That's What Cheesehead: 37.10 - How Does the Infield Look?

[7teen]

As mentioned with the outfield preview, the Wolves infield will possibly look to a heavy platoon rotation in 2037 looking to capitalize on an "all hands on deck" mentality to utilize every possible piece they have. But with that said, there will some glaring holes in those plans, most notably the defense as we preview some of the plans to club looks to use in 2037.

Catcher
The big free agent signing of Elroy Hinson (8/7/7/7/9 Ratings) was an instant move to try and bolster the team's offensive production this season. While Hinson's better days are clearly behind him at the age of 37, his bat still shows the ability to produce and it'll clearly be an offensive upgrade over David Katzenbogen (4/5/5/6/4 Ratings). But with that said, David is expected to get at least 60 starts this season as Hinson's backup. He'll likely start every 2-3 days to give Hinson's legs a rest. The club may utlize Elroy as a DH in certain lineups this season as well to keep his bat in the lineup even when he's not playing defense.

Firstbase
The Wolves have several guys who can play 1B. Probably too many to be honest with you Jon Mick (7/7/10/6/7 Ratings) is clearly the best bat in the group and will likely see a lot of time at DH rather than in the field this season. By being the DH the last several seasons, it has allowed Mick to play in all 162 games. He hasn't missed a game in 7-seasons. But there is a chance he sees some time at 1B this year, especially against lefties Natanael Barral (7/9/8/7/6 Ratings) stepped up last year as a rookie and filled in when Mons Raider went down with an injury. The 20 year old performed well enough that he's likely earned the spot to start the season in 2037. The question will be what happens with Mons. It'll be answered shortly.Emilio Lugo (8/9/7/5/7 Ratings) was invited to come to spring training and truth be told could probably be an option to be a regular starter on many teams. Since he has options, he'll start the year in triple-A and wait to see if anyone might want him in a trade or whether someone gets injured and he needs to fill in.

SecondBase
The Mons Raider (9/6/2/9/9 Ratings) experiment is back on a second base. Not sure it is really an experiment. It was his natural position all along. He did put up a 5.0, 5.1, and 7.0 WAR at those positions in his first three seasons. Yeah, his range and defense at the spot lacks something to be desired, but playing him there allows us to maximize our talent on the roster by playing some of those talented 1B options we have from above. Yeah, a -15 or -13 ZR isn't ideal but since moving Raider to 1B the team hasn't exactly had a lot of overall success either so we have to get as much talent as we can into the lineup and putting Raider at 2B instead of 1B does that for us. We'll see how it affects our pitching as we go.

Shortstop
Now here is where the eyebrows potentially get raised and the offense first theory gets tested. The Wolves tested Jharod Thealer (7/6/3/9/8 Ratings) at shortstop some last year and it didn't exactly go well. Granted, he entered the season with no shortstop experience. He has since bumped his rating at that spot to a 5. Now, that's one thing. His "average" range and below average arm may be too poor to make this a long term and viable option but the club is gonna give it a whirl to start the season. Obviously he's a better 2B than SS but again, we are trying to maximize our options here. If Thealer can't cut it, then it'll be curious to see what we do with our infield rotations. Oliver Burrell (6/6/4/5/7 Ratings) will likely make the club and be the defensive replacement late in games and will likely see a bulk of the starts at the position against LHP assuming he doesn't step in at 3B in those games. Ton Kouda (5/4/2/6/7 Ratings) is also a more defensive minded option the club can use there as well. The two combined to play 114 games at the position a season ago but only produced a total of 0.4 WAR combined.

Thirdbase
After a slow start in 2036, Ross Quicker (7/8/6/5/8 Ratings) found his stride and produced a solid rookie season. The Wolves look for the 20 year old to build off his 1.4 WAR season from a year ago and make 3B his own this year. The Wolves are optimistic he can build off his .729 OPS from last season as again a slow start really drug him down. He'll split time at the position with either Burrell mentioned above or Justin Urban (5/6/5/3/6 Ratings). Urban played both 2B and 3B last season in a platoon role and actually put up a 1.2 WAR in just 78 games played. He hit 11 homeruns and drove in 42 RBI. But the off-season wasn't kind to Urban as he took some ratings hits over the winter. He could be expendable now considering he has options if it means keeping Kouda or Burrell around.

Overall Assessment
I like some of the offensive talent here. Thealer and Raider clearly provide a solid 1-2 OBP potential with good eyes and avoid K ability. Raider will obviously be our cog up top if he can stay healthy and steal his 120 bases again. Both can set the table well for Mick, Barral, Garcia, and Hinson behind them if they stay in the lineup. When the Wolves go offensive heavy, guys like Hinson and Quicker could be batting as low as 8th in the lineup which means the team could score some runs. Clearly though, when the team goes with an offensive look, the defense is going to be weak at best.

Keys in the infield
1. Can Thealer play SS?
2. Can the offensive output up the middle make up for the glaring weaknesses with the defense?
3. Is Hinson enough to help improve the overall offense from last year?

[RonCo]

Lots of questions, but I think most of them will work out well enough.