'New-Age' MLB Star

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haltz
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Re: 'New-Age' MLB Star

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If you extrapolate it by plate appearance it's more like a 5 win pace for Baez. I don't think he's actually that good for more than a couple of reasons, but you could say he played like a star this year.
Last edited by haltz on October 18 16, 3:43 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Farewell Friends
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Re: 'New-Age' MLB Star

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Albert Pujols was shifted around for his first three seasons.

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haltz
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Re: 'New-Age' MLB Star

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is Swiss Army Man worth watching all the way through? I feel like the movie might ruin the magnificent trailer.

When you have 10 or 11 starters it's great when a few of them can play all over the field. You never have to see Aaron Miles and you get a huge value upgrade against the end of a typical bench. It's not as brilliant and innovative as it is a crazy luxury.

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Re: 'New-Age' MLB Star

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Farewell Friends wrote:Albert Pujols was shifted around for his first three seasons.
More accurately, Pujols was slowly moved down the defensive spectrum as he proved he wasn't an infielder and physically matured(which proved he wasn't an outfielder). The difference is that Bryant isn't moved around the field out of necessity, he's a good defensive 3B who plays elsewhere when it means the Cubs can have a better starting lineup because of it.

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Re: 'New-Age' MLB Star

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Pujols with +140 career fielding runs? He could've played further up the defensive spectrum and basically did or didn't because of McGwire, Rolen and a bad contract to Tino Martinez.

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Re: 'New-Age' MLB Star

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Transmogrified Tiger wrote:
Farewell Friends wrote:Albert Pujols was shifted around for his first three seasons.
More accurately, Pujols was slowly moved down the defensive spectrum as he proved he wasn't an infielder and physically matured(which proved he wasn't an outfielder). The difference is that Bryant isn't moved around the field out of necessity, he's a good defensive 3B who plays elsewhere when it means the Cubs can have a better starting lineup because of it.
I guess my point is that moving Bryant to left field isn't very innovative and having an MVP-type player moving around the field isn't unheard of. Is it really innovative that Maddon is smart enough to see that Bryant or Zobrist are superior left field options to Soler or Szcur and that allows him to play Baez?

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Re: 'New-Age' MLB Star

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haltz wrote:Pujols with +140 career fielding runs? He could've played further up the defensive spectrum and basically did or didn't because of McGwire, Rolen and a bad contract to Tino Martinez.
-7 UZR/150 in his ~30 games at 3B in 2002 and then -6 in LF before they moved him to first and he filled out substantially. Maybe they could've moved him around and it would've been worth the tradeoff, but that's not the same as what's unique about Bryant's role. A better example would probably be a guy like Rendon moving between 2B and 3B and being a quality defender at both, but his bat is a few standard deviations below Bryant's.

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Re: 'New-Age' MLB Star

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Farewell Friends wrote:
Transmogrified Tiger wrote:
Farewell Friends wrote:Albert Pujols was shifted around for his first three seasons.
More accurately, Pujols was slowly moved down the defensive spectrum as he proved he wasn't an infielder and physically matured(which proved he wasn't an outfielder). The difference is that Bryant isn't moved around the field out of necessity, he's a good defensive 3B who plays elsewhere when it means the Cubs can have a better starting lineup because of it.
I guess my point is that moving Bryant to left field isn't very innovative and having an MVP-type player moving around the field isn't unheard of. Is it really innovative that Maddon is smart enough to see that Bryant or Zobrist are superior left field options to Soler or Szcur and that allows him to play Baez?
The last MVP to play 30 games in both the infield and outfield in that season was Musial. Whether that's innovation, luxury, whatever, that's less interesting to me, but especially since Bryant is a good defender in both the infield and outfield, it does unquestionably make that usage unique.

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Re: 'New-Age' MLB Star

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That's fair, but I think it has more to do with the Cubs' great team-building rather than Hip Manager reinventing the wheel.

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Re: 'New-Age' MLB Star

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Baez is a budding star.

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