What happens if a guy has great D abilities but he is 'only' a SS, say, and you put him in the OF?  Or put him at 3b? 

Only his ratings matter. If his ratings are good enough to play a particular position he will be fine playing that position. The only exception is when you try and play a LH throwing player at 2B/SS/3B. That guy will kill your defense.

If he truly has the D abilities of SS, he'll be an above average OF or 3B. There is no out of position penalty, and you can change his primary and secondary positions yourself, by going to the GM's Office and then clicking on the hyperlinked position next to his name.

If you play a high defensive skilled player at a lower skilled position, you'll see well-above average defensive stats.  Particularly lots of plus plays.

I play a 92/83/92/91 guy in CF on one of my teams.  He's about to win his fourth Gold Glove in five ML seasons, and has made 98 plus plays (zero minus plays) in CF during that timeframe.

Good to know, I didnt know you could change his position.  I have several SS only guys in the minors with all D ratings in the 90's and overalls over 85.  I would like to scatter those fools around my infield so I guess I could just change one to 2b and one to 3b and get silly.  That would give me three infielders with all 90+ d ratings in the infield and all at 100 speed.

All things equal, I'd take one of those guys and put him in CF rather than 3B.

And just so you now, speed is an offensive category only.

Yeah I have found that while having a great defensive SS is almost a must for great teams, if you also stick a guy at 2B with the defensive abilities of a GG shortstop your pitchers will turn into Cy Young winners (and this is coming from a guy whose team is likely about to win a 4th straight Cy Young).

Posted by burnsy483 on 11/10/2010 9:40:00 AM (view original):
All things equal, I'd take one of those guys and put him in CF rather than 3B.

+1

CF is more important defensively than 3B.

Posted by seank07 on 11/10/2010 12:52:00 AM (view original):
Good to know, I didnt know you could change his position.  I have several SS only guys in the minors with all D ratings in the 90's and overalls over 85.  I would like to scatter those fools around my infield so I guess I could just change one to 2b and one to 3b and get silly.  That would give me three infielders with all 90+ d ratings in the infield and all at 100 speed.

Doing that would give you an incredible defense. Try to acquire high GB pitchers to take advantage of the amazing defensive abilities you have on the infield. Like someone else said already, speed is an offensive rating only so it won't help your defense.