Comments on: Kansas City Royals 2010 Positional Review: Third Base

By: keith

keith — Wed, 10 Nov 2010 01:20:48 +0000

it would be best if Fields could somehow learn to play a passable LF/RF and spell Gordon and DDJ vs LHP. because Fields does one thing really well and that’s crush LH pitchers. and it would prevent unnecessarily signing someone to fill that role.

By: Nick Scott

Nick Scott — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 22:20:50 +0000

its also interesting that having a quality first baseman seems to correlate pretty high with teams that were good in 2010. It could be an anomaly, or maybe having a good offensive first baseman is a very important component to having a good team.

By: nick scott

nick scott — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 22:08:21 +0000

clearly if you have a great hitter who plays every day you will get better production out of the position. But a season is 162 games and you sometimes have to go out there and compete with your backup 3b due to injury or just time off. The reason the royals outpaced the yankees at 3B is simply due to wilson betemit hitting so well for over half the season. If you add his time with fields time (which I’ll grant is an anomoly) its 95 games of top 3 offense at 3b in the AL. Arod hit very well, but he didn’t put up the numbers of betemit. however he played more and that brought the yankees 3B up since the Royals mixed in callaspo.

Its why I think this analysis is so interesting. Looking at a position as a whole, rather than as individual players. having key backups and fill-ins can make a pretty big difference over the course of a 162 game season. I’m not saying I’d rather have betemit than arod, but if they repeat their numbers offensively (which isnt’ likely) betemit was better on a per game basis in 2010 than arod.

By: airgoesit

airgoesit — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 20:43:56 +0000

Well I guess there’s no question the Royals got better production out of 3B than the Yankees.
Ramiro Pena’s .183 BA is irrelevent. Kevin Russo’s .133 is as much a statistical anomaly as Fields .306. Throw them out, they don’t matter. The Red Sox “score out” highest because their stud played practically every day.
If it feels like a surprise (ie: it doesn’t pass the gut check), there is probably a reason.

By: Nick Scott

Nick Scott — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 19:24:27 +0000

jimj,

Uggla is a free agent, so the royals wouldn’t have to trade for him, but he turned down a large amount of money and years to re-sign with the marlins. I’d think he is too expensive considering the needs of the Royals.

Last year, the royals had at least 3B, 2B and 1B where the offensive numbers are at or surpass the AL average at the position. I haven’t yet run the numbers at SS, LF, CF or RF but I’d be surprised of none of them were average. One of the issues is that there was no position where the Royals had the best offensive number in the AL. In fact their offense last year was just shy of average in runs scored per game. I was kind of shocked myself. The pitching was by far the biggest issue in 2010.

I’m no Yuni fan, but I’d bet he’d get a starting spot on at least 3-5 other major league teams. Not that he’d necessarily deserve it, but I bet he would get it.

As far as bloomquist, I’m fine with getting a guy like him for cheap. Nearly every single great team in the MLB has a bloomquist on the bench, and it’s a valuable asset.

By: JimJ

JimJ — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 18:41:44 +0000

Dayton wants to find the next Bloomquist. A good team would consider Getz, Aviles, and Yuni a Bloomquist type and not starters. How about a trade for Uggla, sounds crazy considering he puts up numbers that require a salary higher then the minimum but fielding competitve players would be a nice change. The comment above where Callaspo’s bat didnt produced well for 2nd base but not 3rd? I mean, what position do we have that produces at a average major league spot? Butler maybe if you dont need 20 homeruns or 100 rbi’s out of your first baseman. Yuni’s numbers on paper where probably it but we all know he wouldnt start anywhere else but KC.

By: Nick Scott

Nick Scott — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 17:15:31 +0000

The more interesting question is what happens when moustakas is promoted. Aviles to second, getz and betemit on the bench and fields to AAA or waived?

By: Clark fosler

Clark fosler — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:59:04 +0000

The Royals won’t play Aviles at short until Yuniesky Betancourt actually becomes a statue out there. I’d love to have him at short as well, but if it takes playing him at 3rd to get him in the lineup everyday, than so be it.

By: Nick Scott

Nick Scott — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:40:02 +0000

Kyle, I agree with you. However barring an injury to yuniesky, it just ain’t happening. I’d love to see aviles back at short, but I doubt we see him there more than 10 games a season for as long as he is a royal.

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 16:36:55 +0000

I do not want to see Aviles pushed over to 3rd no matter how short of time he play there. He could be an above average SS, why not play him there? Betemit/Fields at 3B until mid to late May, then Moustakas. Moving Betemit to super utility, and Fields to another team. Give Getz a chance at 2B and Aviles at SS, the defense can’t get any worse than it was this year.