Yeah, I know, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Then again, neither does what Ken Williams had to say in regards to playing his new acquistion, Ken Griffey Jr., in center field.
"Center field is actually the easiest of the outfield positions to play from a health perspective, " said Williams, who was a major league outfielder for six seasons. "I know that doesn’t sound right because you’ve got to go a lot of left and right, but trust me, it’s a little easier to play center field. [Instinctively, ] we feel he’s going to give us at least what we were getting out there. Remember, we didn’t have the prototypical guy out there in the first place; Swish did a heckuva job and he’ll continue to get some time out there, but he isn’t the prototypical guy that you can put out there, and you don’t have to be if you have good baseball instincts."
Few things:
-How is right or left easier than center field? Especially from a health perspective?? I really don’t get it. I’ve never heard anybody claim that before. Is it because you don’t have to worry about balls down the line coming off the wall? Or playing balls in the corner? I guess in those senses it may be true, but that doesn’t explain how it would be easier from a health perspective. Generally, the CF has to cover the most ground, with his position possessing the deepest part of the ballpark. Anytime you have to cover more ground it would seem to make it much more difficult. Idk. I just think that’s a weird thing to say. I mean, it’s not like you would move a corner outfielder to center field at the end of his career because his defense is deteriorating.
I guess the Braves really screwed over Dale Murphy by moving him to right field in 1987--which was easily the best offensive season of his career... Weird.
-Griffey is gonna give the Sox at least what they’re getting out there already? Swisher had so far posted a .926 RZR with 27 OOZ through 450 Innings. Good luck getting that same kind of production from Griffey.
-What does the prototypical center fielder look like? Juan Pierre? Should it even really matter what he looks like, as long as he gets the job done? Or is that too reasonable?
How a team anchored by this man and Ozzie Guillen ever won a World Series is beyond me.
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By the way, Griffey currently ranks 20th among MLB Right Fielders in OOZ (plays made “Out Of Zone”) with 28 in 755 Innings. Just to compare, Endy Chavez is leading him by one despite having played in 380 less innings. Also, out of the 18 qualified RF’s, Griffey ranks dead last in RZR (Revized Zone Rating).
So really, this move makes no sense from a health perspective or a defensive perspective.
I don't know which set of quotes is more bunk: this one about center being easier to play or the one a few weeks back about how Jim Riggleman thinks Jose "66 OPS+" Vidro has given the Mariners good at-bats.
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