The Rays Tank: Fernando Rodney Blows A Save; More #KeppTalk

Yeah, it means nothing. There’s just little else happening right now to even point out.

id assume he’d move to RF before 1B as a former SS with a strong arm. 2b isn’t out of the question either.

a snippet from his BA write-up:

Castellanos has a good swing and hitting instincts, gets great extension and uses the opposite field well. <sni[p> Castellanos isn’t a major home run threat yet but barrels the ball well and tied for second in the MWL with 36 doubles. Once he gets stronger, pulls more pitches and adds more backspin, he should have at least average power and perhaps more. A high school shortstop, he’s learning to play third base. He has solid speed, moves well and while there’s length to his arm stroke, his throws have good carry.

Saying that the Tigers will be better/worse than they were last year because Prince does/doesn’t replace V-Mart leaves so much stuff out of the equation, but it’s fun for talk radio, I guess. The better question is, “How bad would Miggy have to be defensively at 3B before Jimmy Ley insists on the 1B/DH timeshare?” Here’s a look at two scenarios where you have them as full time starters on the corners (A) and a 1B/DH timeshare (B):

I get A being worth 9.6 and B being worth 9.5. A would be more likely to see an injury so let’s knock 35 PAs off for each player. I now get Prince at 4.2 and Miggy at 4.9 for a total of 9.1 with Miggy as a -20 defender. That falls to 8.7 total with Miggy as a -25 defender and 8.2 as a -30 defender. So you’re basically talking about a window of 8-10 WAR with option A. Option B gives each player a chance to be rested some of the time lowering the probability of a defense-related injury, but there is a DH penalty of around 10% which is going to affect both hitters. We now see their WAR drop to a combined 7.2.

So even if Miggy is a -30 defender then it could be smart to use him at 3B to avoid the dreaded DH-penalty that most folks seem to forget about. Here’s a look at the final chart with tweaks:

With this factored in then you’re talking about a window of around 7 – 9.5 WAR. I don’t think it hurts to try the corners approach at first and see just how long it takes to get disgusted. The real scary thing could be if Delmon is behind Miggy. Then you’re looking at more balls getting through to an OF that can’t really move well, but that’s a lesson for another day.

Hideous
Distracting
Unnecessary
Ridiculous

Other adjectives come to mind. And to think that people’s tax dollars are paying for this.