7th today in 476 PAs with the Cubs. So maybe the 18 was some kind of fluke, but I'm hoping not. This year he's played 30 of 37 games in center and last year it was 42 of 59 games. And they're pushing EJM to a corner, so you figure they like Dewees's chances there. With a pop gun arm, the ability to play center is a game changer. He's also been walking more, which is nice for a guy without much power. 8.2% BB vs 12.3% K and a .184 ISO this year is a nice improvement from 4.6% BB / 17.8% K / .110 ISO last year. Also quite jacked about Candelario's day yesterday. Now up to a .163 ISO to go with his 14.9% BB% / 18.3% K%. Leads the Southern league with 15 doubles. He's also seemingly playing pretty good defense, with only 4 errors and improvements in both Fld% and RF from last year.

And a walk for Eloy in the second AB. This is the part where the fear kicks in for the pitchers, Eloy shows he can take walks on pitch-arounds, and Cubs decide they don't want him facing MWL chumps anymore. Figure mid-end June call up if he maintains anything like his current stretch?

That's some easy power and a pretty level swing. Imagine if the Cubs had gotten 17 year old Jorge and had all the time in the world to develop him. You might say "don't swing so hard, you don't really need to. You want to just make contact, so swing soft and level for a while, hit a bunch of singles. Try not to strike out too much, hit singles and the power will come. I mean have you seen that picture of you next to Manny Ramirez? You're huge!" Well that might be what they did with Eloy. Either way, that's a good looking swing.

Also he's super sucked. I thought the playoff run last year was the start of him tapping into his patience and also that it was possible that with an offseason of slimming down and practice maybe he'd be ok in the outfield. Or he'd hit enough home runs to make it not matter. But right now he's really not hitting the ball on the button no matter what the exit velocity says. As that article about the distance of his average fly balls showed (~250 ft?) he's just not hitting it at the right launch angle. Maybe he can get there but I'm losing patience with him as a guy who fits in David's picture carousel. Right now it's Javy but soon it'll also be Almora and maybe next year Schwarber if either isn't in some crazy deal. Before the season I figured they'd need Soler's bat more than an Enciarte/Almora type but the offense is amazing and you've got to hit sooooo much better than he has to make it worth it to keep him on the field. And comparing him the Almora type is medium/long term thing. Right now Javy and Seal Boy need to be taking like all the at bats because they're better and they're developing players in their own right.

Thanks, I was actually all aboard the Don't Trade Soler for Mid-level (Odorizzi type) Pitching train this offseason. He was that second right handed power bat in my lineup before they got Dex. Didn't even really want to give him up for a Teheran type. But now he's in Javy's way and that I can't abide.

Posted this in the game thread, but I like attention, so I'm posting here too. Soler had Javy's current BABIP last year and still wasn't any good. In 2015, he had a .361 BABIP, which got him a .262/.324/.399 line. And that was with a 28% LD rate, 36% hard hit rate, and 13.5% HR/FB. Cut to his peripherals this year, and he's been solid at 21% LD, 29% hard hit, and only a 6.7% HR/FB. So with his lack of speed and (to this point) inability to translate exit velocity into slugging I probably wouldn't expect another .350 BABIP.* As the wind starts blowing out I'd at least expect the HR/FB rate to go up, but just assuming that his BABIP is .300+ seems like a stretch at this point. He's cut his K rate down from 30% to 25%, so yeah if he got his BABIP up to the .350 range he'd be better than he is now and maybe better than last year. But those were some pretty stellar peripherals in 2015 and he wasn't able to get that much production out of it. Plus he sucks hard in the field and on the bases, so he's not an all-star unless he is absolutely mashing. Then, with Javy, he has had great peripherals both this year and last to get to his great BABIP. LD of 31% last year and 28% this year, hard hit of 33% last year, 30% this year. He can beat out an infield hit, he's been going to right field effectively, and a lot of his hard hit balls find the gaps. Sure if you give him Jorge's .213 BABIP he'd look like [expletive], but he hasn't earned it. Not to mention, he's has cut his K% to 23%, so he's also earning that part of his production related to the 7% extra balls he's putting into play. If you give him Jorge's BABIP, but let him keep his K rate, defense, speed, and ISO I think he'd still be with the big club. And I think we'd be seeing a good deal better than Georgie's -0.9 fWAR. *Btw, I'm aware that LD% doesn't have awesome correlation with BABIP, but you've got to start somewhere. If you'd prefer, Javy's IFFFB% is 0% in 2016 and 6.3% in 2015, relative to Jorge's 10% in 2016 and 12% in 2015.

Yep. This is the optimal lineup, at least until Soler stops being terrible. If you flipped Javy's and Jorge's BABIP's we'd be talking about Jorge being a damn near all-star and guessing what Japanese team Javy will be playing on in a few years. Soler had Javy's current BABIP last year and still wasn't any good. In 2015, he had a .361 BABIP, which got him a .262/.324/.399 line. And that was with a 28% LD rate, 36% hard hit rate, and 13.5% HR/FB. Cut to his peripherals this year, and he's been solid at 21% LD, 29% hard hit, and only a 6.7% HR/FB. So with his lack of speed and (to this point) inability to translate exit velocity into slugging I probably wouldn't expect another .350 BABIP.* As the wind starts blowing out I'd at least expect the HR/FB rate to go up, but just assuming that his BABIP is .300+ seems like a stretch at this point. He's cut his K rate down from 30% to 25%, so yeah if he got his BABIP up to the .350 range he'd be better than he is now and maybe better than last year. But those were some pretty stellar peripherals in 2015 and he wasn't able to get that much production out of it. Plus he sucks hard in the field and on the bases, so he's not an all-star unless he is absolutely mashing. Then, with Javy, he has had great peripherals both this year and last to get to his great BABIP. LD of 31% last year and 28% this year, hard hit of 33% last year, 30% this year. He can beat out an infield hit, he's been going to right field effectively, and a lot of his hard hit balls find the gaps. Sure if you give him Jorge's .213 BABIP he'd look like horsefeathers, but he hasn't earned it. Not to mention, he's has cut his K% to 23%, so he's also earning that part of his production related to the 7% extra balls he's putting into play. If you give him Jorge's BABIP, but let him keep his K rate, defense, speed, and ISO I don't think anyone is talking about Japan right now. Maybe about how he's lost his spot in the core, but even then I think we'd be seeing a good deal better than Georgie's -0.9 fWAR. *Btw, I'm aware that LD% doesn't have awesome correlation with BABIP, but you've got to start somewhere. If you'd prefer, Javy's IFFFB% is 0% in 2016 and 6.3% in 2015, relative to Jorge's 10% in 2016 and 12% in 2015.

I didn't read through all the game thread but I imagine it was discussed how good a sales pitch it was for Maddon to pants Dusty all series long? Aside from this being a young, fun, dominant team with a killer locker room, you've got Joe Maddon. After Dusty and Matt Williams he's going to be looking fiending for someone not crazy. Also someone who likes a nice pimped home run. Maybe a dude who wears shades and walks people 20 times when chump managers don't adjust and who sometimes bats Kris Bryant second. Yes, this was a good sales week. But even if we don't get him who cares? That's why this is a topic I'm throwing into "other games" rather than the "Did You See the Way Harper Was Looking At Us?!" thread that would be up any point in the team's past or any other teams present. Hurrah!

One other thing I thought of while re-watching these plays from tonight. One reason Baez is charging everything is he's positioned near the outfield grass. If Joe can consistently position him that deep he's got the potential to rob all kinds of hits. I like Bryant a lot as a third baseman, but that one down the line probably would have been a double. Baez is off the line about 10 feet and in from the grass maybe 5 feet, so he's got a bunch more time to get there. I'd guess a fair number of really good third basemen have the arm to play back there, but they don't have the athleticism to make the play coming in. That backhand play in the ninth Javy made look easy. Bryant probably would have had it too, it just wouldn't have looked as cool because he wouldn't have been coming from the outfield grass. So not to belabor the point of which position should be the utility guy's favorite one, but was re-watching the highlights and got pretty geeked about how far back he was actually playing.

I'm not sure it's well established that 2B defense is more important than 3B defense. Fangraphs has them with the same 2.5 positional adjustment. Then, I'm not sure how to compare the defensive stats best across positions, but the leaderboard of each seems to have more third basemen than second basemen. - DEF (the defensive side of fWAR) there are 7 third basement before you see the first second baseman at 34th. The top defensive third baseman (Beltre) had a 14.0 vs the top second baseman (Gordon)'s 8.6. - UZR/150 has 6 third baseman before the first second baseman at 30. Beltre at 13.0 vs Gordon's 6.7 - DRS has Kinlser at 7th with 19, one higher than Beltre's 18. Total of 6 third basemen in the top 30 vs 3 second basemen. That may just be the state of the league right now, but I'd rather have an elite third baseman than second baseman. It just seems like they can create more plays that wouldn't be there otherwise. Also, I think shifting and positioning reduces the value of a good second baseman. But all that stuff is in the abstract. I just think Javy is an out of this world third baseman and a very good second baseman. His UZR/150s for 2015 and 2016 are pretty small samples, but I believe what they're telling me. Here is where everyone stands on UZR/150: Javy 3B - 2015: 70.1 2016: 32.9 2B - 2015: 5.1 2016: 0.0 * 2016: 14 innings at 2B vs 31 innings at 3B. 2015 59 innings at wB vs 64 innings at 3B. SSS!!! Bryant 3B - 2015: 5.4 2016: 24.4 LF - 2015: 41.4 2016: 22.4 OF - 2015: 21.2 2016: 19.4 * Bryant had 98 innings in 2015 of which 39 came in left. 67 so far this year, of which 61 have come in left Zobrist 2B - 2015: -13.3 2016: 5.7 LF - 2015: -19.0 2016: ? OF - 2015: -15.1 2016: ? * Zobrist had 380 innings in OF, of which 346 came in left To me, with the eye test it looks like Baez could be an elite third baseman, maybe the best in the game. The numbers definitely agree there. I think at second base he's looked very good but hasn't made that many plays where you'd say another average guy wouldn't have made it. That may be why he's not getting quite the UZR/150 love there. It may be that the position of second base doesn't allow him to unleash his arm to create game changing plays as often. Maybe quick turns and his range there don't actually create as many runs as what he does at third. I'm not sure, and I'll be interested to see it shake out once we get more data, but that's what I'd bet on. Then, look at Bryant awesome in the outfield. Heyward had a UZR/150 of 22.3 vs Bryant's 21.2. He could be a difference maker in left too. And again, I'd guess he'd still get to play third maybe 40% of the time even if Baez found a quasi-home at third. Then about Zobrist. I buy the -15 in the outfield last year. He's big and seems pretty slow going down the line. He hasn't been terrible at second so far, and has been picking it up a bit lately. The 5.7 doesn't seem too far off. Then there's the fact that Maddon hasn't played him out there at all. Maybe it's the deal they made, but I wouldn't be surprised if Maddon just prefers Bryant out there and is getting Bryant mentally ready for the switch. All these points, but if Joe puts Baez at second I'll be cool. Definitely not a topic I'm going to get all entrenched on. I'd guess he moves around no matter where he plays and dominates at everything.

Just posted this in the game thread so I'll memorialize it here even though I could probably do better if I wasn't on my phone: The missing part there is Bryant vs Zobrist in the outfield. With Bryant's speed I think he be a big plus in the outfield. I'd guess Zobrist has lost some steps. I'd think that the Javy would provide a bigger lift at third because of all the crazy plays his arm allow him to make. At second a big benefit is his ability to turn quick double plays, but that's the sort of skill you'd think would age well with Zobrist. He won't turn quite as many as Baez would, but the plays Baez is able to make at third just wouldn't get made by anyone else. Also, Baez creates more double play opportunities at third, which I'd think would come close to wash with the extra turns you'd get with Baez over Zobrist at second. But really it boils down to Baez having the armto make long throws from up the line or the throws on the run coming in. How many of those would have been hits with Bryant playing? Also if you move Zobrist full time now he's going lose his second base skills quicker over the course of the contract. 38 year old pure outfielder Zobrist doesn't sound great. Primary concern is this year of course, but it is something. Biggest thing in all of it might be your MVP candidate KB might not want to play OF all the time and putting him in LF permanently might hurt the chances of resigning him down the road. Lol just kidding I don't think that's a concern. This team is amazing and I'm guessing he enjoys watching Javy make these plays too. If it was every day that would be one thing, but if Javy's main position is third I'd guess he'll still play SS and 2nd like 30-40% of the time.