Brewers express interest in Tad Iguchi

[splitterpfj]

It's in the middle of this article....WOW, what the?!

 

Iguchi

[trwi7]

We're cornering the market on crappy free agents.

[splitterpfj]

This is one I don't get at all. Iguchi already told the Phillies he didn't want to play 3B, and there's no way he's going to sign somewhere as a bench player, too many teams are interested in him.

[homer]

Iguchi is at least kind of average. Nothing to get excited over but at least he's not Pedro Feliz.

[danzig6767]

He's a solid player, but unless the Brewers intended to move Weeks from secondbase, i'm not really sure the point in being interested.

[splitterpfj]

My issue is, this is a second baseman, and not one who will have to sign as a backup. Is the plan to talk to him about 3B (which I would hate), or to try to convince him to come off the bench? The only alternatives are moving, or MOVING Rickie Weeks, which the team hasn't so much as hinted at.

 

It just seems like an odd player to be asking about.

[Big Reed]

I have to believe it would be as a starter at second. That would move Weeks to center, and Hall to Tampa if you believe the 4 way trade rumor.

[jlau20]

Weeks should be moved to right, Hart to center, Braun to left, Iguchi to 2nd, Hall to 3rd.

[Weirdos19]

I think the Brewers like to have 4 infielders for the 3 infield spots. They seem to always have that guy that gets 300 atbats, playing multiple infield positions. Hall for a couple of years, Graffy last year until he got hurt.

[Big Reed]

The brewers have Counsell . I doubt Iguchi wants to be a super utility infielder or fill the role graffy filled last year.

 

for some reason, I don't think Hall will come back to start in the Brewers' infield.

[twobrewers]

I think the Brewers like to have 4 infielders for the 3 infield spots. They seem to always have that guy that gets 300 atbats, playing multiple infield positions. Hall for a couple of years, Graffy last year until he got hurt.

I thought Joe Dillon already had that job locked up.

[recte44]

Weeks should be moved to right, Hart to center, Braun to left, Iguchi to 2nd, Hall to 3rd.

Exactly.

[reillymcshane]

The Brewers should never have moved Hall to CF last year in the first place. Weeks should have been moved there and we could have left hall at 3B and had Graffy and Counsel at 2B.

 

We're making jokes about it, but I think the best way to improve our defense is to remove Weeks, Fielder and Braun from their positions. Since Fielder can't go anywhere, that means putting Braun and Weeks in the OF. Hall goes to 3B or 2B, you get a new 2B or 3B. Iguchi would be fine with Hall at 3B.

 

It sounds goofy to do this, and you'd have a lot of adventures in the OF this year - but Hart, Weeks and Braun would cover a lot of ground, even if there were be a lot of mistakes, especially early on.

 

That's my goofy opinion.

[danzig6767]

Weeks should be moved to right, Hart to center, Braun to left, Iguchi to 2nd, Hall to 3rd.

I by no means feel something that drastic should or will be done, but if you said i had to bet 1000 dollars on what defensive grouping would finish better, your group above or the same as last year except adding a random LF, i'd pick the group you have in blue.

 

I think Hart would be a better CF than Hall. Iguchi would easily be a better secondbaseman. Hall would by far be a better thirdbaseman than Braun.Obviously the big question marks would be Weeks/Braun playing the OF, but both do have great speed and arms to cover group. The thing not known is how quickly they could adjust to learning how to judge balls off the bat.

 

One reason i really would prefer Braun moved to LF or RF is not only that he's brutal at third, it's that he has the great athletic ability and arm to be an above average defensive player in the OF after the early adjustment period of getting used to judging flyballs. If that happened, you go from him being a liability in the field to an asset along with his great bat.

[jlau20]

Weeks should be moved to right, Hart to center, Braun to left, Iguchi to 2nd, Hall to 3rd.

I by no means feel something that drastic should or will be done, but if you said i had to bet 1000 dollars on what defensive grouping would finish better, your group above or the same as last year except adding a random LF, i'd pick the group you have in blue.

I agree completely. I said it half joking, but at the same time when I was typing it started to think that might not be half bad. I'd rather something that drastic like moving both Weeks and Braun to the outfield not happen, but honestly if spring training started right now and they have 4-5 months to work on it, and they do well, why not.

 

[craigharmann]

I said it in the Feliz thread, but I'll say it here, too...what is going on? We have our first season with more wins than losses in 15 years and THIS is what DM is looking for? Not a proven, solid player like a Rolen or Lowell, or an outfielder who can hit and field well, or even a young catcher. No, we are looking at Jason Kendall, Pedro Feliz and Tad Iguchi? Wow. Just wow.

[Brian the Automator]

Weeks should be moved to right, Hart to center, Braun to left, Iguchi to 2nd, Hall to 3rd.

It's like volleyball and baseball, all in one!

 

[PeaveyFury]

If Iguchi is signed to fill Graffy's role, he'd be a great signing. You'd have to think that would be the only reason the Brewers would have interest in him in the first place.

[dadofandrew]

What Peavey said. If he can play a serviceable SS, he'd be a fine pickup, in the Loretta mold.

[endaround]

Except for Loretta being able to hit. My guess is the Brewers contacted him inquiring if he was willing to take a bench role.

[PeaveyFury]

Iguchi has actually had a higher OPS than Loretta in all three of his seasons in the Majors, and is 4 years younger. My money is certainly on Iguchi to out produce Loretta in 2008.

[dadofandrew]

Iguchi might fall into that Belliard/Graffy scenario and not have a 2B job come Feb. Nice out of the box thinking by Doug. If he has a higher OPS than Loretta, they might even be looking at him for 3B.

[fondybrewfan]

Dougie probablt figures we have enough talent right now to make a major run for the playoffs next year, at least offensively, so he is just looking for some serviceable guys. I think he should and he will concentrate his efforts on getting the BP and SP issues rectified. We are going to have no problems scoring runs next year, Doug should just find a 3b that plays good defense and just plug him in the 8 hole. Our offense is going to be just find, no matter what Doug does, it is the other stuff that I am worried about

[igor67]

I'm for a certain number of position switches and improving the defense, but there is a splash of revisionist history and unjustified logical jumps going on here. Hall was a very athletic player who could play 3 infield positions at a level close to average or above. Weeks is an athletic player who can't play 1 infield position well. Centerfield is generally consider roughly equivalent to second base in terms of difficulty. To be able to say that Weeks can play CF now and Hall can't is kind of strange. We have some data to suggest that Hart can play an averagish CF right now, we have data that says Hall can play SS, 2B, and 3rd at an averagish rate. Weeks and Braun both have well below average defense at their positions though Braun's is historically bad while Rickie is just not good. Both players have to tools that suggest they could handle a move to the OF. I think one can defintely make the claim that if you move Corey to CF you would gain a good 5 or more runs of defense, Hall at third should give you a very large number of runs. Given Hall's past and Braun's totals you'd be almost guaranteed at least 10 runs there and 20 is probably much more reasonable. If you assume that players like Hall and Jose Guillen are your worst case scenario for Braun moving to RF your talking about giving back 10 runs. Which by my estimate being reasonable and not at all optimistic about their performance gives you a net of 15 runs saved.

[JohnBriggs12]

Except for the first half of 07, Iguchi's been a fine player. I'm fine with moving Weeks to the OF.

 

One more tidbit I'd throw out there. It's long been felt that to get a Japanese free agent, it helps to have another one already on your roster. The interest in Iguchi might have more to do with Fukodome or a Japanese pitcher than anything else.

 

I like that Melvin's thinking out of the box.