Quote:
Originally Posted by Murphy3
Personally, if Young isn't playing 3rd, then he needs to be DHing. I'm all for giving Moreland every shot to win the first base job going into the season. You don't just give him the job, but he should have a good hold onto it going into camp.
And yeah, if you can upgrade at 3rd, that would be amazing...not sure whether or not the money is going to be there to do so.
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But such a decision is ultimately saying that Moreland in the lineup is > than Vlad in the lineup. I am saying downgrade just a bit defensively at 1B, upgrade a significant amount defensively at 3B, and keep Vlad's bat in the lineup (and lower so he isn't hitting cleanup).
Young can catch the ball. He can. Let's not make his defense worse than it is. When hit to him, he is fine. He can stand on a base and move his glove up and down and handle the balls coming to him. He would also be good with low throws and scooping at the ball due to his experience playing 2B/SS/3B. Again, the only things that would give him issues are the same plays that give him issues at 3B - ranging from left to right to make a play on a screamer. Given that those come few and far between compared to the plays a 3B gets, I think we would be fine with his defense there.
He could honestly play 3-4 more years at 1B, which is a good amount of time to draft another stud at that position to hopefully come up from the minors (obviously no guarantees there). If he couldn't handle it, well it would likely only be a 1-year experiment anyway because Vlad isn't playing beyond this year in all likelihood, which allows you to move him to DH and bring another option in for 1B (Moreland, Davis, FA signing, etc).
Look, Moreland played his ass off in the playoffs and exceeded a lot of expectations, no doubt, but I just don't see him as a productive 1B long term. Small sample size, sure, he played pretty well, but I see the guy as a Mike Lamb type at 1B. Capable, sure, but probably not a guy posting good WAR stats.