And moving a CF level defender to the corner just means you get about 10 more runs of defense out of the corner. Ichiro is a CF. Endy Chavez was a CF. They just play the corners. Supposing Ackley plays in the corner, there’s no major loss to moving him there if we have, for example, the best outfiedler alive in center.

It seems like it is worth a shot to see if he takes to it.

That would retard his offensive development.

Ackley starts at Double-A, Seager at High-A.

And he’s not nearly as advanced a hitter as Ackley anyway.

IOW, the Mariners aren’t blocking anybody by this move which is one reason it could really pay off for them.

he’s the kind guy who has a 1/250 chance of being a 3+ WAR player, a small (1/100) chance of being average, and a chance (1/8) of playing from the bench.

In short, he’s not the sort of player that comes into consideration when you’re deciding how to develop top prospects.

But yes that would be nice.

Or who knows, the whole Tui/Hannahan/Wilson thing could fall about at third, and Lopez could man that position for us until Triunfel is ready.

How about that. Dammit.

… not even in any of my soil mechanics lab reports (my Mohr’s Circles were frickin’ awesome).

The easiest +1 decision I’ve ever made.

And I thought it was safely hidden.

So I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Even if Triunfel’s project position was 2nd base, AND Ackley succeeds at 2nd base, AND they don’t trade either of them, that far in the future has so much wiggle room – especially with regards to position – that I don’t think it’s even that much of a concern.

I keep hearing about everyone but Tui at third- he looks like the man there to my eyes.

I have a hard time seeing that myself. To this point, he hasn’t shown yet that he can supply any defensive value to a team. He looks like he may turn out to be a capable hitter, but not to the level that could overcame poor defensive play. In fact, he reminds me a lot of Mike Morse. I just have a hard time seeing Tui as ever being valuable enough overall to be an above average player,.

And he wasn’t exactly hammering most of those homers, either, for what that’s worth

He’s also a bad fit for this park

And his contract expires in 2011 and that’s a club option year for 5mil. His perceived value is as high as it’s likely to get. If they do wind up committing to Ackley at 2B they’re likely going to have to let him walk or move him to a different position, because he’s going to want to get paid and get years and that would block Ackley were he to stay where he is.

“Clutching hitting” is the half-full version of “lazy when it’s not that important.”

Spend some time thinking about why Grady Sizemore had fewer RBI than Aramis Ramirez, Josh Hamilton and Jason Bay in 2008. This will help you understand what an RBI means. (Hint: the answer is not “Sizemore is a worse hitter” nor “Sizemore is bad in the clutch.”)

Placido Polanco is also a better defender than Jose Lopez. And he is a free agent. Not that I am advocating that move specifically it’s just one example. There are no miracles required here, there are many many options available that wouldn’t represent a significant dropoff in production. Lopez isn’t nearly as good as you think he is.

It’s like going to bowling alleys and getting into a discussion about why a someone was unable to hit the 4/10 split. They say something like “the angle of the curve caused a ricochet that rotated the pin at a little too high a velocity, narrowly missing the 10… Next time I’ll have to try arching my hand more” and someone like you responds with something like “You know what you should have done, though, is hit both the pins down! Duh, moron!”

OBP is not about driving in runs, it’s about not getting out and keeping the inning alive while adding runners to the bases. (Note that the probablility of producing an out once on base is much, much lower than while at the plate.) Allow me to illustrate using data collected over literally thousands of baseball games.

If you have a man on second and no outs, on average, your team scores 1.19 runs that inning.
If you have a man on second and one out, on average, your team scores 0.725 runs that inning.

So, getting out with a man on second effectively costs the team .44 runs.

If you have men on second and first and no outs, your team scores 1.57 runs (on average) that inning.

So, walking with a man on second effectively nets you .38 runs.

Notice that the difference between -.44 and .38 is .82 runs. So a walk with a man on second and no outs is worth almost a whole run.

I’m pretty sure I’m talking to a wall right now, but if not, something about the nature of not getting out.

Also, in the AL in 2009, 165 RBIs were accumulated by walking with the bases loaded.

Don’t know exactly why not, but presumably he lacks on of the necessary tools for SS, and presumably that would be his arm since he’s had TJ surgery.