The trade value of Prince Fielder (part 1)

[Oldcity]

As far as defense is concerned, I'll take range over arm 8 days a week. McGehee may not throw the ball away as much, but some of the balls that Gamel would throw away McGehee wouldn't even reach to find out.

[trwi7]

That's the exact sort of analysis we always used to describe Jose Valentin: gets to so many balls, but throws it all over creation.

 

 

....And Valentin's error count was always high enough that Jose Hernandez or Royce Clayton or Counsell or whoever followed him was a welcome relief because, even if he didn't get to as many balls, he tended to make the plays on the ones he did get to. Sorry, but I'll take that any day. McGehee may not be Jeff Cirillo, but he's not a lumbering idiot over at 3B, either (or the 3B version of what everyone accused Ray Durham of being at 2B at the end of '08).

Valentin was a pretty damn good defender so I'm not sure why you're making that comparison.

 

Some of the plays that McGehee would make, Gamel would throw away. Some of the plays Gamel would make, McGehee wouldn't have a chance to get to due to his awful range. I'm guessing Gamel would get to more balls than McGehee over the course of a season by a good amount and that McGehee's more steady arm wouldn't be able to make up for it.

 

 

[Never Outhustled]

Um, Mat Gamel may well be a worse-fielding 3B than Ryan Braun was. McGehee may not remind anyone of Brooks Robinson EXCEPT in comparison to Mat Gamel.

 

That's grossly inaccurate. It isn't 2007 anymore, Gamel hasn't been that bad since he was in A+. Last year we had a minor league guru who had a method of gaging minor league defense similar to UZR, and it had Gamel a tick below the average MLB 3B, which is significantly better than McGehee. Gamel's small sample UZR with the Brewers was better than anything McGehee has done, though I realize it's a very small sample. McGehee is among the 3 worst defensive 3Bs in the majors this year.

 

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Continued here:

 

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