Quote:
Originally Posted by kcxiv
Calhoun is going to end up as a DH. Everyone says his fielding is pretty bad. He had no place on the Dodgers to be honest. Where would he even fit? Dodgers made out like bandits even if its just an end of the year rental for Yu.
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Left field, IMO.
Bellinger's obviously at 1b by 2019 and I would suspect Verdugo ends up being a plus CFer. Joc's a fringy CFer, IMO, but he'd be a slightly better RFer (arm's a little short for RF, IIRC, but it'll play).
Puig just doesn't seem likely to be part of their long-term outlook. His attitude is what it is and the impact offense just isn't there. His defense has always been more sizzle than steak and he's an idiot on the bases. Is a 2 WAR player really worth Puig's bullshit?
If you trade Verdugo instead of Calhoun, you have Joc in CF and deal with Puig until Diaz fills out and polishes up his hit tool a bit. In either event, I don't think your defense is substantially worse than it would be with Joc in LF, Verdugo in CF and Puig/Diaz in RF and I think your gains at the plate would make up for it (especially if Diaz can make himself into a CFer and push Joc into a corner).
I just really like Calhoun's bat and the fact that the dude LOVES to hit. He'll openly acknowledge that his glove is behind his bat because he spends too much time practicing his hitting. It's what he wants to do and baseball has a shortage of guys that consider themselves born hitters.
Eh, as is often the case, it's ceiling vs. floor. Verdugo has an excellent floor; his glove and hit tool will have him in the majors. Maybe a bit of a poor man's Enciarte. Calhoun, OTOH, can be an elite hitter - I like his ceiling more.
I just don't think the Rangers did a poor job by not getting Verdugo here. But as I noted earlier, I thought the Dodgers were overvaluing Verdugo so that's just one man's opinion...