Extension for Jered Weaver: 5 years, $85 million

[rluzinski]

what have we seen of Gamel at 1B? Most of us haven't seen him in the minors this season playing 1B.

I could literally know nothing about a major leaguer and it would be a good guess that he could be a better defensive 1B than Fielder. 1B is the easiest position and Fielder is one of the worst of them defensively. It's statistically a very good guess.

[pitchleague]

I thought it was left field. That's why they would put a relief pitcher in left field in those (very rare) instances where they bring a new reliever into the game to pitch but don't want to lose the other reliever so they put him in left field for a batter and then bring him back in afterward.

 

On the infield, though, sure 1B is the easiest position. Everybody knows that.

[Point Beer Is Best]

I thought it was left field. That's why they would put a relief pitcher in left field in those (very rare) instances where they bring a new reliever into the game to pitch but don't want to lose the other reliever so they put him in left field for a batter and then bring him back in afterward.

 

On the infield, though, sure 1B is the easiest position. Everybody knows that.

1B is the easiest, and probably by a large margin. Statistically, you are safer putting a relief pitcher in the outfield for one batter since it's much less likely they will be involved in fielding a play. 1B would be involved in any play on the infield.

[pitchleague]

that's why I thought LF was the easier position, since, statistically, that player would be involved in fewer plays than a 1B would.

 

Whatever. I just brought it up as an observation/opinion. This is getting way off topic (as is a good portion of this thread)

[istanbultaye]

I think the difference between 1B and LF so far as 'easiness' is mostly a function of athleticism. LF requires the player to be able to run competently. For someone like Prince Fielder, 1B would clearly be an easier position to play than left field. However, for someone like Ryan Braun, limiting their chances, and putting them in a place where, for the most part it is go catch a flyball, or go pick the ball up off the ground and throw it in the general direction of the infield, which is quite probably easier than playing first base, where there are bunt plays, ground balls, popups, relay throws and quite a few other situational things to keep track of.

[rluzinski]

I think the difference between 1B and LF so far as 'easiness' is mostly a function of athleticism.

 

You could say that about all the positions. The more athletic you are, the higher the odds that you can handle a harder position. If you can't run, judge flies or throw well, you play 1B.

 

There's been a lot of work done trying to estimate the differences between the various positions. One strategy is to see how well players who change positions do at each position. Carlos Lee is a better 1B than he is a LF and that is typical.

Bill James looked at offfense averages at each positions, which yields similar results:

http://www.tangotiger.net/wiki/index.php?title=Defensive_Spectrum

Some more discussions:

http://www.insidethebook.com/ee/index.php/site/article/defense_spectrum/

[topper09er]

Right now on Fangraphs:

Prince + McGehee + Yuni = 4.2 + 0.6 + 0.0 = 4.8 WAR with 1 month left to play.

 

Looks unlikely that number will get above 6, meaning if we can replace these 3 players with 3 average (2.0 WAR) players we should be able to remain just as good as we are this year. Gamel is the big unknown, he could struggle and end up around or below 1.0 WAR or have a great rookie full season and hit well combined with a defensive upgrade over Prince put up around 4.0 WAR. That and the unknown SS.