Anybody play Braun at Third?

[uncle ny]

How bad were the results?

[maligned]

I have him rated as the 7th best offensive card in the set, but for STAR Tournaments (essentially 200M, no-DH, very limited injuries) I have him rated #73 with defense considered among position players. This is a few positions below Akinori Iwamura.
He typically gets drafted around #100 in tournaments and his teams in roughly 700 games have a winning % below .500 (so he's probably not even good enough for position 100).
At 3B, I'd estimate his value to be in the 3.5-3.75M range, injury and everything considered for 80M leagues.
I would stay far away from his 3B "abilities" unless I were doing a 200M or NL-only, no-DH league and was running out of options.

[ag258]

Braun's value is as a dh or pinch hitter against lefthand pitching. i would keep him off 3b as much as possible.

[childsmwc]

Braun's price was designed to assume he plays 3B. I would say that Braun can be played there at a decent value, if you are in a hitters park and will face atleast 35% lefthanders on the season (if your mix is 40% he is definitely worth the price even if he has to field).

But also with that defensive valuation built into his price, he is by definition one of the best valued DH's if he doesn't have to field.

Bbrool

[maligned]

Bbrool,
I have always thought price was calculated differently. I've always thought price of position players is based around two primary factors (before injury):

1) Value above replacement level offense PLUS 2) Value above replacement level defense

Braun's defense is far below TSN's established replacement level, and I think his price is ONLY his value above replacement offense.

I think if you play him at 3rd base, you are actually taking a significant value hit because his defense begins to suck value away.

How do you come to the conclusion that his value assumes he plays 3B?

[keyzick]

He's below average v righty pitching too....I think TSN overpriced him.

I've only used him in $200M leagues as a DH v lefties only.

[geekor]

Have any of you used him on 2007?

In my bomber parks I always try to get him as my DH. Yes he's better vs Lefties, but he still rocks the righties. He has been an awesome DH for me.

At 3b, hellz no!

[JKolak]

Great DH...given the fact that a 3b(x) roll is a 4 or 10 spot on the pitcher's card, Braun would face an "x" chance every 72 batters. That is a little over more than 1 chance every two games. Odds are with a 5e39 at 3b, something very bad will happen every other game if not more. You can get away with a 4 or 5 rated player at the IF corners if they have a low error rating. Otherwise, you are probably looking at a runner on second base with just about every 3b(x) that comes up in a game.