Tacoma fielding %-
81 games (36 at second base and 45 at shortstop)
.983 at second and .984 at short with 363 total chances. only 3 errors at each position. In seattle he had a .1000 fielding percentage with not alot of chances, but I remember one play that he made against Maur from the twins, up the middle backhand behind second base and threw him out to end the inning! do you remember that one?
Hitting-
In tacoma Tug batted .298 14 hr’s, 47 Rbi’s from eather leadoff or the 2 hole!!
In seattle Tug batted .224 in only 49 at bats 1 hr and a double and 2 rbi’s. He did srike out 17 times but in his first stint in the majors with limited ab’s and coming off the bench late in games that not bad at all. He did hit his first career hr. and in his first game in the majors he got his first major league hit and was 1-3 and could have been 2-3 if he was not robbed by a leaping grudzelanik(SP) in Kansas City.
If given the chance he could be the answer at second if Lopez is moved.

Any statheads have some numbers on Hulett’s defense?

Dave said that Yuni and Lopez are about the same defensively but Lopez is better at the plate so you have to think that SS is a bigger problem right now.

What Dave said was:

Seriously, this whole “Lopez is okay at defense but Yuni is horrible” thing has to stop. Lopez is worse defensively than Betancourt. Worse, not better. Worse.

Betancourt appears worse by UZR because of who he’s being compared to. If you swapped Betancourt and Lopez, you would all think Lopez was a disaster and Betancourt was just fine.

As 2008 winds down, you, my good sir, have an unassailable lead in the competition for the USSM Mischaracterization of the Year Trophy. Here to present your award is George Clooney, reprising his role as Batman in Batman and Robin.

Is there any chance we deal Beltre for a package that includes a major league ready middle infielder and move Lopez to thirdbase?

What is Lopez’ issue? lack of range? Lack of quickness/reflexes? Lack of concentration?
Wouldn’t these issues remain at 3B?
It seems to make more sense to me to just Move Jose and find a Mark Ellis/McLemore-type Bridge until Triunfel is ready.

Also, Is it preferable that if you must have a weaker defender in the infield that it be at 2b or 3b?

We’d also move Beltre which seems inevitable.

Dave, are there any quality 3b’s at someone’s AAA that are stuck behind a major league stud? (A la Nelson at 1b behind Fielder?)

DAMellen asks a great question and I think the answer is yes and Z would probably love to get JJ Hardy. However, there is more than just that trade out there.

It seems to me that the following factors are in play…

1. We don’t want to pay Beltre’s salary this year even though we love his D.
2. They (Don/Z) seem to be mentally preparing Lopez to move while saying things that are counter-productive if we are thinking of trading him.
3. We have pitchers to trade and the Brewers are in great need in that department as are many other teams.
4. I get the feeling that Z is not as high on Morrow where Morrow where a handful of GMs value him very highly… Am I high or has anyone else got this idea?
5. The next trade Z makes will likely address the infield defense and add some pop to the lineup.

Cheap Infield:

1B-Platoon Branyan, Shelton, Morse, Clement, Carp
2B-Yuni (future: Triunfel)
3B-Lopez
SS-Hardy

This is a better offensive infield than last year, WAY less expensive, and about the same on defense (???) when you take out Beltre’s glove and replace Yuni with JJ and Lopez with Yuni.

Would some of the numbers experts weigh in on this?

Also, I am curious how willing the Brewers may be in dealing JJ Hardy. I heard there were supposed whispers of conversations at the winter meeting with the Brewers about him.