Quote: Originally Posted By zbrent716 on 3/23/2010

Quote: Originally Posted By smoelheim on 3/22/2010

Quote: Originally posted by soxfan121 on 3/22/2010
I'd try to trade Malloy for a SS who actually meets the minimums.

They aren't "minimums", they are ratings of an "average" SS

Many owners treat them as minimums, regardless of the heading of the popup window.

I looked at the fielding ratings of the 32 primary SS in Cooperstown, an "elite" world where owners generally say they pay a lot of attention to defense. The average ratings are 85/85/88/86-- somewhat above the WiS "average" of 80/85/85/85. Only 4 teams played an SS with range < 80, but 3 were playoff contenders. For each of the other categories there were 8-16 teams playing guys below 85. 10 teams played a guy at or above average in all 4 categories; these 10 teams had about average success (4 playoff teams, 2 contenders, 4 non-contenders). The "worst" SS averaged 80 across all the categories.

(Small Sample) Conclusion-- in a world of experienced and successful owners, the suggested numbers are not quite average, but are closer to that than to minimum.

I'm building this team heavily based on pitching in a heavy pitchers' park. Then I'm going to put 9 good bats in the lineup as often as possible (including 3 bats I like off the bench), and just do the best I can with defense/let the ballpark effect be my D. Forget baserunning. None of the starters figures to steal double digits, although the bench has 3 excellent baserunners. Last season, with a pitching/defense strategy, I was at about .380 by the All-Star break. Went to a pitching/hitting srategy at the expense of defense, and played nearly .700 ball the second half. The staff and lineup are both better this season.

The rotation is filthy 1-5, the bullpen is very good behind it, and I really like the lineup 1-9 (AL). I have solid PC, solid corner D, and several good options at AAA to cover some injuries. I'm going to live with this problem defensively up the middle. I'd just like to align them so as to best minimize the damage.

Riley SS

Richardson CF

Malloy 2B

This lineup will minimize the damage up the middle.

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By no stretch am I advocating the necessity of a "respectable" SS. If you look at my squads you'll see I haven't had one of those in years.

And I don't know what calculations you are doing to determine what makes a guy a replacement-level player, but if those calculations lead you to the conclusion that a player with more mistakes in the field (33, 24 errors + 9 (-) plays) than extra-base hits (12), runs (31), or RBI (31) I think it might be time to re-examine them.

He had 33 screw-ups in the field. He had 58 hits (46 were singles) and 18 walks. That just doesn't seem like nearly a wash to me.

I calculate batting runs above average and basically just use runs created- tweaked slightly to weight OBP more than slugging. Paige's OBP and SLG were both above the league average, and not for SS's, for the league as a whole. His defense was atrocious, costing almost 15 runs (I actually read wrong the first time, it was 14+, not 10), but he gets about a 10 run positional adjustment for playing shortstop.

Slightly better than league average bat - about 15 runs in the field + about 10 runs positional adjustment = just about replacement level performance.

I'm not saying it's optimal and that I didn't look to upgrade this season. I'm just saying that sometimes it can be worth it to take ****** production at one position for great production at another position or two.

I think this is particularly the case when you consider that the players are not totally fluid and don't totally reset from year to year. If I sacrifice shortstop one year to be able to afford a great pitcher, I still have that pitcher for a few more years and have the chance to now add a great shortstop. If I pay mediocre players for those two spots, I have less of a chance of ever getting a great player in there.

Again, no issue with playing a scrub at SS for the league minimum to improve your team elsewhere. Just that this particular scrub is exceptionally *bad* to put at SS.

True... which is why I replaced him with Humberto DeRojas a slightly better scrub.

And besides, I just like to give the rejects a chance.

What happened to Endy Wang in S14?

I was an idiot and forgot right-handed batters can still throw y apparently.