Are the O's a better team with Flaherty at 3B?

[wildcard]

Poll coming. Get the Hangout's opinion on this one.

[Can_of_corn]

Just make sure you have an option for way too early to tell.

[wildcard]

Just make sure you have an option for way too early to tell.

You got it.

[DrungoHazewood]

Way too early to tell, but it's unlikely that Flaherty's defense will make up for his likely 100-150 OPS point deficit with Reynolds on offense. It's possible (probable?) that the correct configuration changes day to day.

[SammyBirdland]

I need to see if he's going to start hitting the ball. Right now he's Cesar Izturis. Great with the glove, no bat.

[scottbbfm]

Too early to tell - but if he could approach the numbers he put up in the minor leagues when he had extended stops - .275ish average, HR every 30 AB's, .750+OPS, yeah, they would be a better team.

Thing is - I don't think they are a WORSE team with him out there and Reynolds DHing, so he should be given about 50-75AB's (about 20 games) of consistent playing.

[Gurgi]

Way too early to tell, but it's unlikely that Flaherty's defense will make up for his likely 100-150 OPS point deficit with Reynolds on offense. It's possible (probable?) that the correct configuration changes day to day.

Career wise Reynolds is barely a positive with the WAR.
http://www.baseball-reference.com/pl...eynoma01.shtml

If we could get a guy who just was around 1 with the WAR it would likely be a help. The pitchers would all throw less pitches.
So yeah we would be better without this guy.

[El Gordo]

I like what I've seen so far from Flaherty's glove. He looks good at the plate, too soon to tell whether he can hit. For now I would platoon him with Reynolds at 3B. Reynolds is better than Betemiit. A .700 OPS and a +5 glove would be worth about 1.5 WAR at 3B. That's more than Reynolds last year.