Broken Bat - Help: Where to play my two outfielders?

Forum >> Help >> Where to play my two outfielders?

Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date	Function

#20262	06/20/2015 10:48:21 am
jetsrock48 Joined: 11/25/2013 Posts: 150 Davenport Cobras IV.3	My outfield is very young. The two players I am asking about are: http://brokenbat.org/player/93347 http://brokenbat.org/player/98725 The first guy, James Baxter, was promoted at the beginning of last season and started off with a lowercase 'of' but has now achieved the uppercase 'OF'. I played him in CF all season and he made a good amount of errors but should be good now wherever he plays in the outfield. The second guy, Bruce Grady, was promoted at the end of last season. He is my future center fielder but currently has a lowercase 'of'. So my question is if I should play Baxter at center and Grady in left field until he gets his uppercase 'OF'? Or should I leave him in center and let him learn the position there? Right field is not an option here. I just promoted another guy who is my future right fielder and he already has the uppercase 'OF' so I would like to leave him there. Updated Saturday, June 20 2015 @ 10:50:08 am PDT*

#20263	06/20/2015 10:59:29 am
Tiger504 Joined: 06/17/2014 Posts: 1314 Kalamazoo Bloody Tigers III.4	I played Paul Schmidt in RF until he had his upper case OF and then moved him to CF. I would suggest doing the same type of thing as long as you have a fully qualified OF who is capable to play CF.

#20275	06/20/2015 2:11:12 pm
Rock777 Joined: 09/21/2014 Posts: 9600 Haverhill Halflings III.1	You might want to find a future CF who can actually field the ball. Its ok to put bad fielders at RF and LF, but I would try to put a decent defensive player at CF...

#20287	06/20/2015 7:50:55 pm
Brewnoe Joined: 03/25/2014 Posts: 818 Fall River Naughty Dawgs IV.5	Guessing that Howell is the RF? First, nice collection of offense, range and arm. Second, if Howell is the future RF, I'd go LF-Baxter, CF-Howell, RF-Grady for now. That would put your lower case of (who happens to have the best arm) in right. Once they're all fully qualified OF, Howell and Grady will be pretty much interchangeable defensively. And hopefully by the time Serna gets too expensive / declines too much you'll have found a CF with a glove and Baxter (worst arm/worst glove) can move to DH. The other question is how to take best advantage of that kind of outfield range ... play your home games in Denali National Park? I'll be looking at a slightly more defensive version of the same problem in a few seasons with Mondragon - solid/17r/18a Gamez - (blank)/18r/15a Jordan - solid/18r/18a

#20376	06/23/2015 3:42:09 pm
jetsrock48 Joined: 11/25/2013 Posts: 150 Davenport Cobras IV.3	Thanks for the replies guys. I think I will take Brewnoe's advice and play Howell at CF, with Grady playing RF and Baxter at LF. @Rock777 Why do you think Grady is not a compatible CF? His scouting report says he will be a below avg fielder so I'm think he will have anywhere from 8-11 in the fielding category. To me, that's perfect for playing center. Anything more than that for fielding and I'd prefer him playing the infield rather than outfield.

#20380	06/23/2015 4:42:26 pm
Rock777 Joined: 09/21/2014 Posts: 9600 Haverhill Halflings III.1	Below average means he will max out at 8 or 9. To me an optimal CF would have at least average fielding. They make a lot of plays so there is a lot more room for error then in the corners. Last year your CF made 13 errors in 530 attempts which is really good for a guy with 6 fielding. Conversely, your LF (who played more games) made 7 errors in 360 attempts, and your RF made 0 errors in 290 attempts, and your 3B made 6 errors in 377 attempts. So as you can see, your CF gets a lot of attempts, which means a lot more opportunity for errors. Updated Tuesday, June 23 2015 @ 4:49:34 pm PDT

#20385	06/23/2015 8:05:34 pm
Brewnoe Joined: 03/25/2014 Posts: 818 Fall River Naughty Dawgs IV.5	I really wouldn't want to play any of the 3 in CF long-term either ... a LOT of balls land in center ... and every OF error is 2 bases. Stone Mason was one of only 2 young 13pot hitters on the roster when I got my team (and I picked up an insanely good "pure DH" off the FA list) .. I pushed back the right-center fence to take advantage of his range and he was serviceable. Navarette was the other young 13 (while he should have been a 2B) ... in roughly the same number of games, he had the same number of errors with twice as many fielding attempts. But - he started playing CF with no "of" skill vs. "OF" ... throw out those seasons and he had 1/4 the errors per attempt. Defense up the middle is huge. It's why I'm teaching Scooter 2B instead of pushing Knight for all-time team HR leader

#20432	06/26/2015 5:15:49 am
garfscores Joined: 10/13/2014 Posts: 488 Battle Creek Sting IV.7	Brewnoe, you just proved that fielding doesn't matter much in the of by showing those two guys. A 19 field guy has a tiny bit higher fielding percentage than a 5 field guy. I'd rather have the extra 14 points in hitting stats in my of. Give me the lowest field and highest ranges and arms possible for my of. That will maximize my hitting. The hitting will far exceed the 2 or 3 errors the guy is going to make extra.

#20494	06/27/2015 7:32:46 pm
Brewnoe Joined: 03/25/2014 Posts: 818 Fall River Naughty Dawgs IV.5	A 19 field guy has a tiny bit higher fielding percentage than a 5 field guy. Tiny bit ... but roughly 75% closer to perfect if you don't include the seasons where the 19 guy had no / lower-case position experience. (and I did say I should have made the 19 guy a 2B) Don't forget, the high fielding CF with 14 range had 4.6 attempts per game while the low fielding RF with 17 range (and a pushed back right-center fence) only had 2.5 per game ... double the attempts, quadruple the error-rate ... those 2 base errors will add up.

#20508	06/28/2015 3:19:40 pm
garfscores Joined: 10/13/2014 Posts: 488 Battle Creek Sting IV.7	Quadruple the error rate? So four errors in a season instead of one??? Ok. I think I could make up for those eight bases during the year with more hitting. And the chances per game could have been because of your pitching staff changing from a fly ball to a ground ball staff or vice versa.