Crawdad Chronicles 37.04 - Cravat has monster year

[JimBob2232]

1B Yancy Cravat (http://montybrewster.net/BBA/HTML/news/ ... 31138.html)had a monster year.

In just his 3rd full season in the league, Cravat just keeps getting better. This year he mashed 54 home runs. Good enough for the most in the Johnson league, and 2nd most in franchise history behind only Sawyer Silk's 62 HRs exactly 50 years ago. He now owns 3 of the top 7 HR years in crawdads history.

He was also outstanding with the glove, creating only 3 errors and a +10.4 ZR, making him a viable candidate for winner the JL Sawyer Silk award, named after the 'dads all time great.

One drawback is his cockyness. When he hits one of his monster home runs he often makes a spectacle out if it, drawing attention to himself. Opposing pitchers seem to be enforcing the unwrittten rules of baseball. In 2036 he set a team record 20 HBP. In 2037 he was again hit 16 times.

While the overall bats for New Orleans fell somewhat asleep this year, Yancy's did not.

[ae37jr]

I hadn't noticed how good of a defensive player he was until the awards voting this year. I had him as the best defensive 1B in the Johnson by a large margin. It's a shame he throws lefty and has no range in the outfield. He'd be 10x's more valuable if he could play 3rd/COF. Not that he is a bad player as is.

[JimBob2232]

I hadn't noticed how good of a defensive player he was until the awards voting this year. I had him as the best defensive 1B in the Johnson by a large margin. It's a shame he throws lefty and has no range in the outfield. He'd be 10x's more valuable if he could play 3rd/COF. Not that he is a bad player as is.

I’m pleasantly surprised as well. The funny part is that I had him as a 3B in my farm for years. Never developed at 3B. Then one day I realized he threw left handed and I moved him to first. Bingo.

Sucks he isn’t a 3B or corner OF, but about 4 seasons ago I was upset that I thought he’d never be anything but a DH.

[Ted]

I wondered about the 3B thing too, and finally saw the throws left handed thing. I didn't even know this was a thing until Patrick Lue. I then looked into it, and learned about left handed thrower and fielding and the rarity of seeing them at short or third. However, traditionally you don't see them at second either, and I have seen a few perfectly fine, even above average lefty throwing second basemen. I get the anatomic difficulties, but it still seems kind of odd that literally no one does it. I wonder if this is just a "baseball thing" where kids aren't even given the chance and a bunch of them would be fine.

[Lane]

It would be really tough for a lefty 2B to turn a double play. Would probably lose most close ones.

[Ted]

It would be really tough for a lefty 2B to turn a double play. Would probably lose most close ones.

In my mind I can think of this happening, and while it looked different it was fine. In reality, I can't find even one video. So I wonder what is wrong with my mind and who I thought I saw.

[Ted]

I don't know. The more I think about it, I become convinced it would work fine, but no one is allowed to learn to do it, so we don't know. All they have to do is spin. These are incredible athletes. They could spin and throw to first fine. On a 6-4-3 or 5-4-3, they'd catch the ball on the right side of their chest, pivot/spin clockwise while transferring and throw. It's even possible the move would let them throw harder (depending on how they received the ball and initiated the spin), making up for the time lost to do it. Yes it's harder, but it would only take imperceptibly longer. As far as SS goes, the it's the same for 5-6-3, and really not a big deal at all for 4-6-3 (or 3-6-3). Regarding non double plays, we see throws go from the right side of the infield to the left side plenty, and it works. The double play really seems like the only huge issue. I bet that if we let left handers just learn to do it rather than forcing them to be OF's, 1B, or pitchers, they could be big leaguers and be just as good, given that the variability between fielding ability is much greater than the slight detriment of having to position the body differently. These are really good athletes that spend their whole lives learning to do something.

I read about this a bit though. It was fun to look into. Looks like the last big league left handed throwing 3B was Mike Squires in the 80's.

[JimBob2232]

Being a lefty didn’t seem to hold back crawdads great 3B Regolio Morales.

Gues ootp fixed the glitch.

[ae37jr]

We need to start a #metoo movement for left handed baseball players who do not identify as 1B/OF/P. I mean it's 2037 for Christs sake. I betcha lefty 3b are a thing by then.