Monday, January 26, 2009

This guy is not a third baseman any more

Hi, the Sidler here with a quick Twins post.

Michael Cuddyer is not a third baseman at this point of his career. At best, he was OK and certainly a better option than Terry (S)Tiffee, Glenn Williams, and Tony Batista.

He hasn't played the position since 2005 and his fielding (as a RF) has gone downhill over the past couple years. He also can't stay healthy.

But fans won't give up on the idea. Apparently, neither will Star Tribune columnists.

Gardy hates the idea, reality hates the idea, and Cuddy hates the idea.

So please stop.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

why not? it's not like buscher can field and harris isn't really a third baseman. and neither one can hit for shit. and it would get him, gomez, span, and young in the lineup everyday. quite honestly there are a lot of reasons to try it and the rationale of "he just isn't a third baseman" is about as in depth as a typical dawger analysis. maybe I could be convinced by some numbers, but I don't see why it wouldn't at least be worth a shot.

p.s. sign crede

Anonymous said...

and p.s. I just found out that Justin Morneau is an unoriginal copying bastard because he just held his wedding reception at the landmark center in st. paul where I had mine last year. now maybe he can copy a clutch team leader and actually be productive the last two weeks of the season if the playoffs are on the line.

Anonymous said...

I'm not good with fielding stats, and can only find the Baseball Prospectus runs above average...

But Cuddyer was rated as 14 runs below average at 3B over 138 games in the 04-05 season.

According to Zone Ratings, he was one of the worst in the league in 2005 and made fewer plays out of his zone than just about any other 3B.

Errors are a dumb stat, but his .941 fielding percentage would have put him last in the league if he would have logged enough innings.

I think it is safe to predict that a four-year older and multiple-time injured Cuddyer would be a disaster at 3B.

It doesn't help that he is deaf in his left ear. I'm not making that up.

Also, Harris out-slugged Cuddyer in 2007 and 2008.

WWWWWW said...

There really are no good fielding stats, but based on the best things nerds who are nerdier than I can come up with, the Cuddybear is a horrible third baseman.

I really, really, wish you hadn't mentioned that Harris outslugged Cuddy the last two years. That's depressing.