YAZ

I was looking at Yastrzemski's stats on Baseball Reference and noticed that he played 31 games at 3B in 1973. I don't remember hearing about this! I remember in the early 80s when Mike Squires played some games at 3rd and caught a couple of games but I don't remember hearing about Yaz. I do remember, however, reading somewhere that Yaz played catcher as a youth. I wonder if any left handed player has played 2B, 3B, SS, or C in the last 30 years. I know someone out there has the answer.

Yaz was a righty thrower

I don't know about left-handers playing those spots recently, but I seem to remember someone back in the late 60's that caught at least part of a game but can't remember the name.

Yaz, don't forget, only batted lefty; he was a right-handed thrower.

andycummings and mrharryc wrote:

Yaz was a righty thrower

Yaz, don't forget, only batted lefty; he was a right-handed thrower.

Of course your right. Boy I feel dumb. It's right there on his page. I've been so involved in this Babe Ruth vs the Modern World discussion that I have lefthanded outfielders on the brain. This came up some time ago when someone started a thread about outfielders with strong arms and almost all of them are right handed throwers with a very few exceptions.

I suspect the lack of left hand throwing OFers may be impacted by ...

Most little league coaches will see a lefty and immediately think first base or pitcher.
Anyone with a great arm is likely to be funneled to the mound.
They will see OF only if they resist pitching or fail as a pitcher.

From Sportsonearth:
In the ninth inning of a May 14, 1989, game between Pittsburgh and Atlanta, the Pirates moved Benny Distefano from first base to catcher as part of a double switch. In doing so, they did something that no major league team had done in more than nine years and no team has done since DiStefano caught his final game as a Pirate on Aug. 18 of that year: they put a left-handed thrower behind the plate in a major league game.

I suspect the lack of left hand throwing OFers may be impacted by ...

Most little league coaches will see a lefty and immediately think first base or pitcher.
Anyone with a great arm is likely to be funneled to the mound.
They will see OF only if they resist pitching or fail as a pitcher.

or if they're a CF who can flat out go get it

Yaz was a great player. I did not realize he was a right handed thrower either. So lefties can basically only pitch, play first base or outfield. ... What percentage of the population is left handed?

Lanier 64, I did not mean to upset you so when I stated what Bill James stated that many of the players who played with Ruth would not have been MLB players by today's standards. I never did say Ruth could not have adjusted and been a good player had he been born in the 1970s or 1980s or later. I just will never be convinced that he would hit 60 HRs in a season against today's competition. In your anger you both took my words out of context and added things I never wrote. I hope this help explains and does not cause you further anger. Cheers and good luck in all your leagues.

We can disagree without being disagreeable. Debating baseball is as old as baseball itself!

Radagast Brown wrote:

Yaz was a great player. I did not realize he was a right handed thrower either. So lefties can basically only pitch, play first base or outfield. ... What percentage of the population is left handed?

Lanier 64, I did not mean to upset you so when I stated what Bill James stated that many of the players who played with Ruth would not have been MLB players by today's standards. I never did say Ruth could not have adjusted and been a good player had he been born in the 1970s or 1980s or later. I just will never be convinced that he would hit 60 HRs in a season against today's competition. In your anger you both took my words out of context and added things I never wrote. I hope this help explains and does not cause you further anger. Cheers and good luck in all your leagues.

We can disagree without being disagreeable. Debating baseball is as old as baseball itself!

Your right about disagreeing and I did not mean to be offensive although I'm sure I was. I would hope you would accept my apology for anything I may have said to offend you or anyone else.
Over the last 50 years I have attended hundreds of Minor League games and most of them have been in the California League which is Class A Advanced and I have never seen one of these players who could make the jump to the Majors immediately. There may have been a few but I can't recall any. I realize I'm talking about my experience which is a fairly modern one starting in 1964 but even if the average player (not the greats) of 80 to 90 years ago were only 65% to 75% as good as the average player of today (not the stars) it still wouldn't lower them to the level of Class A players. I'll buy the argument that many old time players might be AAA or a few might be AA caliber. But there are a few players in the Majors today who shouldn't be there. Even my father who grew up near St. Louis and saw a lot of Major League baseball in the 20s and 30s (both American and National League) said that the overall depth of Major League rosters had improved over the years. And he said that it was primarily pitching. But this chauvinistic idea that people born 80 to 110 years ago were knuckle dragging troglodytes who couldn't learn to use tools is not realistic. And let me be clear about this i am not putting words in your mouth or suggesting you said this but I have heard this argument before . And as you said we can agree to disagree.

To return the discussion to Yaz playing infield, I recall reading somewhere that one of Yaz's managers said that Yaz worked (just for fun) out at 2nd base with the regular Red Sox 2nd baseman and there was no question in the manager's mind that Yaz was the better fielder at 2nd. (I'm away from home, but when I get back I'll look through my books and see if I can find the source.)

What I've always wondered is...If Yaz could be a major league quality 2B, for gosh sakes, why not play him there? If someone who could hit like Yaz could give you a decent 2B, that would far more valuable than the same offense in LF or 1B, even though Yaz was really good at those positions.

I've always wondered if the failure to use Yaz at, say, 2B, wasn't a product of the thinking of the 1950s & 1960s. The expectation seemed to be that the heavy hitters played OF and the slick fielders played middle infield, and one didn't try to put the two together. Ernie Banks seemed to be about the only exception to this rule--a power hitting SS. Most teams figured that if they had a Maury Wills, Dick Groat or Luis Aparicio at SS, they were lucky. The Yankees won a World Championship in 1962 with rookie Tom Tresh at SS, then moved him to the outfield. Bobby Murcer and Roy White came up as middle infielders but were promptly moved to the OF. The result was many years of Gene Michael and Horace Clarke around 2nd base. What if White and Murcer had been given good coaching and been allowed to develop as infielders? I'm not sure Murcer had the makings of a big league SS, but it would have been interesting to find out.

Then as the 70s evolved into the 80s we started to get a crop of players like Joe Morgan, Robin Yount, Cal Ripken, etc. who could really hit and give you an excellent 2B or SS. I think the thinking in baseball had become--let's see if we can work with these really talented youngsters and let them develop into middle infielders.

And recall that Ripken came to the majors as a 3B. It was Earl Weaver who was able to visualize this 6'4'' muscular guy with the strong arm as a SS. At first, everyone thought he was nuts. Mickey Mantle came up as a SS and Casey Stengel said that with a bit more seasoning he could have been a good one, but given that he already had Rizzuto at SS and Dimaggio fading in CF, Casey just stuck Mickey in at CF. But he always felt a bit guilty about not letting Mick develop into a SS. If he had, he would be considered an even greater player than he now is.

Nowadays, of course, middle infielders who can really hit are common place. This is a roundabout way of saying that my guess is that if Yaz had come along a little later, he might have been a 2B. He never did play an inning at 2B in his actual career, as far as I can see, however.