Our 3B Defense is Atrocious!

[Moose Milligan]

14 minutes ago, bpilktree67 said:

I think if the team is worried about Schoop for a month bring out they may look at adding a player from outside organization.  The Cardinals come to mind as they have Jedd Gyorko comming off dL very soon and have a glut of infielders that they can’t option.  They have Dejong, Wong, Carpenter, Garcia, and Gyorko.

This team just needs to give up and trade everyone.  Schoop out for a month should be the least of anyones worries.

[El Gordo]

For the record, SSS, alert, but FB rates Beckham 8th among ML 3B on D and Fangraphs has him 6th in the AL. for D. His big problem so far has been his bat which will probably regress to his mean of around .740 OPS. Fangraphs has Many #2 behind Didi in WAR, in the AL,12th among SS on D.

[Ripken]

31 minutes ago, Moose Milligan said:

This team just needs to give up and trade everyone.  Schoop out for a month should be the least of anyones worries.

That should have happened a long time ago.  It's not happening until we're 20 games out of the wild car now.  So, late May.

[Punchandjudy]

At this point Manny is addition by subtraction

[Tx Oriole]

8 hours ago, pastorfan said:

Our overall defense is horrid, but our 3B defense this year is abysmal. Of course, we could have never seen this coming. 

If Buck hadn't bent over backwards for Manny and kept him at 3rd then the defense would be a lot better. Tim is better at SS. IMO 

[El Gordo]

2 hours ago, Tx Oriole said:

If Buck hadn't bent over backwards for Manny and kept him at 3rd then the defense would be a lot better. Tim is better at SS. IMO 

Few if any SS in the ML have Manny;'s arm. A lot of big guys with strong arms have managed to become very good SS by learning positioning to compensate for any lack of range, Cal comes to mind for one. I think Manny will develop into a sold SS over the course of the season. Beckham is an average to slightly above average 3B now, and he is still learning the position,.

[scbalt52]

I always thought it was going to end up with Schoop at 3rd, Manny at SS, and Beckham at 2nd. But I realize that's changing everyone's position and what do I know, just made sense in my head.

[maybenxtyr]

I still say they should check on Trevor Plouffe. I don't know if he has a bat left, but he was an adequate 3rd baseman for a while. If he hits, they could put Beckham in the utility role when Schoop comes back.

I acknowledge that Plouffe is likely done, but the Orioles are going for it in their world.

[SteveA]

7 hours ago, El Gordo said:

Few if any SS in the ML have Manny;'s arm. A lot of big guys with strong arms have managed to become very good SS by learning positioning to compensate for any lack of range, Cal comes to mind for one. I think Manny will develop into a sold SS over the course of the season. Beckham is an average to slightly above average 3B now, and he is still learning the position,.

Great.   He can be a "solid SS".   I agree.

But he was maybe the greatest third baseman of all time defensively.

We had someone who was greatest of all time at their position.   We don't have that anymore.   But now we are sitting here saying "he can be a solid SS".     We've weakened ourselves at one position so we can have someone who is "solid" at SS.   That's just sad.

[Burg]

14 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Great.   He can be a "solid SS".   I agree.

But he was maybe the greatest third baseman of all time defensively.

We had someone who was greatest of all time at their position.   We don't have that anymore.   But now we are sitting here saying "he can be a solid SS".     We've weakened ourselves at one position so we can have someone who is "solid" at SS.   That's just sad.

That's what happens when you allow a player who is definitely walking to call the shots.  Leave him at third and then trade him.  Makes no sense to weaken the left side of the infield for a player who has no interest in re-signing.

[Frobby]

26 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Great.   He can be a "solid SS".   I agree.

But he was maybe the greatest third baseman of all time defensively.

We had someone who was greatest of all time at their position.   We don't have that anymore.   But now we are sitting here saying "he can be a solid SS".     We've weakened ourselves at one position so we can have someone who is "solid" at SS.   That's just sad.

Manny’s a great 3B, but the “greatest of all time” hyperbole needs to stop.   Manny didn’t win a Gold Glove either of the last two years, nor did he deserve to, based on the numbers.    

As to how good he’ll be at SS, I think he’ll be more than solid.    I’ve seen him make two plays from the hole that no other SS could make already.    He’s made a few mistakes too.    As the year goes on, I expect the frequency of great plays to increase and the number of mistakes to dwindle.    Rome wasn’t built in a day, as they say.   

[Tony-OH]

I know some like to blame Manny here, but I think the organization is looking at the Manny to shortstop as a plus for his trade value as well. As soon as this team is willing to call the season (possibly by late May?) Manny will be put on the trading block. Now teams looking for a SS or 3B for their pennant run will be look towards Manny and the O's. 

This team has been short on third base prospects for a long time and the system is no different right now. Mountcastle is not going to be able to stick at 3B (He'll make Valenica look like a gold glover) and the next "prospect" is Jomar Reyes and he can't hit High-A ball breaking pitches. Of course there are no legitimate every day SS prospects in the system either.

So it looks like the Orioles should focus on SS and 3B prospects as well as starting pitch when they start trading off guys like Manny because there's no real help to be found inside the organization for the left side of the infield.

[Tony-OH]

4 minutes ago, Frobby said:

Manny’s a great 3B, but the “greatest of all time” hyperbole needs to stop.   Manny didn’t win a Gold Glove either of the last two years, nor did he deserve to, based on the numbers.    

As to how good he’ll be at SS, I think he’ll be more than solid.    I’ve seen him make two plays from the hole that no other SS could make already.    He’s made a few mistakes too.    As the year goes on, I expect the frequency of great plays to increase and the number of mistakes to dwindle.    Rome wasn’t built in a day, as they say.   

I think this is right on point. Manny will be fine at SS. He's made some mistakes but a lot of them has been because of his inexperience at SS at the major league level. I think Manny will be one of those guys who can play SS until his early 30s and that's when father time will probably move him back to 3B.

[Tony-OH]

37 minutes ago, SteveA said:

Great.   He can be a "solid SS".   I agree.

But he was maybe the greatest third baseman of all time defensively.

We had someone who was greatest of all time at their position.   We don't have that anymore.   But now we are sitting here saying "he can be a solid SS".     We've weakened ourselves at one position so we can have someone who is "solid" at SS.   That's just sad.

But he does improve our SS defense over Beckam and like I said in an earlier post, this also increases his trade value because now teams know they can plus him into SS and he'll be fine. 

Of course this goes back to the Beckam trade. Why trade a young starting pitching prospect for a guy who is not an everyday SS and who doesn't have the bat to be a third baseman? Never liked the trade when it happened and still don't like the trade.

[Frobby]

3 minutes ago, Tony-OH said:

Of course this goes back to the Beckam trade. Why trade a young starting pitching prospect for a guy who is not an everyday SS and who doesn't have the bat to be a third baseman? Never liked the trade when it happened and still don't like the trade.

It’s still early to judge how Beckham will do over the whole season.    He looks ragged right now, but we’ve seen what he’s capable of when he’s hot.    

And speaking of early results, Tobias Myers has a 7.00 ERA in low A, with a WHIP of 2.00.    I won’t judge him on two starts any more than I’ll judge Beckham this early in the season.    Neither one is having an impressive start to 2018.