2008 Brewers (Braun/3B)

[endaround]

Obviously we are ignoring the solution to all teh Brewers problems. Sign ARod in the offseason and move Braun to left! We improve the offense and the defense! If Mark A was serious about winning , he'd do it!

[lukevan]

Mench + Vargas = Manny Ramirez!!

 

Because that's what winning teams do.

[dlk9s]

I don't think his defense is a liability at all.

Yes, it is. It's been awful.

 

That said, he will get better and his bat makes me weep with joy.

[jlau20]

He makes errors but at the same time he has made many nice plays and being only his third month in the Majors, I think he'll be more than fine in the long run, and by that I think by sometime next year he'll be atleast an average defender at third.

 

To me, the fact that the kid has hit .350, has 23 homeruns, and hits the ball to every field in his first three months at the Major League level is more than enough to almost completely overlook the fact he makes an error about once every 4 or so games.

[hauser42]

Braun is just learning how to play 3B. He has been a SS all his live and now is trying to convert over. You can see that he has huge potential on defense by the great plays he makes. He just needs to make the every day plays every day. He needs some time to get out some of his old SS habits and get in some solid 3B skills.

[Fatter than Joey]

I don't think his defense is a liability at all. He's actually made some amazing plays. It's not like he's throwing to a gold glover at 1st either. I see no reason his defense won't improve.

 

Braun is definitely a liability on defense -- he leads the NL in errors, and has nowhere near the TCs that a lot of 3bman have had -- While fielding pct., is a flawed metric, .893 is pretty much butchering 3b. I am not sure how many runs that prices out at -- I am guess somewhere around 13-15 runs... which washes out a lot of Braun's HRs.

 

A couple of points --

 

1.) Mike Schmidt was NEVER this bad at 3rd base. He was one that improved a lot over his career, but his floor was nowhere as near low as Brauns.

 

2.) As historically good as Braun as been at the plate, he has been as historically bad in the field. You would be hard-pressed to find a lot of examples of a starting 3b with a fielding pct. of under .900 for a season.

 

3.) I agree that Prince contributes to the overall sucktitude of our defense, and doesn't help Braun (and others) out much at all.

 

4.) I remain optimistic that he will improve a lot, and he is young, and his offense outweighs his defense -- but certainly his defensive shortcomings are not trivial and are contributing to our losses.