First data for Freeman's defense at 3b

[Enscheff]

I was curious so I looked up Rtot. I found an good explantion including this footnote:

Players with very little playing time can have skewed numbers though when extrapolated to a full year of play. Tigers outfielder Clete Thomas, for example, had a -39.6 in 2008 in Center Field, but that was based on just 12 games and 118 innings. It is close to impossible to be that bad over a full season and such a number isn’t accurate. Remember, it’s not the stats that lie, it’s the poor use of them.

I am not, by any means suggesting Freddie is going to be good over a larger sample size, but sounds like a bad Rtot over a SSS is not very meaningful... of course neither is DRS, or any other objective measure. Let's just agree that he is not good, but maybe not as bad as some of us thought he might be. I doubt any of us want to see this continue.

He's looked clunky, but fine over there to me. He certainly hasn't embarrassed himself, which is what I was afraid would be the worst case scenario. At a bare minimum, he has shown he can be an occasional fill in at 3b...a bit like sticking Prado at SS about 5 years ago.

Of course I put very little stock in my own eye test. I'll continue to wait and see how the numbers shake out. If he keep playing 3b during the rest of this season we still won't have enough data to know his exact value over there, but he will demonstrate whether is playable, unplayable, or capable of an occasional fill in at 3b.

None of this changes the fact that it's silly to downgrade the 3b defense to get a platoon bat in the lineup that Snit is going to bat 7th.

 

[mfree80]

He's looked clunky, but fine over there to me. He certainly hasn't embarrassed himself, which is what I was afraid would be the worst case scenario. At a bare minimum, he has shown he can be an occasional fill in at 3b...a bit like sticking Prado at SS about 5 years ago.

Of course I put very little stock in my own eye test. I'll continue to wait and see how the numbers shake out. If he keep playing 3b during the rest of this season we still won't have enough data to know his exact value over there, but he will demonstrate whether is playable, unplayable, or capable of an occasional fill in at 3b.

None of this changes the fact that it's silly to downgrade the 3b defense to get a platoon bat in the lineup that Snit is going to bat 7th.

Can't disagree with this take.