Ozzie Smith was able to put up positive WARPs while hitting even worse than that triple slash, so it's been done before. I doubt Iglesias's defense will rival that of Smith, but with well above average defense, he still doesn't need to hit all that well to be a positive asset.
I think there are two major factors with humidity that effectively cancel each other out.
The first, and contrary to popular belief, is increasing the humidity of air decreases its density. In other words, humid air is lighter than dry air. That's because the molecular weight of water is just 18, whereas the molecular weight of air is ~29 (and thus water vapor will rise and form clouds). A ball will travel further in humid air.
The second is the humidor effect, in which adding moisture to a baseball changes its coefficient of restitution, thus reducing its rebound velocity off the bat (i.e. the ball becomes spongier and less bouncy).
The end result is the ball will come off the bat with less velocity but travel a little further than it otherwise would at that velocity.
So, you took Ellsbury over Kemp because of defense, but not Pedroia over Cano despite Pedroia's massive defensive advantage? I don't get it.
Oh, I guess it's because FRAA, unlike any other metric, inexplicably favors Cano over Pedroia. Meh.
I'm very skeptical that Crawford's defense is even "elite". As a left fielder, he's getting compared to some of the truly biggest butchers in the fielder, so providing 10 runs above average in defense isn't anything special when the bar for average is set so low. Plus, Brett Gardner's fielding metrics absolutely blow Crawford's away. If he was truly elite, why would another player be so much better?
I think a better way to look at Crawford is as a fringe-average centerfielder with an above average bat. That's valuable, but I'd say Reyes is more valuable in every way except health.
Paul Molitor comes to mind.
I'm not actually sure Lowrie is truly that prone to injury. This is only his second injury, and is the result of a fairly unusual collision with an outfielder.
His wrist injury is his only other significant injury. I believe with that, they initial tried rest and then eventually performed surgery, which wasn't entirely successful and necessitated another surgery (or something like that). Since then though, it hasn't been a problem.
It's possible he's just really unlucky instead of being prone to injury.
Rey Ordonez had just one season that was notably above replacement level, thanks to a sudden spike in walk rate and some other-worldly defense. He compiled just 3.8 WAR in 9 seasons. If Iglesias plays like that, how is that anything close to "very valuable"? Even if his glove is the second coming of Ozzie Smith, there's no way his bat is playable from what we've seen so far.
I know Red Sox prospects are overhyped, but this is getting ridiculous. Not only has he not hit a homerun in the U.S., he didn't hit one in Cuba either. It takes an incredible set of secondary skills (i.e. speed, plate discipline, and contact rates) to overcome that lack of power, and Iglesias lacks those as well. There's nothing here to indicate he'll be anything more than a (f)utility player at best.
For a lot of teams, having Beckett, Lackey, and Matsuzaka in the rotation would be considered a strength, not a "glaring weakness".
Catching could turn out to be a weakness, though the bar is set pretty low league-wide.
If they signed Gonzalez to an extension as the article suggests, Youkilis wouldn't be forced to 3rd for just his age 32 season. He'd also be there for at least his age 33 and 34 seasons as well.
Given the organization's lack of depth at 3rd and the dubiousness of Youkilis's defense there, I think it would make a lot more sense to try to bring Beltre back instead.
Youkilis is a plus defender at first, but he's entering his age 32 season and isn't exactly the most athletic guy out there. I'm pretty skeptical he'd be anything but below average at third at this point of his career.
Well, his "finish with a flourish" was a .258/.350/.516 line post-all-star break followed by a 1 for 12 with 4 K's in the playoffs. It's hard to see him meeting that PECOTA projection.
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