What moves will be made this offseason??

[DuckDuckGose]

I'm not really sure what your point is.

 

In recent years, guys like Gardner and Crawford have been known to save ~20 runs in LF. Alex Gordon I think was in the teens the last two years.

 

There has definitely been a trend towards more defensively capable LFers in Major League Baseball. You can see this by simply looking at the league average offensive LF production, and how it has declined.

 

(Year - BP TAV)

2013 - .265

2012 - .270

2011 - .263

2010 - .275

2009 - .271

2008 - .273

2007 - .273

2006 - .276

2005 - .273

2004 - .279

2003 - .281

2002 - .280

 

Comp that to RF, which hasn't moved much in a decade (probably down a bit though due to run environment going down post-roids):

2002 - .282

2003 - .280

----

2011 - .281

2012 - .273

2013 - .281

 

Increasingly, teams seem to be using LF to roster defensively capable players that can provide CF depth. Sometimes teams even bring up young CF and start them in LF (Desmond Jennings, Starling Marte, Brett Gardner).

 

The main point is you still have to hit to play LF and the bat is still more important than the glove. I understand the point you are trying to illustrate and acknowledge that it's about run differential and recently there has been a shift to more athletic players all around the diamond, including LF'ers.

 

However, LF has always and will always be a slugging position simply because you can hide their defence there more than any other position outside of 1B and DH. At the end of the day it's about scoring more runs than you allow and you play the talent that maximizes that differential -- regardless of stereotypes or preconceived notions.

 

It's good to see this wave of young, athletic, and strong all-around talent that has been reaching the majors for the last few years. I can't remember the last time I was this excited about the young talent in the league.

[Angrioter]

The main point is you still have to hit to play LF and the bat is still more important than the glove. I understand the point you are trying to illustrate and acknowledge that it's about run differential and recently there has been a shift to more athletic players all around the diamond, including LF'ers.

 

However, LF has always and will always be a slugging position simply because you can hide their defence there more than any other position outside of 1B and DH. At the end of the day it's about scoring more runs than you allow and you play the talent that maximizes that differential -- regardless of stereotypes or preconceived notions.

 

It's good to see this wave of young, athletic, and strong all-around talent that has been reaching the majors for the last few years. I can't remember the last time I was this excited about the young talent in the league.

 

That's my point. My English suck

[The_DH]

I remember some of the left fielders when I was a kid. A lot of statues.

[Angrioter]

I remember some of the left fielders when I was a kid. A lot of statues.

 

Pat Burrell

[Laika]

However, LF has always and will always be a slugging position

 

In the last few years, MLB left fielders have hit less productively than CF, RF, 1B, and DH. They've been slightly better than 3B.

 

So of the 9 hitting positions, they've been better than four of them and worse than four of them (although they are closer to 1B than they are to SS/C, so they aren't equidistant from the extremes).

 

CF and RF have more defensive responsibility than LF, so in a nutshell, we would expect LF to hit better. But they haven't been. It's true that LF is still a hitter's position, but honestly, teams don't tend to be hiding any defensive liabilities there anymore. Some still do (Willingham, Quentin, Holliday, etc), but others use LF to stash an extra CF capable player in the pursuit of a more injury robust roster (Brantley in CLE, Young Jr. in NYM, Marte in PIT, Eaton in ARI, Blanco in SF) or to break in young players of all OF molds (Yelich currently in LF, Des Jennings was last year, Trout gave way to Bourjos for a bit, Eaton currently playing LF in ARI).

 

There's also an apparent unwillingness to spend on left fielders. You see lots of teams choose to platoon cheaper guys there these days (OAK, TB, BOS, etc).

 

It's still a slugging position, sure, but to some teams it's not that simple anymore.

[Boxcar]

I love threads where Kirksaw does his thing.

[Randy The Robot]

- And honesty, Drabek has exceeded expectations thus far off two Tommy John Surgeries and I'd bet that he'd be enough to land Chris Owings from Arizona. Owings could be the 24th-25th man, if not beat out Izturis at 2b. He'd certainly be the 2b of the future, if not the shortstop down the road.

 

26, coming off his second TJ, and was absolutely horrible before injury. Not to mention D backs are loaded with pitching. Doubt Drabek would even land Tuffy Gosewich(?)