Smith: Is the corner outfield profile changing?
From Mark Smith at FanGraphs on February 15, 2013:
The Indians outfield defense is going to be really good. As Jeff Sullivan noted, the addition of Michael Bourn makes the outfield defense very good as it pushes two good center fielders (Michael Brantley and Drew Stubbs) to the corners. That last part is what really struck me about the move. Over my roughly 17 years of watching baseball, I’ve always been told that a corner outfielder is a guy who can hit and hit for a lot of power, indicating that it’s an offense-first position. But during the past five years or so, we’ve seen players like Brett Gardner, Carl Crawford, Ben Revere, Brantley, and now Stubbs moved to a corner, seemingly indicating that teams are more willing to accept less power in exchange for more OBP, speed, and defense. So I decided to do a little investigating.
The first step was to look at how the offensive production of corner outfielders has changed in the recent past.
Read the full article here: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/index.php/is-the-corner-outfield-profile-changing/
Originally published: February 15, 2013. Last Updated: February 15, 2013.