Broken Bat - Discussion Forum: 1B Derby coming to a head

Forum >> Discussions >> 1B Derby coming to a head

Post ID	Date & Time	Game Date

#66354	06/14/2019 6:48:23 am	Apr 7th, 2041
GrizzlyDan Joined: 06/30/2016 Posts: 199 Atlanta Braves IV.2	Decision time is looming on the future of my club at 1B. The situation is as follows: Incumbent: Oscar Gonzalez A perennial All-Star, power bat, heart of the club. Current Understudy: John Stuckey Untested, but has potential to be better than OG. Tagged for promotion from AAA: Nate De Lucia The sky is the limit, but I'm not ready to dislodge OG to let him up. And last but most amazing: The slugger-in-waiting, Tucker Sherrill, who only has 113 minor-league HR's, batting an aggregate .327. Then, as an afterthought, there's Andrew Flynn, the power and defense switch-hitter option. What say you? Who gets chopped?

#66419	06/16/2019 2:20:01 pm	Apr 14th, 2041
amalric7 Joined: 01/20/2016 Posts: 2237 New York Lancers V.4	Honestly? Gonzalez is hands-down the best player here, and some of the others aren't even close. Stuckey is a fine fielder but both he and Sherrill look like they'll really struggle for BC and PD, so their upside isn't huge and neither can touch OG. De Lucia is your best option for the future by some distance, even with his (likely) average PD. None of these three is going to hit 40 homers. I'd stick with OG until his arms fall off.

#66426	06/16/2019 7:31:15 pm	Apr 18th, 2041
Cactusguy21 Joined: 07/25/2017 Posts: 815 Presque Isle Vikings III.4	I'm gonna respectfully disagree with Amalric on this one. Sherill looks the better future as opposed to De Lucia. For one, I've had good success with guys like Sherill. But far more importantly, De Lucia has already learned all he can at AAA, but still has low SI. He's a stunt candidate if I've ever seen one. It's rare for 1B to stunt but it happens.

#66428	06/17/2019 2:49:43 am	Apr 18th, 2041
amalric7 Joined: 01/20/2016 Posts: 2237 New York Lancers V.4	I think you're proving my point. Does Russell have his good points? Undoubtedly, and guys like Stuckey and Sherril can play at a similar level. You'll get some reasonable seasons out of them, and some less so. Stuckey's batting profile might look like this: 16/10/10/14. Sherrill: 16/8/8/17. Russell is the ceiling for guys like that with low BC and PD. Russell has good health (doesn't miss many games), is a 4-time All Star with excellent hitting and power tools. At best he's a 20-homer guy who hits .280, which certainly has value (if you have nothing else). But I look at the other side of the coin. A career .318 OBP and .778 OPS is just average for a 1B (IMO). Plus (and worst of all for me) he's a groundball machine, hence all the GIDP which hurt your team offence. I don't like that at all. Stuckey is a similar player and while Sherrill is a flyball hitter with good minor league numbers that BC/PD isn't going to play in the majors, at least not over an extended period. Also, compare Russell's career slash line to OG's:- Russell: .279/.318/.460, .778 OPS Gonzalez: .296/.362/.577, .938 OPS Which would you rather have? I'll take the latter, with the 0.50 GB:FB rate and the walks and the 40-homer seasons every single time. De Lucia's current SI doesn't bother me at all (I've got Quintana and his 78 SI up for good) - the fact is he's developed at a positive and steady rate throughout his career to this point, about 6 SI/season. If he plays full-time on reaching the bigs that may actually improve, and a few seasons from now you'll have a guy with a hitting profile that may look like this: 18/18/8/14. I'm not a fan of hitters with low PD but that high BC certainly plays a lot better than your other prospects mentioned here.

#66432	06/17/2019 6:13:18 am	Apr 18th, 2041
Cactusguy21 Joined: 07/25/2017 Posts: 815 Presque Isle Vikings III.4	I agree about Gonzalez 100%, I guess I should've mentioned that. He is without a doubt the guy you should play right now.

#66471	06/19/2019 3:15:36 pm	Apr 26th, 2041
buffmckagan Joined: 12/22/2013 Posts: 651 Scranton Bears Legends	Gonzalez should be your guy. Why not throw Stuckey in LF or DH?