OnlyBucs

Okay, just one position to talk about. There are many others but I want to discuss just 3B.



Would you as a fan be satisfied if Bucs use a guy who will hit you 15 or so HR's, hit say .280 and drive in say 75-80 runs with a ton of doubles and play Gold Glove or near Gold Glove 3B? I'm talking KeBryan Hayes here or would you want a player with a lot more power, with a lower BA and a ton of K's and only average or below-average defense. The key here is the HR power.

I value defense and would be quite happy with the stats you offered.

That's pretty much a Brooks Robinson clone!



From BBR - Brooks Robinson

I am ready for Hayes. He has been a gold glove defender the past two seasons in the minors, and he will be huge upgrade at third base whenever he arrives in Pittsburgh sometime this season.

I go with the defender also. That is about Moran's offense with gold glove defense which makes for an all around better than average player.



Power with low batting average and below average glove isn't a big plus.

When you don't have the best pitching, a good defense makes it somewhat better.

3B is traditionally a power position but you can't only have power there at the expense of everything else. A 3Bman needs to be at least adequate defensively and not a liability with the bat when not hitting HRs. So I would take a consistent hitter who fields well but lacks great power over someone who has plus power and lacks everything else. I suspect Hayes will be at 3B at some point in 2020 assuming he's doing well in AAA.

292B313721440 wrote: When you don't have the best pitching, a good defense makes it somewhat better.


I agree with this. Going forward I just can't envision a Pirates team that will consistently out slug their opponents. For a team with payroll constraints such as the Pirates, having a great defense throughout the lineup will be more economical than having great power. I can see this team being successful with a pitching and defense strategy; not so much anything else.

7B79636573160 wrote: When you don't have the best pitching, a good defense makes it somewhat better.


While true, it is also hard to win with no runs scored. Good D can’t score for you.

That’s always been the argument, with people favoring offense over defense. Hits are impressive and runs scored do make a difference, but I’ve always suspected that offense gets it’s favorable treatment because it’s easy to quantify. There always have been offensive stats that are meaningful - we know how many home runs Babe Ruth hit. Defense is really difficult to quantify. A play made or not made can change an opponents score dramatically. I recall a play where Doumit dropped the ball on a potential inning ending double play at second. No error, as you can’t presume the double play and the other team went on to score something like six more runs. In the end it gets chalked up to bad pitching, and in a sense it was, but still. It takes a lot of offense to make up for the runs you give away.