by seyclops » Wed Apr 05, 2006 8:14 am
I think it's fairly safe to stick a 4 out there, in LF or RF (but never in CF), particularly in the case of someone like Horton, who at least has a bit of arm to use once the ball stops rolling and he picks it up. It's an age old baseball tradition to put a statue in left. I grew up watching Frank Howard during his Senators days, and you basically needed to consult the train schedules to see if he had enough ETA to get to a given fly ball or not.
For SOM purposes, the LFX and RFX are always on 3 or 11, putting them in the infrequent roll category. And sometimes they actually catch the ball. In face-to-face SOM, few things are as demoralizing as finally getting a crack at a 4 outfielder and split-decking into a routine fly. (Perhaps muttdoc can give us the suicide actuarials for the poor slobs who have this happen to them twice in one game.)
Anyway, if the guy has enough bat, and you're running a slugger team which puts less of a premium on defense, it's probably worth the risk on occasion.