I have a team with a defensively flawed SS (6,200 innings, .952 fielding %) but have the opportunity to trade for a player entering his 4th Major League season with an average OPS of .800. His fielding ratings are:
Range - 80
Glove - 83
Arm - 81
Accuracy - 84

The catch is that the player to be traded for has never been used at SS in the Majors. Do I roll the dice and hope I actually get a defensive upgrade at SS with the proposed player I’d trade for?

For reference my 3B is as follows:
Range - 81
Glove - 79
Arm - 82
Accuracy - 77

Link the guy you want as a ss.

Likely id play the new ss at 2nd or cf if its the team of yours I checked and find a real def ss. But I need to know which of your teams and link the new player card.

Here is a guy that has glove and arm accuracy that is close to the guy above. He has a career .960 at SS. The guy above has a slightly better glove/arm accuracy combo so maybe he will be slightly above .960. I'd take a SS with an 800 OPS all day. However, since my preference is to have an overfielding SS, it is difficult for me to write the above opinion. Nonetheless, my guy last year only gave the lineup an OPS of .656. Upping that to .800 and lowering my SS fielding by 20 points is probably worth it, but it depends on the above guy is replacing.

I'd use the guy as a 3B, he's a plus fielding 3B currently, he's not a SS in my opinion, the range and glove will hurt any GB pitchers you have as he's not getting to balls he would if his range was 85+

Id get the new guy and use him or Player Profile: Miguel Escalona - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports at 3rd and 2nd or cf depending on what I could trade
Player Profile: Jerry Nelson - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports
Player Profile: Jason McEnerney - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports
Player Profile: Kazuhiro Itou - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports
Player Profile: Victor Guerra - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports
If I could not get a good player at one of those positions then Id use Player Profile: Fernando Vega - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports at 3rd the new guy and the escalona guy at cf and 2nd and get a real def ss Id trade all those guys regardless as they are not very good fyi.

Yeah that team has a glut of 2B types that will be bench players. Just hard to find that true defense first SS to be the anchor for those other guys.

Usually def ss are easy to find in rule v or cheap fa or sometimes even waiver wire. I have only been in 1 world were they were harder to come by.

I'm using Player Profile: Desi Arredondo - Hardball Dynasty Baseball | WhatIfSports at short right now. Pretty close to your guy. It looks like you would have a plus defenders at other positions to make up the difference. I tend to try to have plus defender at SS but sometimes you have to roll with what you have. I also won a WS with 75/80/85/85 at SS all the way through the playoffs. There isn't any one size fits all formula to win.

So I ended up just agreeing to the deals this morning. I still landed Torcato and will have him play 3B but I got Oropesa https://www.whatifsports.com/hbd/Pages/Popups/PlayerRatings.aspx?pid=9035884 to man SS and will move my stud youngster Escalona to 2B. Hoping those defensive upgrades will be the difference between me looking from the outside at playoff time. Last year missed the playoffs because of a tie breaker scenario. That didn’t sit too well.

You could not find a real ss who could hit barely .700 ops?

Correct, I had scoured rosters while I was still fuming from missing the playoffs and found him to be my best obtainable option. With the full lineup I don’t need him to be an offensive threat.

Personally I wouldn't start a guy with sub-80 range at SS unless he was an absolute monster at the plate.

I always look for 85 + in all def ratings at ss. I do not think id go much below unless he was a killer hitter and then id probally move him to a diff position and get a def ss. But hey to each there own. My advise was to trade 4 of your guys and with this guy it would be 5 guys to trade. Id want better players at all those positions. Someone else will likely want those guys due to there high overall ratings even though they are fringe at best ml guys.

Posted by dmalone01 on 7/23/2020 3:53:00 PM (view original):
Personally I wouldn't start a guy with sub-80 range at SS unless he was an absolute monster at the plate.

I have started a SS with 78 rating at glove, but yeah, he did have a pretty good bat.