OK, so who's the DH vs RHP?

[El Gordo]

Why would you give him the chance to show that his first 3700 MLB PAs were more indicative of talent than the last 250? Why not just assume what is almost certain?

Because you are Buck not some stat head and you deal with real live players not a set of numbers on a spread sheet. Snider was acquired as insurance. I have little doubt that they will end up with a round robin at DH including Snider, Wieters, and Pearce, as well as Delmon, but to begin with they will go with Delmon because the defense is better with Pearce and De Aza at the corners, unless Wieters is unable to go full time at C.

[DrungoHazewood]

Because you are Buck not some stat head and you deal with real live players not a set of numbers on a spread sheet. Snider was acquired as insurance. I have little doubt that they will end up with a round robin at DH including Snider, Wieters, and Pearce, as well as Delmon, but to begin with they will go with Delmon because the defense is better with Pearce and De Aza at the corners, unless Wieters is unable to go full time at C.

I don't think they're going to play a worse player because "Snider was acquired as insurance". The insurance policy is more valuable than the guy you have starting, that probably won't hold. And I seriously doubt it'll start off that way.

[weams]

I don't think they're going to play a worse player because "Snider was acquired as insurance". The insurance policy is more valuable than the guy you have starting, that probably won't hold. And I seriously doubt it'll start off that way.

I believe that Snider was acquired to replace all of Nick's at bats and all of his innings. He may play his way out of that if he really stinks. Or if facing a left hander that he has a hard time with.

[El Gordo]

I believe that Snider was acquired to replace all of Nick's at bats and all of his innings. He may play his way out of that if he really stinks. Or if facing a left hander that he has a hard time with.

I disagree Snider was acquired to be a role player. He is not going to play the OF over Pearce or De Aza . How is a guy with a career .716 OPS and .720 v RHP better than a guy with a career .746 OPS .715 career v RHP, and 809 OPS v RHP last season?

[backwardsk]

I believe that Snider was acquired to replace all of Nick's at bats and all of his innings. He may play his way out of that if he really stinks. Or if facing a left hander that he has a hard time with.

I think Snider will get a lot of opportunity. But I don't think they are looking at any of their current guys as a full replacement to Nick's innings. Nor should they, IMO. You have 4 guys for 3 positions. (I'm not counting Lough here). I believe Buck's approach will be to spread that responsibility among the 4. He's already talked about an increased role for Delmon.

I do see Snider getting around 140ish starts with the majority of the team's RF starts. I just don't see him getting 155+ starts like Nick did.

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[weams]

I think Snider will get a lot of opportunity. But I don't think they are looking at any of their current guys as a full replacement to Nick's innings. Nor should they, IMO. You have 4 guys for 3 positions. (I'm not counting Lough here). I believe Buck's approach will be to spread that responsibility among the 4. He's already talked about an increased role for Delmon.

I do see Snider getting around 140ish starts with the majority of the team's RF starts. I just don't see him getting 155+ starts like Nick did.

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You may well be right. 140 starts is no role player though. And then we have health to look at too. I agree with your post.

[srock]

As asked the answer is definitely "There will be a rotation" because Buck will always be mixing and matching depending on health, hot hand, etc.

But I'd bet the most common LF/RF/DH combo is DeAza/Snider/Pearce against RHPs and Snider/Pearce/Young against LHP.

Yes.

Buck loves flexibility and the DH spot is the ultimate flex tool.

Its safe to say Delmon gets the bulk of DH opportunities vs LHP, but vs RHP, expet a dynamic situation.

[Number5]

I disagree Snider was acquired to be a role player. He is not going to play the OF over Pearce or De Aza . How is a guy with a career .716 OPS and .720 v RHP better than a guy with a career .746 OPS .715 career v RHP, and 809 OPS v RHP last season?

We are all entitled to our opinion. I don't agree with you, as it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me that they would go out and trade two decent prospects for Snider if the plan was just to use him as a bench player - the third corner OF that hits left handed. I have no inside knowledge, of course, but I've got to think that the plan is for Snider to begin the season as the primary right fielder. I guess we will see how it plays out.

[LookinUp]

Life has me busy, so I haven't been able to be on this board as much as I had in the past.

I just gotta ask...why are we assuming that Davis will be our 1B and Pearce primarily an OF? My eye test (not researched at all for metrics) shows that Pearce is a very good 1B and Davis a pretty darn good RF. Assuming Lough isn't part of the every day crowd, that's the main defensive alignment I'd want. From the data I did see, it looks like Snider fits more as the DH than either Pearce or Davis.

Am I wrong?

[Babypowder]

Life has me busy, so I haven't been able to be on this board as much as I had in the past.

I just gotta ask...why are we assuming that Davis will be our 1B and Pearce primarily an OF? My eye test (not researched at all for metrics) shows that Pearce is a very good 1B and Davis a pretty darn good RF. Assuming Lough isn't part of the every day crowd, that's the main defensive alignment I'd want. From the data I did see, it looks like Snider fits more as the DH than either Pearce or Davis.

Am I wrong?

The metrics disagree with you and so do my own fallible pair of eyes. Pearce is more athletic, has better range, and reads the ball better. Davis is pretty awkward out there except when he's throwing, which he can do quite well. Pearce is the better outfielder. Snider also appears to be about average to slightly above in the outfield according to the metrics. They have Davis average to slightly below, obviously in a small sample.

[LookinUp]

The metrics disagree with you and so do my own fallible pair of eyes. Pearce is more athletic, has better range, and reads the ball better. Davis is pretty awkward out there except when he's throwing, which he can do quite well. Pearce is the better outfielder. Snider also appears to be about average to slightly above in the outfield according to the metrics. They have Davis average to slightly below, obviously in a small sample.

Davis sample has to be incredibly small, right? I loved his athleticism out there a couple of years ago. Much more impressive than Pearce, to me. But again, my own observations are very limited.

[Babypowder]

Davis sample has to be incredibly small, right? I loved his athleticism out there a couple of years ago. Much more impressive than Pearce, to me. But again, my own observations are very limited.

Absolutely a very small sample, too small to make any definitive conclusions. Pearce is much faster and looks a lot more athletic generally to me. Davis is a good athlete for such a big guy I agree, but he's not as agile as Pearce in my opinion. Pearce looks much faster on the bases and even swiped a few bags in his 100 or so games last year. Davis is also a negative on the bases while Pearce has been above average.

[Just Regular]

We talk about these four guys for three spots, and consider it a given Davis has full-time run at 1B. I hope Davis rebounds enough that notion is correct, but if the beast isn't back in the first couple months, this could become 5 guys for 4 spots.

By then everybody averages 130 games in an even mix, which is just about regular-dom to me. Except for the Trouts and Ripkens of the world, I see diminishing returns on games 135-162 for most players, including everyone but the good Davis out of this group.

I'm more worried we don't have enough depth if one of the five breaks than I am finding enough work for all of them.

[El Gordo]

We are all entitled to our opinion. I don't agree with you, as it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me that they would go out and trade two decent prospects for Snider if the plan was just to use him as a bench player - the third corner OF that hits left handed. I have no inside knowledge, of course, but I've got to think that the plan is for Snider to begin the season as the primary right fielder. I guess we will see how it plays out.

Pearce is a better hitter and a better fielder so why would you DH him and Play Snider in the OF? If the are playing Snide on a regular basis it would be to Platoon at DH.

[El Gordo]

In 576 career innings in RF, Steve Pearce has a DRS of 4 and a UZR/150 of -2.1

In 1615 career innings in RF, Travis Snider has a DRS of -4 and a UZR/150 of -5.5.

I guess the numbers support your argument.

Sniders numbers in LF (1709 innings) are much stronger. DRS of 16 and UZR/150 of 5.3

Pearces numbers in LF (489 innings) DRS of 10 and UZR/150 of 13.3

So do you play Snider in LF over De Aza? Is his bat that much better? I think not. He's a role player in case one of these guys struggle or Delmon needs help at DH.