5 in LF

Can you win with a 5 in LF?

Rangers doing just that coming down the stretch. Threw Napoli out there even though never played the position because they needed a RH bat in lineup. Seems to be working.

In the 2012 set you could win with Willingham

The difference from the x-charts for an LF-1 e1 and an LF-5 e25 is .471 OPS . So if your 5 e25 has an OPS .471 greater than an available 1 e1, it makes sense!

The difference between an LF-3 e8 and the LF-5 e25 is .294.

Going back to the 2012 set, in the same price range ($3M to $4.5M) the OPS including fielding for:

Willingham (LF-5 e6) $4.18 - .561 modOPS
DeJesus (LF-2 e3) $3.75 - .574 modOPS
Parra (LF-1 e7) $3.89 - .608 modOPS

The extra HR power from Willingham makes him a good middle of the order option I think. So yep, I agree with Steve, you can definitely make up for the 5 rating with his bat.

The best value I think in that set in that mid salary range was Revere (LF-1 e0) $3.10M, modOPS .712, AA steal, 17 Speed, A bunt, a little worse against RH pitching.

I got a lot of mileage out of him in the 1 and 2 slot.

The Giants and Phillies both won rings in real life with Burrell in left.

The Giants and Phillies both won rings in real life with Burrell in left.

As a long time Giants fan I'd phrase it "despite Burrell in left"

I was about to write the same comment as bbfan: there's A difference btw "you can win with a lf-5" and "it's optimal to play with a lf-5". I can perhaps see the latter to be true in some special cases---in 24-team leagues in an extreme stadium, but other than that...I need to get over that modOPS

The point is, it's not fatal to winning a ring

I understand, not fatal, especially with a nice defensive sub on the bench...but still.

I can't judge about the 2012 comparison above (I don't have the stats, but I could do the same calculation if Robert provides me the numbers)

But in this 2014 set, if I exclude all 500K players, there were 3 left fielders whose best position were left fielders despite their 5: Willingham, Ludwick, and D. Young. In my ratings, if I forced them to play defense, (and assuming neutral stadiums, 28/72 L/R ratio) all three are among the 10 worst purchases for left-field.

I won't surprise anyone who played this year that the worst purchases in left field are Gordon, Yelich and Gardner (none of them, except perhaps Gardner are being picked in the new leagues I've been involved into).

Code: Select all

Salary......NAME.....Bal.....Defense.....projected price..diff....WAR
1,970,000   Willingham  2L   lf-5(+1)e1       $1.52   -0.45   0.20
  690,000   Johnson,R   2L   lf-4(+1)e6       $0.21   -0.48 -1.66
  710,000   Gomes,J      5L   lf-4(0)e9      $0.22   -0.49   -1.66
  880,000   Ludwick,R   2L   lf-5(+1)e1      $0.30   -0.58   -1.46
  550,000   Choice,M    3L   lf-4(0)e12      -$0.12   -0.67   -1.97
2,010,000   Young,D       E   lf-5(+2)e11     $0.89   -1.12    -0.82
6,730,000   Gardner,B    1R   lf-1(-2)e2      $5.53   -1.20    3.07
8,510,000   Gordon,A     1L   lf-1(-4)e2      $7.16   -1.35    4.15
8,210,000   Yelich,C     2L   lf-1(+1)e2      $6.75   -1.46    3.87

WAR=an overall assessment akin to Win above replacement (based roughly on a 1,5M player)


I understand, not fatal, especially with a nice defensive sub on the bench..

This is a good point with the real life Rangers this year. One of the reasons they are getting by with Napoli in LF is the expanded rosters. Plenty of defensive replacements and flexibility.

Another factor is first sign of a lead in comes defensive replacement or switch to RH pitching in some games has led to switch to LH hitting LFer. In strat one of the biggest ongoing complaints is Hal's notorious poor handling of in game platoon switching. Perhaps using a defensive liability in real life is not as damaging as in Strat because expecially with online strat you cannot count on Hal to make the right in game decisions at the right time.

That leads me to wonder if there were improvements in Hal suggested by some in the Wish List forum perhaps we might see more creative lineups and use of 4 and 5 rated fielders.

Bochy in 2010 made good use of Schierholtz down the stretch to spell Burrell in the late innings when the Giants were leading, often pulling the switch as early as the 5-6th inning