Earlier this week Tigers manager Jim Leyland announced he was going to switch the positions of corner infielders Miguel Cabrera and Carlos Guillen, which seemed like an unprecedented move to me. First of all, how many current first basemen are capable of even playing third base respectably, and better than the current guy? Maybe Doug Mientkiewicz in Pittsburgh could play anywhere, but there's a reason why most first basemen play, um, first base.
On the surface, this seems like a minor move by Leyland, but I think there are significant repercussions not only for the Tigers, but for fantasy owners. Cabrera is a brutal third baseman, by the way, and he didn't get a quadrillion-dollar contract based on his range or arm. It's his bat. One never knows how a player reacts to a position change, when he leaves a familiar spot to go elsewhere because he was hurting the team, but I think it has little impact emotionally and statistically. Cabrera can rake, he'll rake anywhere. Same with Ryan Braun. His low walk rate and batting average are not because he was moved from third base to left field, trust me.
The Tigers improve their defense in one swift move, which in turn aids the pitching staff. It might be only a win or two over the course of a season, but Cabrera wasn't only making errors (.900 fielding percentage), he wasn't getting to grounders. Let's just say he wasn't pulling a Rafael Furcal and getting to more grounders than most, which makes Furcal's error totals acceptable. That's the thing with Furcal, and other sometimes acrobatic shortstops. Sure, they make errors, more than guys like Cal Ripken did, but they get to so many more balls, it's worth it. Range is important. I remain befuddled as to how arguably the most extreme ground-ball pitcher in the American League (Chien-Ming Wang) gets away with this with Derek Jeter and Robinson Cano up the middle. And yes, I did have to go there.
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Eric Karabell
