2065.4 Position Changes Coming?

[ae37jr]

Position Changes Coming?
We're continuing to churn the rubix cube here in the Twin Cities, trying to get more out of our squad. Today's topic is position changes.

Mathew Malone-If you are a frequent listener than you already know how confused I am about what to do with Matt Malone. He won the d-lab lottery a few years ago and became a half assed catcher. Since then I have struggled on whether or not I should use him as an offensive catcher or something else. In looking at his stats, I feel like he has taken his defensive struggles to the plate and quite frankly isn't that good of a hitter anymore.

While Malone still figures to be one of 2 catchers we carry, I'm leaning toward César Román getting the bulk of the catching duties. Our analytics team loves what he brings to the table. and feel is is the right leader to help guide some of the teams young pitchers.

So where does Malone end up? Your guess is as good as mine. Right now he is our backup catcher. But he is also in the D-lab learning a new position, which is likely going to be COF. It may not make him a viable COF, but we have to at least try something.

Phillip Warner is also in the D-lab with a new glove. All indication point towards Warner learning how to play SS. Just cause the workhorse is currently on track, doesn't mean that he will be the opening day SS though. We are more or less just trying to make him a better defensive player. Adding SS under his belt will make him a better 3B/!B/2B by default. He is currently 8/5/7/4.

Blair Peyton has expressed a desire to move back to CF and the River Monsters may take him up on his request. The team feels he is primed and ready to have a huge contract season and may do everything they can so he'll opt out so they dodge the $50 million bullet. The belief is that.. with enough money floating around the league, a weak free agent class expected next season, and an Silk caliber season by a superstar CF maybe... just maybe, get him to opt out. Rumors that Twin Cities lobbied the league for a raise financial ambition reward were found to be untrue.

Finally we have a position battle going on between António Meléndez and Chao Yuan at DH. If Peyton moves to CF, we could see Yuan back in LF. Which is far from ideal. In a perfect world we will trade one of these DH's for a COF. But we'd likely need to take a reduced return on investment to make it happen. The other option is to grab a free agent COF and trade one for specs/pitching.

[BaseClogger]

Malone looks like he’s the same hitter he’s always been and he’s a victim of the rising tide of talent around the league.

[ae37jr]

Malone looks like he’s the same hitter he’s always been and he’s a victim of the rising tide of talent around the league.

I think that is definitely true. But I have also noticed that players hit poorly when pushed up the defensive spectrum to places they don't belong. And 1B to catcher is a big jump. He is still rated 60 as a 1B. I think he is still better than he has played the last 2 seasons. Not the 5 WAR player he was, but maybe closer to 2.5-3 WAR.