I've played guys there in individual games on occasion, like Maz and Cuyler in a Pirates league, but never saw results that extreme.

Vic Davalillo OF B+/A At SS?

The times I've done this, I've used the guy batting playing out of position,as a lead off hitter and would set my setttings to have him replaced in the 7th, if his Team was leading by a run.

I've had excellent results with Roy White OF B+/A- playing at 3B, and utlizing the above stragedy.

Following up on outbacker's question. . .

I am considering playing Robin Yount in 1986 back at SS, full time. He's an A/A in the OF (I think CF if that is a thing).

What can I expect? D+/D+?

Since there is really useful info in this thread already, I'll bump it by posting my new question here. Does anyone have good quantitative info they can share on playing a decent OF out of position at 3B for an entire season? I'll put some of my own recent out-of-position results below, and think it would be a really useful resource if others would add similar info.

I recently used OF Dave Winfield 1984 (A/C-; .994, 2.01) at 1B for 140 starts. He posted a .995 FA and 10.326 RF there. That was 14th in FA and 9th in RF out of 16 full-time 1B's in the league. His FA was similar to guys rated C or D at 1B, and RF was similar to guys rated D, but with a lot of variability.

On the same team, I used 2B Glenn Hubbard 1984 (A-/A; .988/5.80) at 3B for 54 starts. He posted a .982 FA and 3.378 RF at 3B. If he'd had enough IP to qualify for the leaderboard, that would have tied for first in FA and ranked 6th in RF (compared to 17 qualifiers). He was much better for me than Barry Bonnell (rated C/D- at 3B, but only 10 games there in real life) and somewhat comparable to Bob Horner (A-/C-, with 32 games at 3B in real life).

I also used 1981 2B Glenn Hubbard (A/B; .991/5.45) in 39 starts at 3B. That season he gave me a .944 FA and 2.939 RF, which would have ranked 19th and 21st in the league if he'd qualified for the leaderboard.

Hubbard's real-life defensive stats at 2B were pretty similar both of the seasons, but he performed much better for me at 3B in 1984 than 1981. Probably that is just a fluke of small sample size, with only ~40 starts per season.

I'm thinking about splitting Hubbard (A-/A+ at 2B) and Winfield (A-/C+ in OF) at 3B there for 1985, but am worried about any OF making a ton of errors at 3B.

I regularly draft any position players to fill in at 1B, they usually end up doing ok, not that many errors but you will see bunch of minus plays though. Sorry I don't have any precise stats to offer, like what kind of range and fieding they have at actual position, I just never kept tab, but they are usually players with low range. I'm currently using 2002 Vlad Guerrero at 1B but the season is only into game 34. His fielding at OF is D+/C- (.969/2.00) so far in 34 games 3 errors for a .993 % with 7 poor plays and 0 good plays. Needless to say I use players who make up the minus plays with big offensive numbers.
I once played 1982 A+/A+ Ozzie Smith at 2B and he did very good, I remember around 15 errors and 20 good plays.
I think you can switch around guys from 2B, SS and 3B without too many problems but I'd never try an unrated C,1B or OF at those positions.
Curious about what teaparty posted about playing an A+ C at OF, how that would turn out.

my understanding is that you do better as you move right...playing a 2b at 3b is better then playing 3b at 2b.....ive been forced to play a c/c 2b at 3b for 2 seasons and he plays like a solid c/c 3b.. maybe better.not worse....ive played solid fielding 1b in of with no problems....never tried a great fielding catcher in the infield yet.

Moving a catcher to the outfield is a big move, they would be much worse than their catching ratings. A 3B or SS moving to the outfield would be less painful.

In a pinch i have played a good fielding OF at SS with decent results.

I have the following players available, with an opening at SS. Would you take a chance on playing Bishop or Collins at SS for the offensive upgrade?

1931 Max Bishop (A-/B 2B, .294/.426.400)
1920 Eddie Collins (B/B+ 2B, .372/.438/.493)
1934 Eric McNair (C/B+ SS, .280/.321/.412)

if i might need to play a player out of position i go to sim matchup and play about 32 quick games and see what the errors and bad plays are...mult by 5 for 160 games....you can extropolate......catchers dont do well in outfield...can be ok at first base.

lookit you be all helpful

i'm not sure they're exactly the same game engine, but i think you're onto something

because it'll be obvious when it doesn't work

I just played a full season of 1994 Craig Biggio (A-/C (.988/.517)) at SS.

46 errors in 142 games at SS.
.937 Fielding Pct.
17 “-“ plays
Range Factor of 4.86 (23rd of 24 qualified SS) (only 2004 Miguel Tejada had a lower RF, and ironically he has A range)

Gonna try this stupid experiment again

Posted by flyingman on 8/8/2009 3:18:00 PM (view original):
So this question has been turning over in my head for a while, and I was hoping someone could answer it:

How does the sim determine if an OF is a center fielder or a corner outfielder? Is it according to baseball-reference's fielding stats, or does the sim simply assume that, say, a A/A+ outfielder is a center fielder?

I'm likely going to need to play an OOP player at SS in a progressive I am in and I have two excellent center fielders. It would seem to me that they would be the best players to insert at SS, but I need to make sure the sim will recognize them as center fielders and not corner outfielders or generic outfielders.

Has there been any recent definitive analysis on this?

If I have good fielding OF that I'm considering playing at 3B, will it be considered a move in the wrong direction (COF > 3B) or in the right direction (CF > 3B)?

Using Robin Yount at SS in 1985. 24 games, 26 errors, .770 fielding percentage. Complete disaster.